Montana Fisheries Official Warns of Low-Water Summer

An angler fishes the North Fork of the Flathead River on Sept. 15, 2024. Hunter D’Antuono | Flathead Beacon

Stream gage data is already registering temperatures and flows that normally don’t bedevil Montana’s rivers and tributaries until mid-July, prompting state fisheries managers to issue early warning signals on Wednesday that anglers should anticipate restrictions and closures this summer.

“What that means to us as far as a prognosis is … if it’s like mid-July right now, we’re possibly going to be talking about hoot owl restrictions in the coming weeks. So It’s a bit alarming,” said Patrick Saffel, the fisheries manager for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks’ (FWP) Region 2 office, which includes the entire Clark Fork and Blackfoot rivers, where flows are currently at about one-third of the volume they were at the same time last year.

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