Dam's removal will be good for fishing

Down where Rattlesnake Creek spills into the Clark Fork River, the hush of the water almost drowns out the sound of traffic on the Madison Street Bridge.

That hush is the Clark Fork’s voice. Less than two weeks ago, crews gave the river permission to clear her throat when they opened a gap in the Milltown Dam.

The river’s pretty murky now, and she’s coughing up a lot of phlegm, but Missoula fishermen are elated to find that the dam’s demolition hasn’t choked their prize.

Here at the confluence, Robert Kinnear, a nontraditional student in the University of Montana’s geographic information systems program, was fly-fishing the Clark Fork Wednesday, just behind Finn & Porter.

“It seems to be fishin’ really well, which is surprising,” he said.

It doesn’t sound all that different, but the un-dammed river is singing the tune of freedom. It’s a tune Missoula residents haven’t heard since 1905, when mining magnate William A. Clark started to construct the Milltown Dam for hydroelectric power. After years of planning and the removal of 2.2 million cubic yards of sediments laced with heavy metals and arsenic, the dam is gone.

Along with the meager first fruits of the spring snowmelt, cloudy but clean sediments flow under the Van Buren footbridge, past Kinnear, and on to join the Columbia River.

As he recasts his fly, the intermittent hissings of Kinnear’s line are mesmerizing. Every now and again, the reel clicks to bring line in and whines to let it out.

“Over the eight years I’ve fished the Clark Fork, the fishin’s just gotten better every year. Either that, or I have,” he said. “I just fish here while I wait for the old lady to get off work.”

The ‘click, hiss, whine, hiss’ drowned out the sound of traffic. In no time, Kinnear’s rod arched low to the river, and he yipped, “Fish on!”

***

Taylor Scott, an employee at the Kingfisher Fly Shop, said the dam’s demolition hasn’t caused any problems for fishermen so far.

“The water’s off color, and down by Frenchtown it’s almost neon green, but surprisingly the fishin’s been real good,” he said.

Scott said brown trout are heartier than rainbows, so he expects them to have a higher survival rate. With a wry smirk, he added, “Expect big fish with two or three tails and at least two heads. That, or a big three-eyed fish to come chomp on your leg.”

Scott said the rainbows are getting ready to spawn, so they’re currently gathering just below the confluence of Rattlesnake Creek and the Clark Fork River as they prepare to head up the creek.

Scott Stanko, an employee at the Missoulian Angler, said, in the short term, the cloudy water might strain the fish, but in the long term, the dam’s removal will be great for fish and great for fishing.

“In the next four or five years, you’re going to see the Clark Fork become a blue ribbon fishing destination for the state,” Stanko said.

He said that with the dam gone, “It’s gonna increase the spawning area for fish, and it’s gonna increase the oxygen level in the water. It could help to decrease the water temperature in the summer months, and it could also help with insect activity and those sorts of things.”

That all adds up to more, bigger, healthier fish.

Stanko said a lot of fishing guides are excited about new options they can offer their clients, like good, long floats that end up right in town.

He offered more good news for trout hunters.

“I think some of the extremely large fish will still be there. If you’re willing to go out at night and strip a mouse pattern, you could probably pick up some really large fish.”

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Robert Kinnear didn’t need the pros’ special tricks, and the absence of the Milltown Dam didn’t seem to give him any trouble either.

His reel whined and clicked as he whirled his catch in. For what seemed like minutes, there was nothing. Just the taunt, green line zipping back and forth across the surface. Then a flash of white as the little rainbow trout did a back flip, diving down again into the shadows of the murky, green-brown river.

The reel whined and whined until, at last, Kinnear dragged the fish into the shallows among the rocks. He quickly wrapped one hand around the fish’s middle, while the other started working on the hook. He dipped his thumb and forefinger into the trout’s mouth and, with a little effort, slid the hook out.

“It ain’t as big as the first one I caught (today), but it’s good to see him alive,” he said.

Dark clouds rolled in from the west, and the small trout looked shiny and smooth in the flat light.

“It’s a little beat up, but it’s a pretty good lookin’ little fish,” Kinnear said.

He leaned forward and set the trout back in the water, holding it for a moment before the little guy shook free to swish back into his pool.

“That’s my favorite part,” Kinnear said. “Lettin’ ‘em go.”