Panelists participated in Deer Lodge Wednesday in a discussion about the dramatic decline in brown trout numbers in the upper Clark Fork River and identified possible influences driving the plummet.

After they waded into the river and began casting, a blizzard hatch of caddis flies emerged. Brown trout rose, one after another, a treat for eye and ear.

Once stunned, the fish are quickly netted and transferred into a holding tank with a sedative in the water to keep them calm while they are weighed, measured, and recorded.