Big Hole River 630 cfs—Maidenrock Fishing is generally good with lots of mayfly hatches mid morning. Hoppers are just now starting to show up. No spruce moths or tricos yet.
Now for the unbelievable part. I have waited a few days to write about it just to cool down. Missoula based federal judge Malloy has ruled to put the wolves back on the endangered species list. Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks are appealing to the 9th circus court of appeals—good luck there. At the present time there are way too many wolves in Montana and they had a good plan in place to control them. That is all by the wayside now. I have a friend who works on the trail maintenance crew for the forest service and he told me every place they went in the Pioneer Mountains they saw wolf tracks. Some places there were many tracks indicating a large pack. The once grand elk herd which wintered on the east slopes of Fleecer Mtn. just north of Divide is no more. In the upper Big Hole Valley where there was an abundance of moose, they are no more. In all the drainages I have fished up there and in the past always saw moose, they are almost completely gone. A calf moose is easy prey for a wolf. The only moose I have seen in the past couple years is way down river in the Melrose, Browns Bridge area.
Also the bunny huggers say the wolf that was indigenous to this country was simply returned. That’s all a crock of crap. The wolf that was in this country was a red wolf which weighed about 60 pounds. The wolves they introduced here is the Canadian timber wolf which weighs from 120 up to 150 pounds.
There are over 1700 wolves in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming. If left unchecked this number will double in just a couple years. What will happen then? Will Judge Malloy put the moose on the endangered list when they are almost extinct? In the past couple years the wolves have decimated the elk herds. There are those who say things will balance out. They also believe in the easter bunny. Why are there more grizzly attacks? Think about it, wolves are wiping out a lot of their food supply.
The Feds in their infinite stupidity have created a monster and have tipped the balance of nature in such a way that life for many here in the northern Rocky Mountains will never be the same. The individual states need to take action and the Feds need to let them do it.