Posts from — May 2008

After opening 57 “Ted’s Montana Grills” in 19 states, media mogul Ted Turner will finally grace Montana with one. The historic Baxter Hotel in Bozeman will house the latest addition to the chain.

Featuring of course, Ted’s favorite pet, Buffalo- Bison to be proper. On the menu that is, no wild west shows at Ted’s. If you are in the area fishing this summer and get the urge for some serious protein it might be worth a visit.

Lester from Lakestream reports that the dam operators on the Missouri River started opening the spigot this weekend. High flows are expected to last several days while the river gets a good flush. For a report on the fishing give him a call, 406-862-1298.

Two weeks ago the Bureau of Rec decided it needed to cut flows in the Bighorn River to 1500 cfs, a knee jerk reaction I suspect to water skiers not being able to access the Horseshoe Bend launch on Bighorn Lake for the holiday weekend.

Today the Bureau woke up to the fact that they are still sitting on a 135% snow pack that is getting ready to roll out of the mountains, probably within the next month. So now we have another knee jerk reaction, the river is now cranking at 4500 cps. One can only hope this years fry found someplace to hide the last two weeks while the water politics ran its course. Somewhere along the way there will be enough water for everybody at least for awhile.

It is still snowing in places. The northern Rocky Mountain Front, as in Blackfeet Reservation got its normal late spring dump this weekend. Snow levels were around 5500 ft over the weekend in the west and it was definitely precipitating. While the weather has been a little more like “back in the old days” this year, when the sun comes out it gets hot and dry quick.

MONTANA SNOTEL Snow Water Equivalent Update Graph

As of TUESDAY: MAY 27 , 2008

Basin	Snow Water Equivalent Percent of Average
KOOTENAI RIVER BASIN	136%
FLATHEAD RIVER BASIN	132%
UPPER CLARK FORK RIVER BASIN	109%
BITTERROOT RIVER BASIN	150%
LOWER CLARK FORK RIVER BASIN	167%
JEFFERSON RIVER BASIN	119%
MADISON RIVER BASIN	145%
GALLATIN RIVER BASIN	154%
MISSOURI HEADWATERS	138%
HEADWATERS MISSOURI MAINSTEM	139%
SMITH, JUDITH, AND MUSSELSHELL RIVER BASINS	169%
SUN, TETON AND MARIAS RIVER BASINS	178%
MISSOURI MAINSTEM RIVER BASIN	164%
ST MARY AND MILK RIVER BASINS	118%
UPPER YELLOWSTONE RIVER BASIN	138%
WIND RIVER BASIN (WYOMING)	132%
SHOSHONE RIVER BASIN (WYOMING)	123%
BIGHORN RIVER BASIN (WYOMING)	138%
TONGUE RIVER BASIN (WYOMING)	209%
POWDER RIVER BASIN (WYOMING)	244%
LOWER YELLOWSTONE RIVER BASIN	148%

Legend:

<70%

70-90%

91-110%

111-130%

>130%

* = Data are not available or data may not provide a valid measure
of conditions for over half of the sites within the basin.