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FISH POPULATIONS 



Information from the Aquatic Environment Study (DNRC 1979) on fish 

 populations in the Kootenai River project area and downstream areas (Throop's 

 Lake section) need not be repeated here. In essence, the data indicate that the 

 section of river just above the falls is the most productive and heavily-used 

 trout fishery on the river between Libby Dam and Troy. Trout were much less 

 abundant in the Throop's Lakes section than in the Kootenai Falls section. 

 Whitefish were abundant in both areas but most abundant above the falls. The 

 Throop's Lake section would be within the area to be inundated by the O'Brien 

 Creek site, but for this report the conditions there were considered to 

 represent the river below the falls as a whole. The validity of this assumption 

 is reinforced by the results of fish-shocking done by the Idaho Department of 

 Fish and Game in April of 1980. The Idaho team shocked the Kootenai River 

 upstream of Bonner's Ferry near Hemlock Bar and obtained results similar to 

 those found in the Throop's Lake section (see Table 2). 



A limited amount of gill-netting just below the falls indicates that trout 

 are more abundant immediately below the falls than indicated by downstream 

 electrof ishing (see Appendix B) . The consensus of local biologists, wardens, 

 and fishermen (see Appendix A and C) is that although the trout fishery from the 

 falls to Idaho is not as good as above the falls, it is still good enough to be 

 quite valuable. The confluence of the Yaak and Kootenai rivers was singled out 

 as being particularly good for trout fishing. 



White sturgeon, a Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife, and and Parks (DFWP) 

 Class A species of special concern, are found in the Kootenai River between the 

 falls and Idaho (see Appendix D and DNRC ' s Aquatic Environment Study). This is 

 the only place in Montana where they are known to occur. There have been no 



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