Fish Rescue

The Great Fish Rescue
of 2010

It all started at a T.U. meeting back in 2009, when
Gary Brothers stated that a large number of
fish were being lost in the Republican Ditch, when the water was turned off and NO ONE was doing anything about it! Not knowing how to keep his mouth shut and hand down, Cliff Gibbons volunteered to be the savior of the trapped fish. He brought this project before the FFB board of directors and got their blessing.

Now what did he needs to do? He started by calling Chris Clancy and told him what he had gotten himself into. Chris, being the helpful soul, walked Cliff through the process. First order of business was to get a Wild Fish Transfer Permit from the Fish Health Coordinator in Great Falls. The first letter was written Jan. 4, 2010. After countless e-mails the project was approved on August 26, 2010.

Cliff discussed the project with Dr. Good who used to do this rescue on his own before he moved to Billings. Dr. Good used traps to rescue the fish, and he volunteered to come from Billings to help, and show us how to set the traps. As an aside Dr. Good has given the traps to our club so we can continue this project. We also had to coordinate with the Daily Ditch people, as to when and where to set the traps.

Some of the club members volunteered to do the rescue, and were on call to spring into action when the ditches were turned off. Cliff got a frantic call from Gary Brothers saying if we didn't get to the ditch, all the fish were going to DIE. He sprang into action rounding up 9 stalwart souls for a fish netting party. The photos tell the story of our intrepid fish saviors' in action. Between the netting party and the trapping brigade we managed to put 11 coolers of all types of fish back into the Bitterroot. The biggest two were browns 19 and 21 inches.