Fall may be closing the book on Fort Peck’s trolling-and-downrigger Chinook season, but FWP is just cracking open the fun part…on Oct. 1 the reservoir’s lower, dam-end bays turn into a snagging and archery fun zone, since those salmon obligingly pile up near the very boat ramps where they were first stocked back in 1983…a convenient little homecoming for shore anglers, bow-fishers, and anyone who enjoys a crowded dock with a side of etiquette lecture.
The archery crowd gets through Oct. 15, snaggers through Nov. 30, and while you’re at it, FWP asks that you play nice with your neighbors, skip the dock-side fish-gutting (apparently scavengers RSVP), and please don’t trip over the electrofishing crews who are out there wrangling adult Chinook for this year’s egg take.
That collection, aimed at filling the Fort Peck Multispecies Fish Hatchery, started the last week of September and rolls through much of October, chasing that magic 55-degree water window around mid-October that biologist Heath Headly says brings peak spawn and the best eggs — and it’s all necessary because these fish can’t spawn naturally in the reservoir, so every spring’s crop, including the 220,000 released back in spring 2026 from the fall 2025 take, is hatchery-made, with this fall’s offspring penciled in for a 2027 homecoming. All of it straight from FWP.
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