Montana Hunting News
Written by Montana Hunter
Wednesday, 30 November 2011 09:01
Biologists have completed index counts of bull trout redds (nests) in nine standard stream index sections for the Kootenai River drainage populations for the16th consecutive year. Bull trout spawn in the fall, building nests in tributaries during September and October. These counts serve as an index of how many migratory adult bull trout successfully spawn. Crews also helped British Columbia biologists to survey index streams for the Koocanusa population in the Wigwam drainage. The same stream sections are surveyed annually and represent a known portion of the total bull trout spawning runs in each of the drainages. The 2011 count of 148 redds for non-Koocanusa index streams was less than in 2010 (187) and 78 percent of the 10 year average.
