Montana Fish Report

Bank anglers have really been doing well using Power Bait, and night crawlers to catch their limits. A good tip for fishing from the shore, is to move up and down the shoreline until you locate a school of fish. Trout tend to swim in pattern. Once you find an area that they like, fish it for a while. If you don't catch a fish in one spot move down the bank. 50 yards could be the difference between zero fish and a limit. Another great way to really catch them is to put a hoochie skirt on a Kastmaster. This will enhance the action of the bait and give the fish something new to look at. Trollers have been having luck top lining and using side planners. A single night crawler threaded onto the hook is hard to beat. Needlefish, Excel, and Vance spoons are also catching a lot of fish. Shad patterns such as, natural shad, chrome, and cop car will resemble what fish are feeding on. But sometimes bright colors such as chartreuse, flame orange, copper, and gold, will catch their attention better than natural colors. Bass fishing is pretty good. The fish are extremely healthy this year. They are gorging themselves on the abundance of shad. There are a lot of 2 pound plus spotted bass. They are schooling and aggressively feeding on shad. Larger fish tend to feed on crawdads, and small planted trout. Try using a drop shot rig with a natural crawdad color 6" off of your weight and a shad pattern 24" above that. This way you will be targeting fish that are feeding on crawdads and shad. If the wind kicks up a little, try using a trout patterned swim bait. Remember to practice catch and release, especially largemouth bass as we are seeing fewer each year.

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