Department of Ecology

This summer, Max split his time between two studies focused on understanding how angling affects trout populations in southwest Montana. On the Big Hole, Beaverhead, Ruby, and Madison rivers, Max is running a large-scale tagging study of more than 35,000 Rainbow and Brown Trout. These fish are marked with passive integrated transponder tags and external reward tags, which allow Max to estimate exploitation when anglers report catching them. He’s also using radio telemetry on a subset of those fish to better determine when mortality is occurring. Max also collaborated with the Turner Institute of Ecoagriculture on a controlled angling study at the Flying D Ranch earlier this summer. The privately owned ranch provided the controlled setting necessary to census angling pressure and know exactly how many times each fish was caught. Using these data Max will answer questions about thecumulative effectsof catch-and-release mortality on trout.