July 2016 • A special publication by the Havre Daily News
Top FIVE Outdoor Activities Pam Burke ~ Havre Daily News
#1 Community Celebrations From fairs to powwows to fall festivals, every community has a celebration that brings friends and neighbors together with visitors and excitement. Here’s a list of local events: • Blaine County Fair, July 13-17, Chinook — Some highlights: carnival, exhibits, 4-H competitions and livestock sale, kids rodeo, concert and demolition derby. • Bear Paw Roundup, 14-15, Chinook — Some highlights: PRCA sanctioned rodeo, during the county fair, starts 7 p.m. each night and slack runs 9 a.m. Friday. • Great Northern Fair, July 20-24, Havre — Some highlights: rodeo, junior rodeo, demolition derby, carnival, concert, and 4-H competitions and livestock sale. • Milk River Indian Days, July 29-31, Agency area of Fort Belknap Indian Reservation — Some highlights: powwow, youth powwow, specials dances, boxing competition and golf tournament. • Phillips County Fair, Aug. 4-7, Dodson — Some highlights: concert with Sawyer Brown, open rodeo, exhibits, truck and tractor pull, AMX races and 4-H competitions and livestock sale. • Rocky Boy Powwow, Aug. 5-6, Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation — Some highlights:
powwow, youth powwow, rodeo specials, singing contest and hand games. • Hays Powwow, Aug. 4-6, Hays on Fort Belknap Indian Reservation — Some highlights: powwow, youth powwow, vendors, specials and more. • Chouteau County Fair, Aug. 19-21, Fort Benton — Some highlights: barbecue competition, 4-H competitions and livestock sale, monster truck show and demolition derby. • Festival Days, Sept. 16-18, Havre — A communitywide event with a parade, 48-hour softball tournament, quilt show, pancake breakfast, craft market, farmers market, book sale, fun walk/run, demo derby and more. • Sugarbeet Festival, Sept. 23-24, Chinook — Somehighlights: outdoor pancake breakfast, live music, car show, outdoor movie, parade, sugar beet growing contest, arts and crafts, food booths, car show and more.
#2 Fishing Along with the Milk River, which runs along the Hi-Line from the U.S.-Canadian border south of Onefour, Alberta, east to the Missouri River just past Glasgow, Montana, the area offers a wealth of fishing opportunities in a myriad of reservoirs and creeks. The area has seen average to
Reservoir Fishing Locations This list describes most area reservoirs with 5 to 350 acre feet of water, recommended by Fish, Wildlife and Parks fish biologist Cody Nagel abd within a few minutes’ to a few hours’ drive of Havre. Most of the reservoirs are stocked, each body of water has public access and some have minor amenities. Not all of these waters are listed on the fwp.mt.gov website, so interested fishers may need to contact local fishing license agents or the Havre FWP office at 406-265-6177 between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. weekdays for help locating waters. • Bailey Reservoir, 8 miles south of Kremlin — northern pike, crappie, walleye and perch. • Reser, Dry Fork, Anita, North Faber and Salmo reservoirs, west of above-average moisture conditions this year to help keep the waters healthy. The trout waters and walleye fisheries are stocked every year o r t wo , s a i d C o d y N a g e l , Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks fish biologist for the Havre area. Fortunately, significant rainfall across the area in early July helped boost water levels. The FWP website has much of the information about local ponds, reservoirs, lakes and rivers, including access and boating information, restrictions and
Havre and north of U.S. Highway 2 — large mouth bass, blue gill, black crappie, rainbow trout • Fresno Reservoir, and the dam tail waters, 13 miles west of Havre off U.S. Highway 2 — black crappie, lake whitefish, northern pike, rainbow trout, walleye and yellow perch. • Beaver Creek Reservoir, Bear Paw Lake and Normandy Coulee Pond, all connected by Beaver Creek in Beaver Creek Park, 10-plus miles south of Havre off Montana Secondary Highway 232 — rainbow and brook trout, as well as walleye, northern pike, smallmouth bass and yellow perch. • Faber, Grasshopper and Kuhr reservoirs, south of Chinook — rainbow trout. amenities, maps, and stocking updates. Go online to http://fwp. mt.gov, scroll over the “Fishing” link near the top of the page and from the drop-down box choose either “Montana Fishing Guide” or “Visit Fishing Access Site.” Each of the pages provides different search options and a little bit different information and maps, so it might be worthwhile to look at both pages. For anyone planning to go fishing at Fresno Reservoir, about 13 miles west of Havre, the Fresno Chapter of Walleyes unlimited has online access to
• Cow Creek Reservoir, 45 miles south of Chinook off Lloyd Road, unique for the area — walleye, perch, black crappie, tiger muskies and channel catfish. • Sentinel, Taint and Lark reservoirs, south of Malta — rainbow trout. • Nelson Reservoir, west of Malta — black crappie, burbot, channel catfish, lake whitefish, smallmouth bass, walleye and yellow perch. There is also a developed fishing access site on Marias River at Loma Bridge, about 60 miles south of Havre along U.S. Highway 87, with burbot, channel catfish, goldeye, brown trout, bigmouth buffalo, mountain whitefish, rainbow trout, sauger, shovelnose sturgeon and walleye. their live streaming video of the lake and their weather station providing up to the minute reports on weather conditions at http://www.fresnowalleyes.com/ fresnocam.html. See box above for a list of most area reservoirs.
#3 Farmers Market
Saturday Market in Havre’s
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