Fisheries Habitat and Fish Populations 



3PAWNING Site Counts 



We completed rainbow trout spawning site 

 inventories on Freeland and Fish Geek drain- 

 ages. (See Table D-2.) The number of spawn- 

 ers using these two streams during spring of 

 1989 appeared similar to observations made 

 during past years. 



We completed westslope cutthroat trout 

 spawning site inventories on all proposed 

 streams. (See Table EX-3.) In the South Fork 

 drainage, redd numbers in Hungry Horse Res- 

 ervoir tributaries were up during 1989. Our 

 index stream in the Middle Fork drainage con- 

 tained fewer redds in 1989 than observed dur- 

 ing 1982 surveys when we documented 24 

 redds. Since we had made no previous counts in 



Cyclone Creek in the North Fork drainage, 

 comparisons with existing data are not possible. 

 We conducted bull trout spawning site in- 

 ventories in established monitoring areas basin- 

 wide. (See Table D-4.) We identified 244 and 

 158 bull trout redds in North and Middle Fork 

 Rathead tributaries, respectively. They were 

 approximately nine percent above the ten-year 

 average figure. (See Figure D-5.) We counted 

 37 1 redds in the Swan River tributary monitor- 

 ing areas during 1989. This was approximately 

 57 percent above the seven-year average. (See 

 Figure E)-6.) Our numbers do not represent the 

 total annual spawning run. We estimate our 

 annual counts represent about 35 percent of the 

 annual Flathead Lake spawning escapement 

 and about 75 percent of the Swan Lake run. 



Table D-3: Summary of westslope cutthroat trout 

 spawning site inventories from 1986-1987 



Redd 

 Numbers 



Flathead Basin Cooperative Program Final Report 



Page 61 



