why they sell saltwater fishing poles in Montana 1000 miles from saltwater

[rattler]

my wifes first paddlefish.....guessing somewhere between 60 and 70 pounds.....they can hit bout twice that.....she was lucky, guessing it had just hit the eddy after feeding in the main current all day cause it didnt run and didnt put up much of fight for a fish its size so it musta been wore out already....

 

[Dexenthes]

That's pretty insane. Wont be catching those round these parts!

 

[Lil Stinkpot]

Are paddlefish good eats?

 

[rattler]

the smaller ones are......paddlefish have two types of muscle, white muscle and then around the spinal cord is red muscle.....the red muscle isnt very good, hell im not that picky and i wont eat it, the white is very good.....unfortunately the bigger the fish the higher the proportion of red to white so rather than throw out alot of meat we toss the big ones back where catch and release is legal and keep small ones that are under 20 pounds....

 

[MICKEY]

where is it not legal to catch and release

nice fish

 

[rattler]

well basically the two places its legal in Montana is at Intake Diversion dam on the Yellowstone River and along the Missouri River bordering the Fort Peck Indian Reservation.....everywhere else in Montana you keep the first one you catch and your season is over as you buy a tag for them just like a deer or elk tag as their population is very closely watched.....

i have no clue what regulations are in other states other than i know in some states they are protected and you cant fish for them.....Montana has one of the healthiest populations cause the Yellowstone is the longest undammed river in the US....so they are doing well here but there is still a tightly controlled quota system and as soon as the quota is hit in an area fishing is shut down...

 

[Millipede]

jeez... do you think you manhandled it enough before throwing it back?

 

[rattler]

heavy, lively fish......was in good shape when tossed back, looks rougher than it was specifically cause we were being extremely careful not to hurt its gills which is the easiest place to grab it and control it, but also does alot of damage to a fish if you want to turn it loose.......

 

[Lil Stinkpot]

Ditto that one. I've had more fish than I can count bleed out from a gill injury. Poor guys made a nice dinner. (all legal catches)

 

[MICKEY]

hate when a small fish that you would throw back gets a big hook in its gills

 

[rattler]

yeah, the pics show lots of twisting by the fish specifically cause the fish was allowed to rather than to force it to do as we wished and risk an injury to a fish we wanted to toss back......combined with the rush to get it out of the water, up for pics and then quickly back into the water....all told it was prolly out of the water for around 2 minutes, prolly less.....she wasnt even that tired from the fight and the handling as we didnt have to rock her back and forth to get water pumping through her gills or anything, soon as she felt neutral boyancy she was off like a shot.....

with no bones for extra weight it was most of the 60 pounds is muscle and the fish is an athlete spending all day every day in the main current only hitting slack water to rest for the night.......they dont just lay still when yah get them out of the water.....

BTW if you have Tivo tomorrow morning on NatGeo is a Monster Fish episode on these guys......IIRC some of it was filmed on the Yellowstone here in Montana.....

 

[rattler]

actually found it on youtube