Paddlefishing is a lifelong passion for 48-year-old Trevor Swisse of Sidney, Montana. He’s fished for the oversized, plankton-eating fish since his teenage years — mostly in the Yellowstone River not far from home.
“Not as many anglers cast and snag paddlefish as they did some years ago,” Trevor told Wired2fish. “But I’ve been taking my sons and they just love it – so do I.”
One Huge Surprise
On the morning of June 12, Trevor and his boys — Mason, 15, and Charles, 6 — were in Montana’s Seven Sisters Wildlife Management Area near Sidney. Trevor was casting his usual tackle set up when he’s targeting paddlefish: an 11-foot-long Okuma spinning rod, with a Penn reel spooled with 100-pound test braided line connected to a 1/0 treble hook and a 5-ounce sinker.
“I kind of sight-cast for them,” said Trevor, who owns Jack Rabbit Diesel Company in Sidney. “They run the river in spring, and early in the mornings, they kind of school up and when I see one, I cast to it. That’s what happened early that morning, and I hooked a fish.
“It was over a sandbar, and I didn’t think it was all that big. But I did fight for almost 20 minutes. In current, it was like hauling a pickup truck off the river bottom to shore. It’s about the closest thing I’ll ever come to ocean fishing.”
Trevor finally got the fish to the river bank, and he and his boys went down to pull it out.
It was then they saw that the fish was immense. Mason gaffed the fish and they pulled it onto shore.
A Fish With a History
They took the paddlefish to a nearby Montana fish-cleaning facility to measure and weigh it. That’s when they got a good look at a jaw tag in the paddlefish.
After he inspected the tag and where it came from, Trevor learned that North Dakota Fish & Game (NDFG) tagged and released the fish 22 years earlier in the Missouri River. On April 27, 2004, NDFG tagged the then-90-pound, 49-inch-long paddlefish after netting it near the town of Williston, North Dakota.
Over those 22 years, the female paddlefish undoubtedly traveled upstream across the state line from the Missouri River and into the Yellowstone River to spawn many times. Scientists say a 90-pound paddlefish can be 40 years old. And in 22 years since her tagging, and the fish had grown to nearly 117 pounds and 52 inches in length.
Paddlefish are measured from the eye to the tail fork — not the overall impressive actual length, which would include that remarkable head paddle.
“That old paddlefish must have traveled hundreds of miles in its lifetime, making multiple spawning runs,” Trevor explained. “Heading up the Missouri and into the Yellowstone and back again who knows how many times. It’s incredible the fish could live so long and cover so much river water.”
Back for More Next Year
The fish — the biggest Trevor has ever caught — was processed, and he says the meat tastes much like sturgeon. Trevor prefers it breaded and fried, but it can be smoked, too.
The Montana record paddlefish was 77 inches long and weighed 142.5 pounds when Larry Branstetter caught it from the Missouri River in 1973.
Montana’s paddlefish season starts in mid-May and runs through June, with a 1,000 fish quota.
While Trevor says the Montana paddlefish quota isn’t filled every year, he and his sons will be after them again next spring.
“Who doesn’t like catching fish as big as a grown man – that really excites both my sons – and me, too,” he said.
