Paddlefish fishing on the Yellowstone River was fast and furious during the 2006 season. Flows at the start of the May 15 opener were low enough that few paddlefish were to be found at the Intake fishing Access Site, but within a few days flows were on the rise and the fish showed up in great abundance. The harvest season was closed on May 27, just 13 days into the season to try and stay within the Montana’s 1000 fish harvest target. The last day of the harvest saw over 325 paddlefish harvested. This was a new daily record for number of fish harvested and resulted in the harvest target being exceeded by several hundred fish. Catch-and-release fishing continued at the Intake Fishing Access Site to the end of the season with good numbers of paddlefish present well into June.

Some changes to the fishing regulations will be implemented for the 2007 paddlefish season to try and spread the harvest out over a longer period of time and slow the pace of harvest. The two major changes that paddlefish anglers will notice is that night time fishing will no longer be allowed and there will be three full days of catch-and-release only fishing per week. Paddlefish angling will be allowed between 6 a.m. and 9 p.m. and Thursday, Sunday and Monday will be catch-and-release days.

The lower Yellowstone River is a warm-water anglers dream come true with a variety of game and non-game species. Channel catfish are abundant the entire length of the lower river. Five to ten pounds cats are common and fish up to 20 pounds are a possibility.

Sauger and walleye fishing is usually best in the spring and fall when water temperatures are cooler and the water is clear. Sauger numbers tend to increase as you move downstream. Smallmouth bass prefer the clearer water found above the mouth of Powder River and can be caught spring through fall.

Other fish available to the angler include shovelnose sturgeon, goldeye, fresh water drum and burbot. You never know for sure what you might find on the end of your line when fishing the lower Yellowstone River. It might even be a spiney soft-shell turtle.

Some cool, rainy weather in May dampened angler enthusiasm and the crappie were a bit slow in getting active and moving into shallow water. During much of May only the skilled crappie fishermen were demonstrating high levels of success. By early June however, the bite was on and many limits of nine-inch crappie were being taken.

A creel survey was begun at Tongue River Reservoir in May of 2006 to measure angling pressure, harvest and preferences. Although the survey will not be completed until April of 2007 some early results are interesting. May and June are the months that attract the greatest number of fishermen and they are interested primarily in catching crappie. During May and June, over 45,000 crappie were harvested and more than 48,000 were caught and released. Bullheads, smallmouth bass and walleye are next in line but far behind crappie in numbers caught and in angler preference. Enough northern pike are present in the reservoir that they consistently show up in the angler catch. Ice fishermen reported good catches of crappie, walleye and channel catfish.

There are over 100 ponds and reservoirs being managed for fish in Region 7’s pond program. Many of these ponds are privately owned with the landowner allowing public fishing. As with access to all private lands, landowner permission is a must. The remaining ponds and reservoirs are on state or federal land.

The regional fish staff visits about one third of the ponds in the program annually to check on water conditions and the fishery status. A Region 7 Pond Fishing Guide is updated annually with the latest survey data and has maps to help locate the ponds. The booklet is free to the public and can be obtained by contacting the Region 7 office at (406) 234-0900.

Efforts to improve fish habitat were undertaken at two ponds in the region. In a cooperative effort with the Glendive Chapter of Walleyes Unlimited, Hollecker Pond, near Glendive, was drained to remove undesirable fish species. While drained, gravel was placed on the mud bottom near the shoreline to provide spawning habitat. As the pond refilled, old Christmas trees and tile pipe were sunk to provide cover and nesting habitat. Hollecker will be managed for largemouth bass and yellow perch.

A similar effort occurred at Spotted Eagle Pond near Miles City. Spotted Eagle is owned by the City of Miles City and is a popular recreation area. This pond has a variety of warm water fish species including crappie, yellow perch, largemouth bass, channel catfish and northern pike. It is a bowl shaped pond with very limited fish habitat. Habitat improvement efforts at Spotted Eagle include bundling and sinking used Christmas trees to form artificial reefs and adding rock piles and tile pipe for cover and spawning habitat.

Tiger Muskie were stocked in a Region 7 pond for the first time in 2006. Gartside Reservoir near Sidney was stocked with fingerling tiger muskie to help control stunted blue gill and hopefully provide an opportunity to catch trophy-sized fish in the future.