BILLINGS, Mont. -- Water flows into the Big Horn River will be increased in the next few weeks to give a boost to the renowned trout fishery along the Montana stretch of the river, a federal official said Wednesday.

The official added that there also should be enough water to satisfy next year's upstream recreation needs on Bighorn Lake in Wyoming.

As drought conditions have persisted across much of the region, the federal Bureau of Reclamation has tried to strike a middle ground between competing demands for the Big Horn's dwindling flows.

Wyoming officials want less water released out of Yellowtail Dam to help upstream boat launches in the Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area, which straddles the border between the states. Their counterparts in Montana want higher releases into the river, to ensure flooding of side channels where trout spawn.

Bureau of Reclamation area manager Dan Jewell said the agency's winter management plan for Yellowtail is to release 1,900 cubic feet of water per second. That's versus 1,500 cubic feet per second last year, and current flows of 1,750 cubic feet per second.

The plan would go into effect sometime around Nov. 1, Jewell said.

"If the water supply situation was better we'd be releasing 2,000 or more, but we can't do it and meet our spring targets," Jewell said. "This will put us within a foot or two of where we ended up of last spring. We've been able to make that work in terms of meeting the majority of the competing demands on our system."

Wyoming had pushed to reduce flows to 1,500 cubic feet or lower through the winter. Montana wanted at least 2,000 cubic feet per second.

Last year's low flows allowed Bighorn Lake to fill enough for at least some of the boat launches to open on the Wyoming side of the lake. But it was too low for a successful brown trout spawn downstream.

Doug Haacke, founder of Friends of Bighorn River, said the year's release plan was "good but not great."

"The more water there is in the river, the more fish there are," he said. "It's getting to the point where we're going to be measuring gallons of water pretty soon."

The plan got a colder response in Wyoming, where Big Horn County Commissioner Keith Grant said it was "unacceptable."

Grant said Jewell's agency should be more conservative with its releases, to increase storage in Bighorn Lake. He said that would satisfy Wyoming's desire for earlier boat launch openings and store sufficient water to allow a larger release in the spring, when rainbow trout spawn.

"They're going Johnny-in-the-middle and doing nobody any good," Grant said.

Jewell said flows out of Yellowtail will next be adjusted in the spring.