HAVRE, Mont. (NMB) – Nate Molstad, President of the Fresno Chapter of Walleyes Unlimited, spoke with New Media Broadcasters to provide an update on the non-profit and the Fresno fishery.
“Well it’s been quiet for us, as it typically is this time of year. We did meet here not too long ago, first meeting we’ve had in a while, to really discuss what kind of projects we might want to start to tackle next spring. We’re still sitting in good financial health, I guess. But certainly starting to think about projects, fundraisers, that kind of stuff. Still obviously a lot of uncertainty about what next year is going to look like, what are events gonna look like. But at least wanted to start some conversations and start making some plans for 2021.”
Right now, they are working on preparations for their 30 guns in 30 days raffle, but other plans are up in the air.
“There’s so much uncertainty. We really just don’t know. We didn’t get to put on our banquet last year, we’re not certain what’s going to play out in the spring of 2021, so we’re trying to find areas where we can do something, events we can possibly put on or projects we could possibly do. Always looking for feedback from the community on what they’d like to see. But at this point, a lot of uncertainty. We’ll get into the spring and see what events we’re able to put on and what we’re able to do to give back to the community.”
As for the status of the fishery at Fresno Reservoir, Molstad says he’s cautiously encouraged after reviewing the results of Fish, Wildlife and Parks annual netting survey.
“Obviously the report showed good numbers, which we all wanted to see. I say cautious though because obviously we had a very difficult reservoir situation. We had a river system that essentially dried up and you had a reservoir that hit significantly low levels. So they did that survey during low water periods, confined fish. So part of me believes that because of that we might have seen inflated numbers. It’s just hard to see a full picture right now, certainly not an apples-to-apples comparison with other years. So we also have a long ways to go. This was done in September. We have a long ways to spring and runoff, and none of us knows what that moisture is going to look like. Taking a wait and see approach on my end. The report was encouraging but kind of cautious at this point. The next steps from the management plan they talked about will be important going forward.”
And when it comes to that Fishery Management Plan, there are several things Molstad would like to see.
“What we’re hoping for is to certainly get a piece of the pie. There’s a lot of fish that are raised in all of the hatcheries across the state. Fresno is one of the top fisheries in the state and we went almost 10 years without any sort of walleye stocking in Fresno. Certainly we don’t want to go through that again. I hope we can get in their plans and start become a part of their annual stocking plans in the future. Certainly we’d like a voice at that table, but that’s going to be up to FWP when they put that advisory board together. I think it’s certainly a step in the right direction, anyway.”
