Dry summer means smaller and fewer fish at the American Falls Reservoir
Chris Nestman
With water levels dropping as low as 3% capacity, fishing conditions at the American Falls reservoir have dropped significantly this past year.
“The American Falls Reservoir was built for flood control and to serve irrigation needs,” said Patrick Kennedy, the regional fisheries manager at the Idaho Fish and Game. “Demand was high this year, and and so they they drew the reservoir down to meet that demand.”
When water levels drop that low, water temperatures tend to warm, oxygen levels deplete, and “Fish survival rates decrease,” said Kennedy.
When this happens fish tend to leave the region for survival. Some go upstream, but many go downstream where they run into a similar problem. Plus, once winter does hit, flows out of the American Falls reservoir are reduced to help slowly fill up the lake. That further decreases water quality for the fish that did make the trip downstream.
Fish and Game did pull off a major restocking this fall as the reservoir slowly fills up to combat this loss of fish.
“We have already stocked back 42,000 catchable sized trout. Those are 8 to 12 inches in size,” said Kennedy. “and we stocked 250,000 fingerlings; rainbow trout and fingerling sizes are 3 to 4 inches in size”
The restock is welcome, but it does mean that a reservoir known for some large “trophy catches” won’t have fish of that size for next year’s season. Something that’s a bummer for local anglers.
“Normally, with the habitat and water source and quality that they have, it tends to grow very large fish very rapidly,” said AJ an experienced fisherman with Fish Fly Food Jimmy’s in Idaho Falls.
AJ and his coworkers regularly help visiting anglers know where to go to find the best fishing. He says while the American Falls Reservoir recovers, there are other good spots for fishermen to go if they’re looking for that mountable “trophy catch.”
“I would say Chesterfield, Henry’s Lake, South Fork of the Snake River are good spots,” said AJ. “Kind of variable with species, but there are lots of trophies to be caught in waters nearby.”
Back at the American Falls Reservoir, Patrick Kennedy with the Idaho Fish and Game says the system will recover, and people will be catching large fish in the lake in no time.
“The dam was built for irrigation purposes and flood control. and and we made a fishery out of it by stocking fish years ago,” said Kennedy. “And we can do it again. It will recover.”