Smallmouth Bass Discovered in Montana's Bitterroot River

A summer heatwave is baking good portions of the U.S. as this is written, but the first hints of fall are also happening as college football season looms in only a few more days. And with next month’s AFFTA Confluence event happening in Salt Lake City, there’s hope for a cooler future no matter what the thermometer says right now.

With that anticipation of pleasant fall weather conditions, beautiful autumn color in the woods, and better fishing in the days ahead, here’s this week’s Fly Fisherman News Briefs package:

Emergency Regs for Smallmouths on Lower Bitterroot

Earlier this century, largemouth bass reached near-world-record proportions in Southern California as they dined on rainbow trout planted in lakes not far from San Diego. To keep smallmouth bass from doing something similar on Montana's Lower Bitterroot River–where native trout are king–emergency regs are being proposed by the Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks (FWP).

The proposal would require anglers to keep and turn in any smallmouth bass caught in the lower Bitterroot River from the confluence of the Clark Fork River near Missoula to Florence Bridge. The proposal comes after an angler caught a smallmouth bass in the Bitterroot River–the first confirmed smallmouth catch there–on July 5 while fishing on the river some 3.5 miles from the confluence with the Clark Fork. Low numbers of largemouth bass and northern pike have been confirmed in this stretch for many years.

While no additional smallmouths have been detected by FWP staff, the confirmed catch sounds the alarm since smallmouths–highly prized in their native ranges–are both adaptable and predatory, traits that could lead to significant impacts on the Bitterroot's cold-water trout fishery. The discovery is also alarming since previously, the nearest documented reports of smallmouth bass were nearly 70 miles upstream in the Clark Fork drainage (in Montana’s Clearwater River) and 80 miles downstream in the Clark Fork River below Saint Regis.

UPDATE, 8-18-23: The proposed regulation was adopted at the August 17 FWP Fish & Game Commission meeting, and the kill and report regulation goes into effect immediately. 

AFFTA Seeks Conservation-award Nominations

As the American Fly Fishing Trade Association (AFFTA) gets ready to host its Confluence event in Salt Lake City from (Link: https://affta.org/affta-confluence ) Sept. 26-28, the industry group is also seeking a winner for some conservation hardware.

That comes by way of the Jim Range Conservation Leadership Award, which seeks to recognize individuals in the AFFTA family who embody the passion and commitment of Range in terms of America's various fisheries and its angling constituents.

According to AFFTA, candidates will be considered who have demonstrated "...exemplary leadership in advancing fisheries conservation and stewardship with the engagement of the angling community and the fly fishing industry. They are collaborative, generous, innovative, and impactful."

---

The organization–which awarded the 2021 award to Scott Hed and the 2022 award to Capt. Benny Blanco–will consider candidates at any stage of his or her career, as long as they demonstrate the qualities and impact specified by the award criteria. 

To nominate someone for the 2023 award, please visit the AFFTA Fisheries Fund website for more details (Link: https://afftafisheriesfund.org/guidelines-awards ). The deadline to do so is Friday, Aug. 25, 2023.

Soda Butte Creek Closes Temporarily After Brook Trout Discovery

Yellowstone National Park’s (YNP) Soda Butte Creek needs attention once again due to an unwanted visitor that scientists thought they had shown the door a few years ago: the invasive brook trout. Those thoughts were dashed some seven years after non-native brookies were eradicated from Soda Butte Creek.

Soda Butte Creek is a small waterway located near the northeast boundary of the park approximately five miles downstream of the former location of the McLaren Mine. It joins the Lamar River as it flows across the northern range and into the Yellowstone River. 

For a little backstory, a news report on WyoFile.com indicates that the invasive brookies were targeted by biologists during a 2015 effort that led to some 450 brook trout succumbing to rotenone treatment. After two brookies were discovered the next year, more rotenone eliminated them from the system and the invasive species was apparently absent for the next several years.

But now, a handful of brookies have appeared once again and while it isn’t known how they got there, it could possibly be because of illegal introduction by a bait bucket biologist.

According to a news release from the National Park Service, officials with YNP, in coordination with Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks and the Custer Gallatin National Forest, will resume their efforts in the Soda Butte Creek Native Fish Restoration Project near the Northeast Entrance. 

The effort to remove the nonnative brook trout forced the closure of the area during the treatment period (August 14-18). Park officials say that Soda Butte Creek will be closed to the public from the park boundary at the Northeast Entrance to Ice Box Canyon (9.6 miles) while biologists remove brook trout by applying the EPA-approved rotenone. Warm Creek and Soda Butte Creek picnic areas will also be closed for project staging efforts.

The need for this week’s swift measures is because if the brookies are not removed this month, park officials indicate that brook trout will quickly displace native Yellowstone cutthroat trout. That could lead the brookies eventually invading the entire Lamar River watershed, an undesirable outcome that would threaten the largest remaining riverine population of Yellowstone cutthroat trout in existence.

To prepare for this week’s action, park officials note that cutthroat trout were moved from the treatment area last week by electroshocking efforts, with those salvaged cutthroats being held in the Soda Butte watershed in upper untreated tributaries. Once the rotenone treatment has concluded, the cutties will be released back into Soda Butte Creek.

With cutthroat trout being the only native trout species to YNP, biologists indicate that they are the most ecologically important fish species in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Genetically pure strains of these cutthroat trout have declined in recent years due to competition and predation by nonnative fish species, through hybridization, and by habitat degradation, according to scientists.

Grand Canyon National Monument Designation Brings Applause

Earlier this month, close to 1 million acres of public lands were conserved in Arizona via the use of the federal Antiquities Act by President Joe Biden's administration.

With potential fly-fishing opportunities in the Grand Canyon area like Bright Angel Creek and other tributaries, this move brought applause from a variety of stakeholders after the action to permanently conserve public lands and waters in the monument region was cemented both now and into the future. 

Specifically, Backcountry Hunters & Anglers (BHA) notes that Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni – Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument will include Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management lands near Grand Canyon National Park. No state or private lands are a part of the national monument according to BHA.

In addition to being culturally important to a dozen Tribes in the region, a BHA news release indicates that the new monument will "...safeguard a critical watershed, healthy fisheries and valuable habitat for big game, including mule deer and elk."

The monument will be managed by multiple-use agencies, while the state of Arizona will retain wildlife management authority with its Arizona Game and Fish Department.

“Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni – Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument is a wild landscape that supports a world-renowned mule deer herd,” said Michael Cravens, vice chair of the Arizona chapter of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers. “Declaring this iconic landscape a national monument, along with preserving recreational access and keeping authority over wildlife management in the capable hands of our Arizona Game and Fish Department, not only successfully protects this region from the adverse effects of uranium and hardrock mining; it also preserves the imperative connection that people have to the land.”

Tarpon Caught on Cape Cod

While it wasn't caught on a fly rod, news from Cape Cod this past weekend has certainly caught the attention of fly anglers who live to chase the silver king. That happened when a college student caught and released a sizable tarpon while shark fishing off a Cape Cod beach. 

According to various media reports including one from Yahoo! News, the five to six-foot tarpon was caught last late last Sunday when Hans Brings, Jr. hooked the fish at a beach near Mashpee, Mass. A marine biology student at the University of Rhode Island, Brings Jr. documented the catch with photos and videos of the fish that was nearly as long as he was tall.

"It was the best fishing day of my life and it'll be hard to top in the future," Brings Jr. said in the Yahoo! News report. 

Tarpon are occasionally caught as far north as the Carolinas and Virgina, but they could be roaming even further up the Eastern Seaboard as their migration patterns shift due to climate change and human pressure in their more usual haunts. And sometimes, those caught in the Mid-Atlantic States prove to be as big as anything caught in the Florida Keys, including the Tar Heel State of North Carolina where Malcom Condie landed a state record 193-lb., 5-oz. specimen in 2008. 

But a silver king caught in New England? Well, that's a bit unusual.

“It’s rare to see tarpon this far north though not unheard of, given how many marine species are able to extend their range as the ocean warms,” said a New England Aquarium spokesperson to Boston 25 News.

It’s also worth noting that over the years, tarpon occasionally surprise anglers and scientists as they roam far to the north of the places they are more commonly found. A few years ago, anglers found a dead floater that was similar in size to the Cape Cod tarpon, this one just off of Long Island. And in a 1959 story in Sports Illustrated, it was noted that tarpon have been found in Chesapeake Bay, New York Bay, and even as far north as Nova Scotia on a couple of occasions.

Will any of this mean that fly anglers will one day be able to add Cape Cod tarpon to their New England bucket list for fly fishing opportunities? That seems a little far-fetched for now, but obviously the striped bass that roam the East Coast are gaining a little extra competition these days, so who knows?