Joe and I floated on May 1st. It was a monumental day for Montana and rivers everywhere. The Clark Fork dam was removed 5 years ago and May 1, 2013 was the 1st day we were allowed to float through the confluence of the Black Foot and Clark Fork where the dam used to be since 1903.
Removing the dam has been a Godsend if you are a trout in western MT. Trout can now migrate up through where the dam used to be and access 100’s of miles of new spawning and rearing habitat. The EPA also removed millions of tons of contaminated mining tailings that came from Marcus Daley’s copper mine in Butte and settled near Missoula on the banks and riverbed of the Clark Fork and Blackfoot. Arsenic, cyanide, sulferic acid, copper sulfate, just to name a few were the precious contaminates that soiled our river bed here. They shipped most of that crap back to Butte and buried it, (poor Butte).
The river has never been in better shape. Some dipshit also planted northern Pike in the reservoir years ago where the dam used to be. Subsequently every small trout would have to swim the pike gauntlet and a lot of these young trout ended up in pike bellies. The now gone reservoir was also spawing grounds for these non-native super predator pike. Kind of reminiscent of bringing in a super predator grey wolf from the Yukon and see what happens to non-migratory elk herds in Montana, but that’s a different story!
The contractors who removed the dam also rebuilt the entire 2 miles of stream bed with rocks, bends, channels, and other diverse habitat enhancers. It’s really cool in there and fishy.
Joe also took Patch, Travis, and I to the upper Clark Fork east of Missoula an hour or so. It was a section that I hadn’t floated and it was real buggy. Skwala’s, caddis, and March Browns where thick. It was bright sunny and the fish where only eating bugs in the shade and a few other places. We caught some nice browns and a few cuts and bows. It was a calming/ pleasant day, a little breezy later but it was awesome seeing 20 new miles of river in 2 days. I felt like Lewis or Clark, well one of those guys until I floated back and got in our pickup. I don’t think Lewis and Clark had shuttle drivers!
Lots of awesome things happening around here right now!
