Yellowstone River is closed!

[Bunion 2020]

http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com...ae0afd47e.html

Not something you expect to hear, is it?

State officials announced Friday morning that a parasite-caused disease killed thousands of whitefish in the Yellowstone River.

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks said in a press release that the cause for the kill is proliferative kidney disease, which it said is “one of the most serious diseases to impact whitefish and trout.”

The disease is caused by a microscopic parasite. It has been documented in Montana two other times in the past 20 years. Recent research has shown the disease has the potential to cause 20 percent to 100 percent mortality in trout, FWP said.

[2FUNKY]

I've been watching this story for a few days now and talking to friends who are on the river almost every day. It's sad the number of MWF that have died and many more that will die. They are a vital fish to the river system. Hope this disease doesn't move on to trout, the impact could be massive.

[BCMtnHound]

Latest word on the decline of the gerrard fishery in Kootenay Lake is that the relatively recent influx of cormorants in the southern half of the lake near Creston have brought in a parasite that kills the trout. This after repeated statements that nutrient balances, kokanee predation, and the sport fisheries are to blame. Tough times for the fishies these days

[homebrewd]

Yeah we floated an 8 mile stretch yesterday south of Livingston. It's fucking disgusting how many dead white fish there are. Still saw plenty swimming around though, and they were active yesterday despite the high temps. Kind of a shocker they are seeing smallies as far upstream as Livingston now too.

[homebrewd]

We didn't see any dead trout, but only time will tell.

[2FUNKY]

Yeah we floated an 8 mile stretch yesterday south of Livingston. It's fucking disgusting how many dead white fish there are. Still saw plenty swimming around though, and they were active yesterday despite the high temps. Kind of a shocker they are seeing smallies as far upstream as Livingston now too.

I have been reading reports of the small mouth migrating up for quite some time now. As much as I hate them fuckers in rivers where they're not supposed to be, the disease will be far worse than they are on the trout.

[lifelinksplit]

And you thought the upper mad was packed with guideboys before this....

But seriously this really sucks. Was talking to FWP at pine creek a couple weeks ago when he was telling me his boss was about to put restrictions on the river below carter's. Things are going to get worse before they get better

[homebrewd]

What's the status on the yellowstone? I've seen an article here and there about reopening some stretches, but wondering if the fish kill slowed up after the first few weeks? I thought it was a bit odd that they had noted longnosed dace and sculpin kill off since the parasite they had initially sited as being the issue was specific to the salmonidae family.

[CallMeAl]

We floated Mill-Mallords the day before the river closed and saw hundreds of dead whities and a couple of dead rainbows. Since the river reopened in September, I haven't seen more than 1-2 dead fish per day- usually none at all. I did see a dead sucker by 89 last week- a big feller.

I'm no biologist, and I have no factual information for you, but my naive observations lead me to believe that the situation has improved for Señor Blanco.

Maybe because we finally got some moisture/cooler water temps that made it hard for the little jellyfucker to thrive? Maybe because the parasite's potential hosts are less vulnerable now because they aren't getting caught twice a day and being tossed back into bath water? Like I said- no facts here, just speculation.