County students treated to day of fishing by Malta Walleyes, FWP

As the old saying goes, the worst day fishing beats the best day at work. The students ice fishing at Nelson Reservoir last Tuesday had no complaints about missing school and even if the fishing wasn’t great, the day was.

“I’m having a good time,” Adam McClellan admitted. McClellan, a fifth grade student at Saco School, was sitting in a spear house during his interview and admitted that if he wasn’t out fishing, he’d be in band learning to play the clarinet.

“I’d rather be fishing,” he said.

Malta Walleyes Unlimited member Don Voegel reckoned that 2016 marked at least the tenth time the organization has teamed with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks to bring Phillips County students out fishing and fellow Walleye Pete Dalby said he was sure the weather on Tuesday was drastically better than it was last year.

“It was pretty cold last year,” Dalby said. “With the wind-chill, I bet it is 50 or 60 degrees warmer than last year.”

All told, about 70 students made the fishing trip to Nelson last week coming from Whitewater, Saco, Malta, Dodson and East Malta Colony schools. Several members of Montana FWP were out onNelson Reservior on the day including Mark Kloker, the Information and Education Program Manager of Region Six, based in Glasgow. Last year at the event, Kloker said there was only one fish caught, a perch.

“We were talking and trying to figure out a new spot for next year that is a little more active,” Kloker said. “It’s been pretty slow the last few years.”

Two weeks ago, Kloker started assisting in the classroom at Malta Middle School, talking about the background on the Montana FWP Fishery, what jobs FWP biologists do with the hope that there would be enough perch caught on the day’s fishing trip to dissect them in a later class.

“Even if we don’t get them here we’ll find them somewhere,” he said, “but at the end of the month we will come in and dissect some perch.”

All told, the 70 or so students at Nelson on the day netted five fish, not record breaking, but a lot more than two trips ago.

“We had one Northern come in through the (spear house) and we hit it, but we didn’t get it,” said Voegel. “It was a nice fish though.”

Gavin Hofer, a fifth grade student and Austin Hofer, in the first grade, from East Malta Colony joined their classmates on the ice on Tuesday and were having a good time.

“It’s fun,” Gavin admitted. “You get to come out and fish and try to catch fish …and spearing is fun, but I never speared any. My friend, Paul, saw a fish and tried to spear it, but he didn’t get it.”

Austin said that he was out last year and was enjoying the weather way more on Tuesday. He said he wasn’t sure if he’d catch a fish, but admitted anything is possible.

“Maybe…or not,” he concluded.

The students baited their hooks with minnows provided by Arlen Rammell with at least two dozen buckets strategically placed around the students.

Dodson School’s Ireland Best, a seventh grade student, is an avid angler, but said that Tuesday was the first time she had ever ice fished.

“I don’t know if I have the patience for it,” she said. “I like to cast, so maybe I like regular fishing better.”

Best was not as optimistic as Austin Hofer as far as netting a fish during the four hours the students were on the ice, giving the likelihood of said catch a “zero percent” odds.

While the students fished, Dalby manned the barbeque, grilling hot dogs for everyone who, once the smelled the franks roasting, slipped and sloshed – some skidded – back to shore for lunch.