as fish are on the move
Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks
WADE KING
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
and MARK HENCKEL
Billings Gazette Outdoor Editor
If there's such a thing as a magic spot for blue suckers at this time of year, it must be a hole just below the mouth of the Milk River. Virtually all the adopted blue suckers in the Missouri River Adopt-A-Fish program seem to be headed to that part of the river.
It could just be that these fish are waiting for just the right flows and just the right water temperatures to be flowing out of the Milk to trigger a run up this important Missouri River spawning tributary. Historically, the Milk River has been a spawning tributary for them.
With blue suckers listed as a Species of Special Concern in Montana, we can only hope that Old Blue, Moe, Moe Jr., Molly, Ernie and Flounder get those flows and have a good spawning year.
Shovelnose sturgeon also seem to be homing in on this part of the river. Shovelnose No. 1 (Gilly or June) and Shovelnose No. 3 (Shemp or Taz) were both located this week in that area.
For the paddlefish and pallid sturgeon, the area near the confluence of the Missouri and Yellowstone rivers is where all the action is. Some are just below the confluence still in the Missouri. Others have begun to nose their way up the Yellowstone.
Like the blue suckers and shovelnose sturgeon, our adopted paddlefish and pallids are waiting for just the right river flows and just the right water temperatures to make their move further upstream.
With chilly weather in the area this week, don't look for major changes due to rising water temperatures. With the rains we've had in the Yellowstone drainage especially, a boost in flows might send the fish upstream in the week ahead.
On the Internet, anyone can go to www.walleyesunlimited.com and click on the Missouri River Adopt-A-Fish button to see maps of the movements of the adopted fish or learn more about this unique stretch of the river. Classrooms can still sign up for the program and adopt fish of their own.
Missouri River Adopt-A-Fish is a cooperative effort of Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, The Billings Gazette and Walleyes Unlimited of Montana.