Jul. 6—When Kenneth Breidinger learned that Western Montana had opened the door to more spearfishing opportunities, his first thought was, “This is something I’m going to try too.”
Despite working as a state fisheries biologist for more than a decade, he had never gone spearfishing. The practice had long been outlawed in Western Montana — except for spearfishing northern pike through ice — but officials recently changed the regulations to allow spearfishing while “swimming or submerged in waters open to fishing.”
The rule change left Breidinger and many of his colleagues in uncharted waters.
“I’ve never really worked in a place where submerged spearfishing is legal,” said Breidinger.
When the new regulations went into effect earlier this year, he set out to gather as much firsthand experience and secondhand knowledge as he could. For the former, he purchased a speargun and dusted off his diving suit. To achieve the latter, he developed an online survey, aimed at gleaning key information from as many spearfishermen as possible.
The survey, which is now live on the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks website, includes questions about the location and duration of angling trips, the type of spearfishing equipment used, and the number of fish observed and harvested while diving. Breidinger said he wrote the questions with the goal of better understanding how anglers are using the less restrictive spearfishing regulations.
“We really don’t know what participation [in submerged spearfishing] is going to look like,” he explained. “We just want to have a better understanding of how this will affect our fisheries.”
In Western Montana, the only fish that can be legally harvested through spearfishing is northern pike. The nonnative sport fish spread voraciously after being illegally introduced into Northwest Montana in the 1950s. As of 2018, northern pike were present in more than 80 different water bodies in the region.
“That has definitely come at a cost to other fish,” said Breidinger.
Topping out at about 30 pounds, with a notoriously aggressive nature, northern pike both feed on and compete with native fish species. In some areas, they’ve been known to obliterate local fish populations in as little as a few years.
Pat Tabor, the former Montana Fish and Wildlife Commissioner for Region 1, pointed to these concerns in his proposal to expand the region’s legal spearfishing opportunities.
“Northern pike throughout the Western District is considered invasive and is often managed in fashion to protect endemic fish… This amendment will enhance sportsmen opportunity and increase efforts to control an otherwise known predator fish,” wrote Tabor in his proposal for the amendment.
Public feedback on the amendment was divisive. The commission received more than 60 written comments regarding the proposal, about one third of which opposed loosening restrictions on spearfishing in Western Montana.
“You are ruining trophy pike waters with opening these lakes to spearing,” reads one comment submitted by Jacob Link. “In addition, people spearing are going to spear other game fish, whether the regs say it or not.”
Supporters argued that spearfishing remains a relatively niche hobby, with few participants.
“Because there are so few of us, and given the difficulty of the sport, there is no way we put [a] statistical dent in any of the fish populations we target,” wrote Brady Ewing, a spearfishing hobbyist from Phillipsburg.
The current Statewide Fisheries Management Plan includes directives for the wildlife department to implement “provide liberal harvest opportunities” for northern pike in much of the Kootenai and Swan river drainages. Suggestions for the Flathead River Drainage likewise called for reductions to the number of northern pike and other nonnative fish species.
The governor-appointed Fish and Wildlife Commission voted unanimously to pass the amendment in November 2024.
Breidinger is well-aware of the public discord that surrounded the recent regulation change. He hopes the survey will help state fisheries managers and biologists cut through some of the mythos surrounding spearfishing and assess the true impacts that the practice has on the region’s waterways.
Breidinger hopes to continue gathering survey data through the end of next year’s fishing season. He said wildlife officials also plan to continue long-term projects that assess changes to the state’s fisheries over time.
When the spearfishing season opened earlier this year, Breidinger said he was “one of the first participants.” Having already received certifications in free diving and snorkeling, he was well-prepared to dive into the hobby right away.
“Personally, I just like being in the water and observing fish,” he said. “It’s a lot like hunting in the water.”
To date, Breidinger has speared two northern pike while diving. Both times, after returning to shore, Breidinger used his cellphone to pull up the survey and log his catch.
State officials are requesting anglers submit a survey after each spearfishing trip. To access the survey, visit fwp.gov.mt/fish.
Reporter Hailey Smalley may be reached at 758-4433 or hsmalley@dailyinterlake.com.