Being born and raised in the Flathead, I enjoyed the Inter Lake’s article on the Erickson and Bishop families’ stories of growing up in Evergreen and the fun they had swimming and fishing in Spring Creek years ago. 

I remember catching a large rainbow off the bridge with the paddle wheel where Currier Welding now sits. Back in those days we spent most weekends trolling Flathead Lake for kokanee salmon, lake trout and bull trout. We also fished all the tributaries for cutthroat, bulls, brook trout and rainbow. I can’t remember any times that we didn’t catch a lot of fish and that’s where I got the passion for fishing that carries on today.

Through the years, the fisheries changed, and our style of fishing changed with them. After the kokanee were wiped out we started fishing at our cabin at Lake Blaine for largemouth bass, northern pike, and perch. The rumors in those days were that northern pike were a most ferocious predator and would eat all the other fish they swam with. The story of their origin was that they were first in Lone Pine Reservoir (near Hot Springs) and transported the 60 or so miles in buckets by fishermen and planted in all the impoundments on the valley floor. 

The Fish and Game wanted nothing to do with them and there was no limit. Years later they did a study with grant money on the Flathead River sloughs (Fenon, Horseshoe) and tried to kill as many as possible to do a stomach content analysis so the FWP could prove they were eating the west slope cutthroat and Dolly Varden trout. The results after a couple of years of study and lots of money spent were that two trout were found in the spring when they moved into the sloughs during high water with the pike. 

My reason for bringing this up is that for the last 20 years or so it seems like the only way our fish in the valley are managed is to net, poison and suppress (kill) existing fisheries under the contention that they are all illegal transplants and are causing the demise of the cutthroat and bull trout (they are native species ) and all of our resources should be spent to return the Flathead to the days of Lewis and Clark.

As one of the most avid of fishermen of the valley (Frank Danner) used to say, “If it weren’t for nonnative fish, why would we buy a license and what would we fish for?” The Flathead is managed as a cold water fishery. Warm water fish including perch, pike, bass, sunfish, and crappies are non-native, but on a given day if you checked to see what anglers targeted they would make up the majority of the fish sought. 

Recently my family and I fished the Lions tournament at Smith Lake west of town and there were over 500 fishermen and women participating, with awards given out for perch and northern pike. It is close to town and you can take the family out with real good odds of the kids getting a fish to bend their rod. Another pond close to town is McWenneger Slough located a few miles east of town. On any given day or night, the parking lot is full, but the only fish that swim there are largemouth bass, pike, perch, and crappies — all warm water species. 

The Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks would have you believe that because they are a nonnative species, they need to go. Recently I read an article in the Daily Inter Lake about how Lake Mary Ronan was the “poster child” for a resource damaged by the illegal introduction of perch in 1992, yet you can go out there on Feb. 15 this year and join the 400 or so fishermen at the Snappy Sport Senter’s family fishing tournament to fish for perch and kokanee. 

By the way, Fish, Wildlife and Parks quit netting the perch out of there a few years back because no one was complaining about them any more. People that have fished it for years will say that the kokanee and rainbow fishing have never been better. Maybe that’s why while I jigged for kokanee this summer I was able to view 27 other boats doing the same thing.

This winter in the Flathead Valley there are nine approved winter Ice fishing derbies, they are approved by applying a year in advance through Fish, Wildlife and Parks. Of the nine, not one of them is for native fish. McGregor Lake has the largest number of anglers (over 1,100 one year) even there the species that win the money are lake trout (attempting to be wiped out by the tribes on Flathead Lake) and rainbow, a non-native fish that the federal fish managers and Trout Unlimited no longer want planted because they are not native to Montana. Most of the other derbies which will include a few thousand more anglers feature perch, pike, kokanee and rainbow. Indeed what would we fish for?

I do not condone bucket biology (a name by FWP given to the idea that if a new fish appears in an impoundment, it had to come from good old local boys that throw ’em in a bucket and transport them). As a matter of fact I feel so strongly about it that I joined Walleyes Unlimited. Our organization promotes kids’ fishing (to date we have given away over 3,500 rods and reels to Flathead youth) and we have given time and money to local fishing access including Pine Grove Pond. 

Our club and our state organization have offered a large reward to anyone with knowledge of bucket biologists and their arrest and conviction. We offered the reward six years ago, and to date not one arrest has been made, nor to my knowledge has there ever been anyone arrested. I wonder if it really happens or if it is the soap box the FWP stands on to create chaos and divert our attention from the shoddy job of managing our resources.

The bottom line is we live in the Flathead. We support Snappy Sport Senter, Sportsman Ski Haus, and now Cabela’s. We buy our licenses and the latest and greatest new gadgets. We go fishing and expect to catch a few fish. We may throw them back or eat them, but we teach our children to fish and hope they will pass it on to their kids. 

Our tax dollars and fees on boats and licenses pay for public officials to do their job. It shouldn’t be a battle. Instead of killing fish, how about managing for the fish that are already there? You can’t get rid of them — you already tried! Let’s use our knowledge and expertise to do green things like increase habitat and water quality. 

Let’s get on the same page and let our voice be heard. Not everyone that fishes for non-native species is the enemy.

Mark Weed is a resident of Kalispell.