JOHN WARNER
FWP AT WORK
SHIPMATE
CALEB BOLLMAN
One of the most rewarding things about my job is the variety of work I get to do from a boat. In March, with the help of volunteers from Walleyes Unlimited, my FWP colleagues and I use our 18-foot jet boat to transport and sink Christmas trees for fish habitat in Spotted Eagle Lake. In the spring, the boat transports us up and down the lower Yellowstone River as we electrofish sauger and blue suckers, and net paddlefish, pallid sturgeon, and shovelnose sturgeon, to help a fellow biologist with his native species telemetry study. It becomes a mobile operating room as we surgically fit fish with radio transmitters as part of the study. Then, with a long-poled antenna added to the bow, the boat becomes a tracking device to follow the fish up and down the river so we can document their movements throughout the year. We use the boat to take Miles City government employees on
the Yellowstone to inspect the levee for weak spots requiring maintenance, and to transport local conservation district members inspecting permitted bank stabilization projects. Each June we head out in the boat to collect shovelnose sturgeon brood stock from the Tongue River that produce young reared at the Garrison National Fish Hatchery in North Dakota for restoration stocking in Wyoming’s Bighorn River drainage. In August we use the boat to monitor the Tongue River Reservoir crappie and walleye fisheries using electrofishing and gill nets, and then in the fall we head back out to the Yellowstone River to sample both sport and nongame fish to get a picture of the whole fishery. A dedicated crew, routine boat maintenance, and rigorous attention to “Clean, Drain, Dry” protocols keep this boat on the water, helping FWP benefit anglers, our community, and fisheries science.
MONTANA OUTDOORS
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