Blackfoot Res ?

[Straw-Crazy]

I need some info on Blackfoot Res ! ( type of fish,tips,techniques, best area) I will be camping around Lava Hot Springs in two weeks and I like to take my boat up fishing some where. Can someone please give some info ? Thanks ![cool]
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[BrianID]

Blackfoot Reservoir was hit hard by the drought. If you want to catch trout out of your boat I would recomend going somewhere else. Chesterfield isn't far from Lava (15-20 minutes). It would be a good place to get out in your boat. Chesterfield has rainbow trout.

Blackfoot Reservoir has cutthroats and rainbow trout. Perch were illegally stocked in there a few years ago. Blackfoot Reservoir is well known for large carp.
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[Straw-Crazy]

Thanks for the heads up on Blackfoot. I think I will try chesterfield. Thanks alot.
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[hpb]

Brian: I had the same view of Blackfoot as you did until yesterday.
This was probably not something that will happen everytime out but off the dike area I know someone who picked up a 24" football of a cutt on a fly rod. Some survived, of course nothing like it was a few years ago.
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[BrianID]

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[black]Don't get me wrong there are some nice fish in there. I know of a few other big fish that have been caught in Blackfoot the last few years. By far most of the anglers fishing Blackfoot are getting skunked. There just aren't very many trout in Blackfoot Reservoir currently. The F&G haven't been planting it as much the last few years and there have been few cutthroats in the weir were the river dumps into the reservoir. The drought and pelicans are both reasons for lower cutthroat numbers in Blackfoot Reservoir. I heard the F&G was able to get a permit to "remove"[] some of the pelicans that were feeding on the spawning cutts this year. [] [/black]
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[black]The rainbows I've caught/seen from Blackfoot Reservoir are also very thick fish.[/black]
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[black]For those that would like more info about Blackfoot Reservoir I copied & pasted more below. The F&G have done some interesting research on Blackfoot Reservoir cutthroats. You should be able to find more details on the F&G website.[/black]
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[black]This is what the F&G had to say about Blackfoot last June.[/black]
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[black]"All other trout-fishing reservoirs except Blackfoot Reservoir have been stocked and should provide good fishing this summer. Blackfoot Reservoir had been drained so low for the past two years (down to 4% of volume) that stocked fish have not survived in sufficient numbers to justify stocking. Because the Blackfoot Reservoir basin is large relative to the area of the watershed, a few months of above normal precipitation does not re-fill Blackfoot Reservoir. It is unlikely that the reservoir will fill to more than 1/3 full this year."[/black]
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[black]From F&G Fall 2005 [/black]
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[black]"[font "Verdana"][size 2]Blackfoot Reservoir, famous for its large native cutthroat trout and hatchery rainbows has suffered during the drought. In multi-year droughts, the volume progressively decreases. From 1999 to 2004, annual maximum volume decreased from 98% full to only 17% full (from 342,500 to 58,400 acre-feet, respectively). The abundant precipitation in the spring of 2005 allowed Blackfoot Reservoir to fill to 37% full (130,000 acre-feet); not great, but better than in 2003 and 2004. The run of native cutthroat up the Blackfoot River was at an all time low in 2005; about 20 spawners, compared to 4,747 spawners counted in 2001. Pelicans ate many of the spawners in 2003 and 2004 as the trout migrated from the reservoir into the upper river. These birds took advantage of several miles of shallow, wide channel with no undercut banks or protective riparian vegetation that emerged when the reservoir progressively declined 20 vertical feet. During the 2005 cutthroat trout migration the Fish and Game Department made it difficult for pelicans to feed on migrating cutthroat trout by cris-crossing the lower river with lines suspended above the water. Unfortunately, water quality in Blackfoot Reservoir is marginal for cutthroat trout survival when the reservoir is low so there were few cutthroat spawners available to benefit from the bird-lines. When the reservoir fills to capacity again pelican predation will be much less of a mortality factor on cutthroat trout spawners."[/size][/font][/black]
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[JoyRide]

Thanks Brian. Good info on Blackfoot. I guess I won't stop in there unless I happen to take the scenic route to points North and West of me.
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