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Adopt-A-Fish Update: May 27, 2004 up the Missouri, Milk Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks The Missouri River Adopt-A-Fish are responding to higher flows, once again. I know this same old story is getting old but it never ceases to amaze me what these fish are capable of. At the end of last week, all of the paddlefish that were in the Yellowstone River went back down to the confluence and a good portion of them went upstream into the Missouri River. That’s not a big surprise when the Missouri is flowing twice as much water as the Yellowstone. But now, with the recent rains, tributaries are contributing their share of turbid (muddy) water to the flow. I imagine the Missouri looks similar to the river that it once was long ago, high and muddy, before Fort Peck Dam went up and the waters coming out of the dam made the river run much clearer. The only thing the fish aren’t seeing is the higher water temperatures they’d normally see at this time of year. We are almost into June and water temperatures in the Missouri are still below 50 degrees. Most of our native river fish prefer temperatures in the 60-65 degree range for spawning. Nonetheless, fish are on the move and they’re going up to the muddiest and warmest water they can find – the Milk River. The fish had been stacked at the mouth for the past couple weeks as if they new something was coming, and it did. Every one of the adopt a fish blue suckers is up the Milk, and they’re not the only ones. Paddlefish No. 4 is up there too. In all, we had seventeen of our radioed fish go up the Milk this week. On Tuesday, we tracked about 20 miles up, to check on an eagle’s nest, and only found three of these seventeen fish, so they’re moving fast and moving far. Now, the big question is whether or not there will be sufficient water for a long enough time for these fish to reproduce or will they swim out of the Milk, down the Missouri, and up the Yellowstone like last year? I guess everyone will have to wait until next year to find out since this is the last article for the season. We do hope to post periodic updates on the Internet this summer, but it won’t be weekly reports like we’ve had for the past two months. I would like to thank everybody for participating in the Missouri River Adopt-A-Fish program this year. I hope everyone will be back next year and tell a friend to join too. We hope all our students and teachers have a happy and safe summer break. And, every once in a while, just think about your fish and imagine how they’re doing in the waters of the mighty Missouri. |
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