I am lucky enough to have access to a lot of SW Montana water via retired living in Bozeman. I get on the water a lot from March to November. So far this year angling on five different rivers in multiple locations, I’ve yet to encounter any diseased brown, rainbows, cutts or whitefish. 100s of fish so far this season, not one that I recall was “sick”. In fact even in the last few weeks, as river temps have been rising, fish are still fat and healthy. One of the problems in my view with the reporting is the lack of context. The headline and text give the impression that the entire Big Hole and Beaverhead rivers are suffering from diseased fish. Indeed MTFWP surveys have documented population declines in the surveyed sections, but these are big rivers. The Big Hole at 153 miles long, probably less than 50% of that length gets the most fishing pressure. There are remote sections that get almost zero pressure because of access and have healthy populations of fish. Of course outfitters and local anglers sweat these kinds of problems and the media gladly soaks up that sweat in its reporting. August will be a tough angling month due to low water and high temps but thats pretty much normal. Hoot Owls and a shorter season on the Big Hole will help the browns recover and I suspect the studies being undertaken to diagnose the “sick trout” will help as well.
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