Montana Fish Report

Trout fishing is very good.  Most anglers are catching easy limits and releasing a number of fish throughout the day. The Department of Fish and Game is planting every week. Trout are feeding heavily on schools of small shad. Most the fish are being caught in the top 10 feet of the water column. Bank anglers have been bringing limits of planters, as well as some 2 to 3-pound holdovers. Glory Hole Point, Angels Cove, and Glory Hole Cove have been the most productive areas. Berkley Power Bait has really been working. Try using rainbow glitter, green, or orange. The key to catching fish with Power bait is using enough dough to make the bait float off of the bottom. Also using a small size 14 or 16 treble hook will help accomplish this presentation. When you are fishing with multiple rods try experimenting with the length of your leader. The fish will feed anywhere from 2 to 6 feet of off the bottom. For anglers who want to fish lures from shore, a Kastmaster is hard to beat.  Bass fishing is good. We had some good reports this week of anglers catching a lot of fish. The spotted bass are very healthy and actively feeding on shad. There are many 2-pound fish being caught. Most of the fish are being caught on soft plastics. A drop shot rig fished from 25-50 feet with a 4" shad patterned worm is your best bet for catching the numbers. Target main lake points, humps, and islands. Swim baits and jigs are working too and will generally produce larger fish. A 4" or 5" hula grub on a ½ oz. jig head will usually catch fish and is a good bait to cover water. You can fish it in deep or shallow water. It is best to use natural crawdad colors such as green pumpkin (297), cinnamon w/black (176), and watermelon w/black (194).

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