How and When Did the Chinook or “King” Salmon Get into Fort Peck Reservoir? How many get stocked in there? How Big do They Get? Just How Good of a Salmon Season Will it be?

Send us a text

Those and many more questions about the hardest fighting fish in Montana get answered in this week’s Montana Outdoor Podcast! Be sure and listen to Downrigger Dale and the Captain ask Fisheries Biologist, Heath Headley and Fish Hatchery Manager, Wade Geraets, all kinds of questions! There is a TON of information that is revealed about these mysterious monsters of the deep in Fort Peck Reservoir. If you have been looking through MontanaOutdoor.com recently no doubt you have been seeing some great pictures of Kings that have been caught recently on Fort Peck. So, is that just the beginning of a great year for King Salmon there? How many of these big fish might be swimming around down there? Here is a hint; 249,000 King Salmon were stocked in Fort Peck this year! Here is how that breaks down as far as where in the reservoir they were stocked, 61,000 at Duck Creek, 97,000 at Fort Peck Marina and 91,000 at the Flat Lake/Spillway Boat Ramp. How the heck does the small staff of 4 at the Fort Peck Hatchery get hundreds of thousands of salmon eggs to the hatchery and later take ALL THOSE that are now fish back to the Reservoir? Like we mentioned above there so many fascinating questions that you will get the answers to while listening to this podcast, and it is very likely all that knowledge you gained from listening to the podcast will result in you becoming a much more successful salmon fisherman!

If you would like to learn more about the Fort Peck Hatchery and even learn how you can take a tour of the facility just click here! If you would like to ask Fisheries Biologist Heath Headley a question, click here to send him an email. If you would like to ask Fish Hatchery Manager Wade Geraets a question, click here to send an email to him.

Remember to tune in to The Montana Outdoor Radio Show, live every Saturday from 6:00AM to 8:00AM MT. The show airs on 30 radio stations across the State of Montana. You can get a list of our affiliated radio stations on our website. You can also listen to recordings of past shows, get fishing and and hunting information and much more at that website or on our Facebook page. You can also watch our radio show there as well.