Karl Puckett

kpuckett@greatfallstribune.com

Extreme crowding on the Upper Missouri River is prompting Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks to limit the number of anglers issued a fishing tag for paddlefish, a fish with a long nose that predates dinosaurs.

The season runs from May 1 to June 15. There’s a 500-fish quota.

Cody Nagel, Havre area fisheries biologist, said fishing for paddlefish has become so popular on the Upper Missouri between Fort Peck Dam to Fort Benton that the quota was reached in just four days in 2014, and 19 days in 2015.

As a result, many anglers didn’t get the chance to catch a fish.

Paddlefish a treasure

That’s why FWP is switching to lottery drawing this year. Anglers can apply for one of 750 tags between Feb. 1 and March 31. Successful applicants may harvest a fish anytime during the season.

“We would start getting this big rush of anglers coming down thinking they had to be there right away to harvest a fish,” Nagel said.

Previously, an unlimited number of tags were available, and an average of 2,500 people purchased tags over the past five or six years, quickly meeting the 500-fish quota.

The change was made based on feedback from anglers that there was a “got to get there or you’re going to miss out sort of mentality,” Nagel said.

Last year, FWP documented 1,000 anglers along one 28-mile stretch of the Upper Missouri on opening weekend.

The change was approved by the Fish and Wildlife Commission in 2015 in response to extreme crowding that has occurred annually since 2007 when FWP implemented the 500-fish quota for the Upper Missouri.

Changing the system so that a set number of anglers are chosen by lottery should disperse fishing pressure, and allow people to plan their trips around their schedules, giving them a better experience, Nagel said.

Outdoors hunting scrapbook

From the perspective of managers, the same number of fish will be harvested.

The fishery is one of the most unique in Montana, Nagel said.

“We’re dealing with a prehistoric fish,” he said.

Fossil records date the paddlefish back 60 million years.

“They’re just really cool,” Nagel said.

Adding to the popularity of paddlefish angling is where it occurs, along the scenic Missouri River that winds through the Upper Missouri River National Monument and the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge between Fort Benton and Fort Peck Lake, Nagel said.

The estimated population of sexually mature paddlefish on the Upper Missouri between Fort Benton and Fort Peck Lake is 20,000, Nagle said. Males reach maturity at 10 to 12 years, and females, 16.

Paddlefish spend much of the year in Fort Peck Lake, but they migrate up river in May and June to spawn, with males spawning every other year, and females every two to three years. A native of the Mississippi River system, the paddlefish is found in its large tributaries including the Missouri and Yellowstone rivers.

Adult paddlefish in Montana can weigh from 20 pounds to more than 100 and have tremendous strength. They live up to 60 years, according to FWP.

They are unusual in that they have cartilage rather than bones, predate dinosaurs and are distantly related to sharks, FWP says. And they have an elongated snout, the “paddle” for which they are named.

For more information

Residents and nonresidents still are required to purchase a fishing license prior to applying for a paddlefish tag and selecting one area to fish for paddlefish: Upper Missouri, Yellowstone River and Missouri River downstream of Fort Peck, and the Fort Peck Dredge Cut archery only season. Apply for a tag at fwp.mt.gov. beginning Feb. 1.