Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks Fort Peck fisheries and hatchery staff wrapped up the annual Chinook salmon egg-taking efforts on Fort Peck Reservoir this past week. An estimated 842,709 salmon eggs were collected, which filled all available egg incubation jars and space at the Fort Peck Multispecies Fish Hatchery.

The average size of Chinook salmon females collected was an impressive 18.9 pounds. In comparison, in 2023, females averaged 13.8 pounds. The large fish this year resulted in an average of 3.45 pounds of eggs per female, with some larger females producing over five pounds of eggs! These big healthy females produced an average of 4,708 eggs per female, which is the highest number ever recorded by the Fort Peck staff.

Barring any major setbacks at the hatchery, the number of eggs collected in 2024 should be more than enough to ensure at least 200,000 fingerlings will be stocked back into Fort Peck Reservoir in the spring of 2025, which is the minimum stocking called for in the Fort Peck Fisheries Management Plan. This number can increase depending on egg and fingerling survival.

Many folks wonder why the hatchery can’t take in or produce more salmon. Mainly, water quality and quantity issues at the Fort Peck Hatchery limit the number of salmon that can be produced on any given year. FWP is working to alleviate the water shortage and sediment issues by working with the US Army Corps of Engineers on a new water delivery system. This new line would deliver cold, clean water from the Fort Peck dam penstocks and provide more water for hatchery use, allowing the hatchery to possibly utilize more space and raise more and larger fish. This project will also reduce the sediment load entering the hatchery (water is currently pumped from the Dredge Cut Ponds), that is detrimental to fish egg and fish fry survivability.

Last year, a total of 809,530 Chinook eggs were collected and 379,552 Chinook were stocked back into Fort Peck Reservoir in the spring of 2024. Hatching success was excellent last year due to healthy fish (having a good number of cisco to eat) and ideal water temperatures during collection efforts. Many anglers assume that the more salmon that are stocked, the greater number will be available to anglers in future years. Although this is important, large numbers of cisco (primary forage fish) that hatch in the spring during salmon stocking appears to be one of the main drivers to salmon survival and success over the years.

As salmon grow larger, multiple year classes of cisco are vital to growth as well. The majority of the females this year were 4-years old that had experienced remarkable growth rates thanks to the high abundance of cisco currently in Fort Peck Reservoir. Two-year-old salmon were also well represented in the spawn, which is an encouraging sign for 2025.