WALLEYES FOREVER

E-NEWSLETTER

 

From www.WalleyesForever.com

 

No. 11:  6-25-07

 

 

Andy Henckel works on the webcam at Hell Creek on Fort Peck, switching it

to a wireless connection for the Miles City Chapter of Walleyes Unlimited.

Working with Hell Creek Marina on it, the switch will save the Miles City

chapter from monthly phone and internet bills and make the camera

more reliable in sending photos to the Internet.  A similar arrangement

and partnership has been put together this year between

 Gallatin/Madison WU and Silos RV for the Canyon Ferry webcam,

 saving Gallatin/Madison some dollars.

(And yes, it rained a lot earlier that day at Hell Creek and Andy spent

 much time slipping, sliding and crawling through the gumbo – hence

the muddy pants and  shoes that came with the installation.

Luckily, the afternoon sun shone bright and dried him out

for the drive home.)  Check out the webcams at

www.walleyesforever/webcams/cams.html.

 

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Power outage at Fort Peck Hatchery

kills 110,000 Chinook salmon

 

By ANDREW McKEAN

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks

Nearly three quarters of the Chinook salmon scheduled to be released this year into Fort Peck Reservoir suffocated last week when power was lost for several hours at the new Fort Peck Fish Hatchery.

The remaining quarter of the salmon stock, about 36,000 3-inch fingerlings, were salvaged and released into the lake after repeated attempts to restore power to the facility failed.

Fort Peck Hatchery Manager Andrew Ollenburg called the loss of both primary and backup power to the facility “a freak occurrence” and said that causes of the failure - mechanical and electrical systems - were being diagnosed and repaired this week.

“The root cause of the power failure was a tree branch across a power line in the town of Fort Peck on Sunday night,” said Ollenburg. “When the hatchery lost power, our backup generator kicked on and our automated phone dialer summoned our on-call employee as it was supposed to. He arrived at the hatchery, made sure pumps were running and then went home.”

But when hatchery employees reported for work Monday morning, they found that the backup generator had failed. About 75,000 Chinook in tanks inside the hatchery were dead because fresh-water flows stopped during the night. More than half of the 75,000 salmon in the outdoors raceway also died when water stopped flowing.

“We attempted several times to restart the generator but it kept heating up and shutting off, so we decided to stock out the surviving salmon, about 36,400 fish, to get them out of the hatchery,” says Ollenburg. “The salmon were scheduled to be stocked out Wednesday anyway, so they got a couple days head start on their lives in the lake.”

Ollenburg says the initial power loss to the hatchery wasn’t uncommon. During a powerful storm the previous day the hatchery lost power, but the backup generator kicked on as intended and kept pumps turning until the main power was restored. The loss of the generator in the second outage was entirely unexpected and apparently was caused by a defective breaker to the radiator and a second, apparently unrelated, problem with an oil pressure sensor.

The problem with the generator went undetected because the automated phone dialer that alerts employees to power loss wasn’t activated since the outlet that powers that device isn’t connected to the circuit powered by the generator.

“So we never got called that the backup generator was out because the monitor didn’t register that power had been restored, then lost again,” said Ollenburg. “We learned a lot about our system last weekend. For one, we learned that there’s a loophole in the electrical system that doesn’t connect the auto dialer to the backup generator. And we learned that our alarm system doesn’t have a battery backup. If we had known that our backup power was off, we could have been here in the middle of the night salvaging fish. It’s still a new facility and maybe these glitches are to be expected, but it is never easy to lose fish.”

Ollenburg said the only bright spots in the incident were that at least some fish were stocked into the lake and that the power outage didn’t come in early May, when several million walleye eggs were incubating.

“We’re working to identify and correct the problems,” he says. “We test our generator every week to make sure it’s working correctly, and it’s always powered up and stayed running just fine. The fact that it failed - and failed twice - is one of flukes that you can’t anticipate but we’re going to work to ensure that it doesn’t happen again.”

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Walleyes Forever and Scheels were the primary sponsors of the

19th annual Kids Fishing Jamboree at Lake Josephine

At Riverfront Park in Billings on June 16.  Montana Pikemasters

and the Magic City Fly Fishers also turned out to volunteer

their time and help the kids.  To see a gallery of happy kids,

go to the Photo Gallery on www.walleyesforever.com.

 

 

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Deadline to propose ice fishing contests is near

 

 

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks

 

Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks officials said applications for ice-fishing contests proposed for next winter are due in the Helena FWP office on or before July 1.

Applications for contests may be approved, denied or approved with conditions. Conditions placed on contests may help to minimize fish mortality, regulate harvest, reduce user conflicts or require additional access site maintenance when needed.

Applicants proposing contests with overlapping dates on the same waters will be contacted by FWP in time to revise the dates. Contests cannot be approved for holiday weekends.

The public will have 30 days to comment on the proposed contests. Following the public comment period, the FWP Fisheries Division will notify contest sponsors.  

Applications and information are available on the FWP web site at fwp.mt.gov   on the Fishing page under Licenses and Applications, or by calling 444-2449.

 

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FWP offers home-study boating education course

 

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks

As boaters plan for a summer of fun it is a good time to plan to take Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks’ home-study course for motorboat and personal watercraft operators. Those 13 years of age or older who successfully complete the course will receive a motorboat operator’s certificate.

Boaters of all ages and interests need to follow these life-saving tips: always wear a life jacket; observe no-wake rules and boat at a reasonable speed; always be on the watch for other boaters and swimmers; don’t mix alcohol or drugs and boating; review boating regulations before you go out; and take an approved boating safety course.

Montana’s boating laws require that a U.S. Coast Guard approved life jacket be available for each person on board a boat. Children under 12 years of age must wear their life jacket when aboard a boat under 26 feet in length. The life jacket must be in good condition and fit the intended wearer. Life jackets also have to be readily accessible.

To obtain a motorboat home-study course packet contact your regional FWP office, or call FWP at: 406-444-2535. Boating classes are also offered by the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary and on line at www.boat-ed.com .

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Follow three basic rules for boating safety

 

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks

As the summer boating season begins, FWP urges all boaters to follow three basic rules on the water:

1.  Designate a skipper who won’t drink alcoholic beverages while on duty.

 

 2.  Have approved lifejackets on board and readily accessible for every passenger, and require children under 12 years of age to abide by the law by wear their lifejackets when on board.

 

 3.  Do not exceed a boat’s safe carrying capacity.

For more information on boating safety, visit FWP’s web site fwp.mt.gov   on the Education page.

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Montana Fishing Access Guide has new look

 

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks

Montana’s 316 Fishing Access Sites are among the best places in the state to fish or camp. Now a new, full-color guide to these special places is available at all Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks offices at no charge.

Just the names of some of these fishing access sites should pique your interest: Chief Looking Glass FAS on the Bitterroot River; Sportsman’s Bridge FAS on the Flathead River; Salmon Fly FAS on the Big Hole River; Mallard’s Landing FAS on the Bighorn River; and Manuel Lisa FAS on the Big Horn River. If that doesn’t work for you, the full-color images of each stream and lake-side oasis will.

The new guide is color-coded and formatted for use with the FWP fishing regulations and includes information such as the typical species of game fish that may be caught at each site. Montana’s FASs make hundreds of miles of waterfront along Montana’s rivers, lakes and reservoirs accessible to the general public for fishing, boating and other recreation. Some 160 sites have boat ramps and improved latrines, and at 95 FASs overnight camping is available.

The facilities available at a particular FAS are described in the guide and can also be located using the guide’s index. FASs are primitive or semi-primitive sites that do not have electricity, running water or dump stations. More highly developed camping sites are available at many of Montana’s State Parks.

FWP also offers an online guide to FASs, their locations and facilities. Go to fwp.mt.gov on the Internet, click on Fishing and use the Find An FAS Site selector.

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Just click on the picture to see other photos

of Konrad’s trophy trout.

 

World record rainbow trout caught in Canada

 

ESPN Outdoors reported on a pending new world record rainbow trout caught out of Canada’s Lake Diefenbaker, a big-fish water on the South Saskatchewan River system.

Adam Konrad was fishing the lake on the evening of June 6 with his twin brother, Sean. While casting from shore with a four-inch Mepps Syclops spoon, Adam had a hit which resulted in a 20-minute battle before he landed the big trout which weighed 43.6 pounds, was 38.75 inches in length and had a girth of 34 inches.

ESPN notes that both Adam and Sean are big-fish fishermen. Both Adam and Sean, 26, of Saskatoon, already hold line-class records for rainbow trout recognized by the International Game Fish Association with fish they’ve caught in Diefenbaker.

If Adam’s big rainbow is officially approved by the IGFA, it will break the old mark of 42-pounds, 2-ounces set by David White, in June, 1970 on Alaska’s Bell Island.

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Join Walleyes Forever – get a free cap!

 

As part of your $25 annual membership in Walleyes Forever, each member will receive one, free WF logo cap.  The membership year runs from Jan. 1 through Dec. 31.

 

Your dues help us to help fund projects including kids fishing days.  You will also receive our four-page newsletter in the mail each month.

 

If you'd like to purchase additional WF logo caps, they'll be on sale for $8 each at club meetings or from WF Treasurer Linda Granholm.

 

To join Walleyes Forever, go to www.walleyesforever.com/membership/membership.html.

 

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And, finally……..

Biker enters Heaven

 
A man appeared before St. Peter at the Pearly Gates.

 

 "Have you ever done anything of particular merit?" St. Peter asked.

 

"Well, I can think of one thing," the man offered.  "Once, on a trip to Sturgis in the Black Hills out in South Dakota on my Suzuki Sportster, I came upon a gang of outlaw bikers on big Harley Hogs. They were threatening a young woman. I directed them to leave her alone, but they wouldn't listen.

"So, I approached the largest and most heavily tattooed biker and smacked him in his face, kicked his bike over, ripped out his nose ring and threw it on the ground.

"I then yelled, "Now, back off or I'll kick the &*$)@ out of all of you!'"

 

St. Peter was impressed.

 

"When did this happen?" he asked.

 

The Suzuki rider answered, "Just a couple minutes ago."

       

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