New Changes Proposed for Western Montana Fishing Regulations, FWP Asks for Ideas

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks is thinking about changing up fishing regulations in Western Montana and they want feedback from the public.

"Every four years we go through a comprehensive fishing regulation review process and this is one of those years," said FWP Region 2 Fisheries Manager Pat Saffel. "Right now, we are in the public scoping phase, so we are just getting ideas about what people might be looking for in changes in regulations, and sharing some of our initial ideas."

Saffel said one of the priorities for FWP this year will be streamlining and simplifying the regulations from one river to another. At this point, the exemptions, exclusions and differences from one body of water to another are nearly as complex as the tax code.

"For example, we have three fish less than 15" on the Clark Fork, three less than 14" and one over 14" on the Bitterroot," Saffel explained. There's really not a good reason to have one place 14" and one 15", we can just go with one regulation between several rivers."

On top of the simplifications, there are some more ideas from FWP as seen in the bullet points below:

• Standardizing the size restriction for cutthroat trout in streams and rivers and Wilderness areas.
• Reducing the harvest limit and placing a size restriction on brook trout in Georgetown Lake.
• Increasing kokanee harvest limits in Lake Alva, Lake Inez and Seeley Lake.
• Opening a reach from the Lake Alva outlet to Lake Inez to kokanee snagging.
• Applying Western District standard regulations instead of catch and release for bass in Lake Alva, Lake Inez and Salmon Lake as well as the Clearwater River downstream of the Salmon Lake outlet.

Anyone with ideas about how they think fishing regulations in Western Montana should look, can submit ideas here, the comment deadline is May 31, 2015.