Wild Fish of Montana

Today on Sportsman's Spotlight, Josh Mills talks about a unique program in Montana. "40 years ago the state of Montana did something quite revolutionary. They ceased using hatchery fish, hatchery rainbow trout and brown trout on all of the state's rivers. If you want to see a beautiful piece on how wild fish can actually enhance a fishery and rebuild a fishery and make it even better than it was in the glory years, take a look online for Montana Story on video. Basically in 1974, there was a ground breaking study on the Madison River and it determined that hatchery fish were a big cause for why the fish populations were continuing to decrease in the Madison River and even all around. Aside from every other state at the time, they did away with all stockings in rivers. Lakes are different but what has happened is that it has dramatically increased the fish populations in most of the rivers around Montana. Wild fish have an amazing ability to heal broken systems. Given the chance, they will rebuild than we could ever anticipate.