Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks has confirmed a non-native brown trout in Ashley Lake and is investigating an angler’s reported catch of a second in Church Slough, both waters upstream of SKQ Dam in the Flathead drainage. In a July 21 release, the agency renewed its standing directive for anglers to kill any brown trout caught anywhere in the drainage above the dam and report it to the FWP Region 1 office in Kalispell.
It’s the second summer in a row FWP has issued the kill-and-report ask on Flathead browns, and the third round of confirmed activity MidCurrent has covered on this thread since the first detection last July in the Flathead River near Evergreen.
Ashley Lake is the confirmed detection. An angler photographed one there in February 2026 and released it, and a second was later caught and turned over to state fisheries biologists. The Church Slough fish is an angler’s reported catch with photos, per FWP’s own language in the release. Both waterbodies feed the Flathead drainage upstream of SKQ Dam. Brown trout are established in the lower Flathead below the dam but historically absent above it, and the upper Flathead, a headwater basin of the Columbia River, holds some of the remaining strongholds of native westslope cutthroat trout and federally threatened bull trout. Anglers should note that browns in Ashley Lake or other large waterbodies may not look like the textbook fish; FWP describes lake browns as potentially silvery with a dark green back and large dark spots.
“The detection of a brown trout anywhere in the Flathead Drainage is something we take very seriously,” said FWP fisheries biologist Kenny Breidinger in the release. “Our goal is to prevent them from becoming established before they have a lasting impact. Anglers are our best partners in that effort, and reporting any brown trout they catch will help us respond quickly and effectively.”
FWP has confirmed additional illegal introductions across Montana this year. Northern pike turned up in Three Forks Ponds less than a mile from the Madison River, largemouth and smallmouth bass in Sacajawea Lagoon in Livingston near the Yellowstone, and northern pike in Pine Grove Pond near Kalispell, a family fishery stocked with rainbows and westslope cutthroat. FWP calls the practice “bucket biology,” and the Flathead Beacon reported in February that the Pine Grove case carries a pooled reward of up to $3,500 for information leading to those responsible: $1,000 from FWP, $2,000 from Flathead Valley Trout Unlimited, and $500 from Flathead Wildlife, Inc.
