Fort Peck Fishing          with Bernie Hildebrand Phone: (406) 234-6342  E-mail: Bernie@MidRivers.com Bernie's Fort Peck fishing report The following are my fishing results for walleye in 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002 and 2001 listed for comparison. Year 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 Number of fish > 1 pound 239 198 95 124 104 143 110 109 Number of fish < 1 pound 222 170 91             Total in pounds 545 635 443 427 523 573 454 393 Average in pounds 2.20 3.21 4.66 3.44 5.03 4.01 4.13 3.61 Hours 411 410 375 377 409 373 416 362 Fish/hour .58 .48 .25 .33 .25 .38 .26 .30 10-pound-plus 9 18 15 10 11 12 8 8 For the last three years, I have kept track of walleyes less than 14 inches or one pound. For 2008, several things stick out. The number of fish both greater than and less than 1 pound increased. The average weight of the fish decreased to the lowest level, while the fish/hour increased to the highest level since I have been keeping track. Also, the number of 10 pound-plus walleyes decreased. So what caused these changes? For a change, Fort Peck Reservoir gained water, so much so that there was water up in the sweet clover. This cause a lot of fish to move shallow and forage in the newly flood terrestrial and/or aquatic vegetation. My fishing style had to change from trolling to pitching jigs. This was very effective on the smaller fish (20" and less), however this is a slow way to fish compared to trolling so you don't contact as many bigger fish (5 pounds and bigger). This is the reason for the decrease in the number of 10 pound-plus walleye from the previous years. Hopefully, the Corps doesn't drop the reservoir so low over the winter that we don't get a good northern pike spawn in the spring. The flooded vegetation will help several forage and predator species. GOOD LUCK IN YOUR FISHING !!! August 27, 2008 This past weekend I got invited to go fishing over west on Flathead lake. We fished a day and a half for lake whitefish and lake trout. Three of us caught 21 whitefish and 5 lake trout, one of the lakers was 34", 20 pound which had to be turned loose because of a slot limit. We used jigging spoons in 25 to 75 feet of water, I must admit this was new to me. The lake whitefish bite very light and fight as hard as a smallmouth bass, they were allot of fun. The lakers were jigged up in about 75 feet of water and were a bit of a challenge. GOOD LUCK IN YOUR FISHING !!! Contact us for more info at: Bernie Hildebrand 619 N Sewell Ave. Miles City, MT 59301 Phone: (406) 234-6342 E-mail: Bernie@MidRivers.com Copyright, 2003, Bernie Hildebrand