make some new habitat
Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks
There were finally some higher flows on the Yellowstone River this past week and that changed things for radioed fish in the Missouri River Adopt-A-Fish program.
Local rains and snows in the Yellowstone River basin created a large pulse of water. With all this water, the river becomes quite different.
Side channels that have been dry since last spring are now mini-rivers themselves. This creates a lot of habitat for our native fish to hide out in.
It is approximately 71 river miles from the mouth of the Yellowstone River to the Intake Diversion Dam. By the time we searched for radioed fish in all these channels, our GPS units indicated we had gone over 120 miles.
Many of our implanted shovelnose sturgeon are using these “new” side channels. Paddlefish, one of the earlier spawning native fish, recognize this increase in flow, along with increasing water temperatures as a cue for spawning.
These fish rapidly ascended the mighty Yellowstone River. Paddlefishing has been excellent at Intake although this may not last long since flows are rapidly declining.
There is, generally, another pulse of water that occurs in a few more weeks as snow melts in the mountains.
This second rise in the hydrograph is believed to be important as a spawning cue for other native fish such as sturgeons that spawn a little later.
Our mover of the week was pallid sturgeon #2 (Bubba, Hawkings, or Sturgis), which swam up the Missouri River over 61 miles this past week.