[bulletbob]

Yeah happy for the angler, its a great fish, but between those things as well as the Muskies, Smallmouth Bass, and especially Walleyes have been decimated in parts of the river... Every fall and winter we got an influx of Walleyes from the more southerly sections of the river, and now they are gone.. I used to catch a dozen on a good dusk or dawn session, and there were 10 inch "spikes" by the millions.. All gone.. I no longer catch any Walleyes in the River, after decades of catching hundreds a year,,, No one even fishes for them any longer ... SMB have been less affected since they don't migrate as much as Walleyes do, but they too have seen a nasty downturn in numbers.. Fish the size of a Flathead don't eat little rock dwelling minnows, They eat stuff a foot or more long, and the river Walleyes and SMB are right on bottom in the same space as those big hungry voracious catfish.

I could be wrong, but as the Flathead and Musky populations in the river went up, everything else went down.
Haven't caught a sunny, perch or rock bass in the river in almost 10 years either... Just as with the bass and walleyes,they were always there, until one day they weren't.... bob