Warm Water Blues
Montana Fly-Fishing Businesses Hurt by River Closures
By David Nolt, 8-01-07
photo by David Nolt
As another week of 90-plus temperatures further warms Montana’s rivers and creeks, anglers all over are lamenting lost fishing time due to the sustained mandatory 2 p.m. to midnight fishing closures on 29 water bodies across the state.
Fishing guides and fly shops are feeling the heat more than anybody as trends of low snowpacks, early springs, scorching summers and ongoing drought put the squeeze on their bottom line. Fly-fishing businesses are largely reliant on tourists who come from all over the world to fish Montana’s legendary trout streams in the summer, and as Kris Kumlien, manager of Bozeman’s Montana Troutfitters explains, misperceptions about the situation are only making things worse.
“From a business perspective, the thing that’s hurt us more than anything else is the perception that everything is closed,” Kumlien says. “To put it bluntly, it sucks.”
John Bailey of Dan Bailey’s Fly Shop in Livingston says the unprecedented closures in Yellowstone National Park caught everybody’s attention.
“The problem is, when the park did their closure it made national headlines, and when it makes national headlines people don’t come,” Bailey explains.
On July 20 the National Park Service implemented 2 p.m. to 5 a.m. closures on virtually all streams below 7,000 feet. Yellowstone National Park Spokesman Al Nash says high water temperatures—as high as 80`F—and extremely low streamflows prompted the closures.
“We have not seen a daytime closure like this,” Nash says. “We have a situation this year that we have not encountered before.”
Nash says the park tried to follow similar closure guidelines as Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks (MFW&P) to make it easier on anglers. No fishing is ever allowed in the park after 10 p.m., however. Nash says he does not foresee lifting any of the closures, especially in the continued heat of early August, which is typically the hottest time of the year in the area.
The upper Yellowstone River from the northern border of Yellowstone National Park through Livingston was not closed last summer, but it closed on July 19th this year from the park all the way to Billings. George Anderson of George Anderson’s Yellowstone Angler in Livingston says there shouldn’t be closures on the upper Yellowstone River at all this year.
“The water temps are actually well within where we’d want to see them this year,” Anderson says. “I’m not real happy with the Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks. The temp reached 73 degrees a couple of days, but it’s back down this week.”
Tom Palmer, with MFW&P explains, “We did it with the idea that we need to conserve and preserve these wild fisheries.”
The Yellowstone River has the benefit of constant, cold flows coming from Yellowstone Lake, and is certainly in better shape than some other rivers. However, this is resulting in more fishing pressure on the Yellowstone, which worries Anderson.
“We’ve seen increased pressure on the Yellowstone the last few years,” Anderson says. “It’s good for our business, but I personally don’t like to see that pressure on the Yellowstone. We need to control the public sector [with a cap on the number of boats allowed on the river at certain times], but I don’t see that happening.”
The MFW&P guidelines state streams should be closed if temperatures reach 73`F for three consecutive days. A river can be reopened if temperatures drop to 70`F for three consecutive days. Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks generally use USGS stream flow gauges to make decisions on restrictions, but on some rivers like the Blackfoot and Yellowstone, they use their own gauges. The MFW&P fisheries biologist for the Yellowstone River is Scott Opitz, and he can be reached at 222-5105 for information about specific temperatures (Opitz is out of the office until August 7th).
Don Skarr with MFW&P says the decision on which specific temperatures to use is unclear.
“There is no clear guidance on what’s a good temp to close those [streams] at,” Skarr says. “We sort of reach that decision internally. The 73`F is colder than it would take to kill fish outright, but it’s warm enough where fish are stressed and growth slows.”
Last year, closures began at noon, which many anglers said was unnecessary. The 2 p.m. closure allows for a full day of fishing if anglers get up early in the morning. Guides are adapting to the closures by taking their clients out earlier, but this also makes for crowded rivers in the morning. All fishing closures will remain in effect until September 15th or until specific river temperatures reach 70°F for three consecutive days.
Either way, the warming trend and the restriction guidelines currently in place do not bode well for summer fishing in Montana. John Bailey says the reopening stipulation for closed rivers to reach 70°F for three consecutive days essentially means the Yellowstone River will be closed until the middle of September. Bailey says his fly shop has already seen significant drops in sales in July, and he is not overly optimistic about the future of summer fishing here.
“If what they’re saying about global warming is true and we’re getting spring five weeks earlier, Montana may get known as not a very good place to go in the summer.”
Bailey also says the biggest factor for fish kills is winter severity. With flows as low as they are, sustained, severe cold temperatures would kill more fish than any summer kill, would, Bailey says, referring to the winter of 1989 fish kills on the Smith River.
Back in Bozeman, Kris Kumlien is beginning to question being in the fly-fishing business he grew up in.
“If I was a small business owner in the fly-fishing business, I’d be taking a real long, hard look at how long I would want to stay in this business,” Kumlien says. “It’s like farming: it’s totally reliant upon weather patterns, except there’s no crop insurance for fishing.”
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Perhaps the rivers (and the water in them) are over-allocated? At what stage do we start asking agricultural and residential users to start being more efficient with the water they take?
It's morons like you that are so naive to think that less people visiting and less fly shops = better resources - in fact angling surveys indicate that non-guided resident anglers account for more than 65% of angling days per year... yet you contribute exactly what? Think before you speak and take a little introspect in to how your activities help the fisheries, bud.
"Think before you speak..." Okay, so if "non-guided resident anglers account for more than 65% of angling days per year," which is nearly 2/3 of angling days, and all of those RESIDENTS are out spending transportation and gear acquisition dollars at a rate much higher than NON-resident anglers, how are Helena and the rest of us NOT contributing to the industry? Think before you speak.
Also, you are completely misguided (which equals wrong) when you say "Tourism dollars in this state are king." They are not. Show us one study showing tourism is anything more than marginally important (somewhere in the neighborhood of 10-15%, at best). Federal dollars produce more resident income than any other industry, by far. Tourism may be important for you, but for the rest of us regular old people working and paying taxes here, they are not. Residents realize fisheries ARE important, which is why we want to insure their longevity by protecting them in bad times, like now, because we don't profit from them, like you. We just wanna catch some fish, year after year. Show a little respect for the resource.
Basically, sculpin, don't be so damn short-sighted and greedy.
Old, albeit not wise, Montanan.
I did think before I posted my comments, a lot more eductation going into mine than yours, thanks to Barb for chipping in with some facts to back up what I asserted in the first email. 10-15% of Montana's GDP huh? You are an idiot. 2nd to Ag, which is subsidized, tourism pays the largest portion of the tax dollars from those pesky non resident anglers.
See the problem is you fail to see the bigger picture, tourists and "Orvisites" spend a lot more money in this economy than residents when they travel through - rental car, motel/hotel, restaurants, shopping malls, gas, etc etc. Without that revenue you are left with a primarily ag based economy with very little other economic contribution. "Federal dollars produce more resident income than any other industry, by far." Seems that you are misguided (see completely wrong), and next time before you just go spouting off garbage, check your facts and then speak.
I have grown up and spent my life in Bozeman, and the 3 months of summer and travelers is a small price to pay for the seeming solitude of the rest of the 9 months of the year. You probably moved here in the last 10 years and now think you can call this place home, but unfortunately, I can tell you for who you are, a transplant... Just seriously, think, then speak, check your facts, then speak, it works better to do it in that order...