Page 53 - Flathead Beacon // 3.23.16

MOUNTAIN EXPOSURE
OUTDOORS IN BRIEF
Forest Service Hosting Public Meeting on White sh Fuels Reduction Project
The Tally Lake Ranger District is inviting the community to par- ticipate in a collaborative meeting regarding the White sh Munic- ipal Watershed Fuels Reduction Project, a proposed strategy to address re concerns to the east of White sh Mountain Resort and northofIronHorsesubdivision.
Project leaders will present details on the draft project on Tuesday, March 29, from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the White sh City Hall, council chambers, 1005 Baker Avenue in White sh.
The project is located in the wildland urban interface approx- imately four miles north and east of White sh, within the munici- pal watershed that is the primary source of water for city residents. Proposed activities include tim- ber harvest on approximately 260 acres of forestlands and fuel treat- ments, primarily prescribed burn- ing, on approximately 880 acres.
Mines Management Retains Financial Advisor as Montanore Progresses
Mines Management, Inc., has retained Canaccord Genuity Corp. as its nancial advisor as the company moves forward with the Montanore mine in Northwest Montana.
The move is the latest as Mines Management moves forward with the Montanore Silver-Copper Project, which contains one of the largest known deposits of silver and copper in the Americas. The property is located in northwest- ern Montana.
Mines Management recently announced the completion of the permitting process and issuance of the Record of Decision for the project, allowing the project to move forward through nal eval- uation and a de nitive feasibility study. The project is permitted to operate up to 20,000 tons per day, and the PEA projected sales of 6.4 million ounces of silver and 51 mil- lion pounds of copper annually.
Email outdoors information to news@ atheadbeacon.com.
OUT OF BOUNDS ROB BREEDING SPAWNERS
IT’S MARCH AND AS YOU READ THIS it will o cially be spring. That’s kind of funny because it’s seemed like spring for a month now. This will go down as the mildest winter I’ve spent in the Northern Rockies in the 20 odd years I’ve been kicking around the joint.
Last week it was 71 degrees in Bill- ings. That’s a nice high temperature for May. March, however, is a little early for T-shirt weather.
The trout in the local reservoir have been feeling the warm temperatures too. Maybe a month earlier than they nor- mally do, rainbows and cutthroat are feel- ing the tug of that instinct which compels them to move out of still water and head upstream. Trout, with the exception of a few pesky species such as the Mackinaw that have become such a management problem in Flathead Lake, only spawn in streams and rivers. To develop, trout eggs, once fertilized, require the steady ow of highly oxygenated water over their rest- ing place in clean river gravel.
So the trout head upstream.
But unlike the journey of Paci c salmon, which undergo dramatic mor- phological changes once they leave the ocean and head upriver to breed and die, trout spawning runs are not a death march. The sh continue to eat along the way, and once their boy-girl business is attended to, they return to the lake (or in the case of steelhead trout, the ocean) to live out their lives, at least until the fol- lowing spring.
The living is easier in the lake. Trout
don’t have to expend energy just to hold
bigger trout tend to hang out in deeper water where you need weights and down- riggers to reach them. That’s all ne and good, as trolling is one of the most relax- ing ways to sh, but it ain’t y shing.
Those fat lake sh in a stream or small river are a hoot. The professor and I have been dragging nymphs through likely looking runs. The good spots are often just below small rapids, where the sh gather themselves preparing to push through the whitewater.
It’s a poor man’s version of nymphing for steelhead. The sh are toads com- pared to what we’re used to catching. Where we might normally hook a bunch of 12-inch trout, suddenly the average sh is somewhere around the 20-inch mark. And there are lots of them, sometimes.
The way the shing turns on and o has convinced the Professor and I that the sh come up out of the lake in waves: gangs of rough-around-the-collar trout looking for some action upstream. I don’t have the slightest idea if this is true, but it’s the story we tell ourselves when the shing slows down.
Soon enough all this fun will be over. The sh will have moved on, to the spawning redds where they’re o limits in my book. Then they’ll head back to the lake where they’ll only be bothered by the deep-water trollers.
The next generation comes later. The trout eggs will develop in the cool water of the headwater streams. Once hatched, the trout fry spend considerable time liv- ing in the space within the gravel itself, slowly digesting their yolk sac until they
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their place as they do in the current of are large enough to venture out into the
a river. And the grocery store in a lake current, feeding on the tiniest of aquatic is betteLr esttocukseds. Itnosctekadthofefejeodbingoronavaoriglanbilsemsf.orTdhreiyv’lel -tehvreuntluoaallydindgrift
aquatic insects, these lake trout get fat feasting on minnows and other protein dense forage. All this means bigger trout.
It’s the spawning run that makes them available to y shers. In the lake these
downstream to the lake, and if they’re not consumed by their predatory aunts and uncles, the small trout will repeat the spawning run upriver.
I intend to be there to greet them.
Rob Breeding writes and teaches when he’s not shing or hunting.
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MARCH 23, 2016 // FLATHEADBEACON.COM
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