Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks biologist Caleb Verling measures a suckerfish during the agency's annual study of fish populations in the area lakes.
Ladd Knotek untangles a fish from a net. Biologists releases as many fish as possible after they are measured and recorded.
It may seem like there's something fishy going on in the region's lakes, something involving net fences and two scientists in a boat, but the goings on are only fishy in the literal sense of the word.
While Fish, Wildlife and Parks biologists Ladd Knotek and Caleb Verling were preparing their boat to check nets in Lake Alva for fish on the morning of Wednesday, May 30, a man camping nearby came up to inquire about what the nets were doing in the lake.
"We get that a lot," Knotek said. "People really what to know what we're doing out here."
The study of the lake's fish is conducted in each lake on a rotating basis. The last study conducted in Alva was in 2015, and Knotek said only one percent of the fish in the lake are caught and many are released alive after they are measured and recorded.
"It's a balance between getting a good sample and not killing all the fish," Knotek said. "But this gives us the ability to project about how many fish of each type are in the lake."
The species caught included westslope cutthroat trout, kokanee, bull trout, mountain whitefish, largescale sucker, longnose sucker, northern pikeminnow, yellow perch and pumpkinseed sunfish.
Because the sizes and where the nets are placed remain standard over the years, the data can be compared to that of the previous study. This is used to determine which species of fish are present as well as if there have been any new illegal introductions of non-native species. So far, there have been no northern pike or other illegal introductions found in Lake Alva.
The populations of most fish in the lake remained stable this year with a slight drop in kokanee and cutthroat trout. Those species are stocked by the Fish, Wildlife and Parks department and Knotek said it was likely that the slight drop in population caused the average sizes of the fish to go up. The kokanee, which are approximately two inches long when stocked, were between eight and nine inches. The cutthroat trout, which are four-five inches when stocked, were caught at sizes of 10-15 inches.
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