​Just the other day we launched BioHaven Floating Islands in an early spring snowstorm. The setting was Montana’s Madison Valley, not far from Yellowstone National Park. The source water we were launching on emits from the Madison range, from the ski hills of Big Sky and the back country of Cowboy Heaven.  

​As we worked, trout were bulging, hitting some kind of emerging nymph. Some of the trout created wakes as large as a blanket beaver.  

​Of the nearly 10,000 BioHaven floating islands launched since Floating Island International opened its doors in 2005, a sizable number have been focused on fishery enhancement.  People like myself, who grew up with a fishing pole in their hands, pick up on the idea that nature can be helped.  Nature can be enhanced.  Building an ultimate fishing hole, or supporting a public fishery with good habitat design, has motivated many island launches.  But there’s usually only a vague understanding of just how floating islands help fish grow.  For certain, the other two popular methods to grow fish are better understood.  But are they better for water?

​Yesterday we launched BioHaven Floating Islands in an early spring snowstorm.  The setting was Montana’s Madison Valley, not far from Yellowstone Park.  The source water emits from the Madison range, from the ski hills of Big Sky and the back country of Cowboy Heaven.  

As we worked, large trout, some that created wakes as large as a blanket beaver, swirled nearby targeting some emergent nymph.  Wet knees notwithstanding, we had two more BioHavens in place on the water, prepped to expand and build on nature’s wetland effect, in just an hour and a half.  The wet snow on this early spring day made for cold hands, but not that cold.  The boggy riparian edge of the spring ponds made for wet feet too, but nothing that wouldn’t dry in a short while.