Montana Fish Report

Trolling anglers are catching a few limits in the main lake and in the mouths of major creek arms. We have had reports of fish being caught from 35-65 feet of water. Try using shad patterned trolling spoons such as, Needlefish, Excels, Slimfins, and Speedy Shiners. The fish are feeding heavily on 3-5" shad. Large plug baits like Countdown Rapalas, Rattle traps, and Speed traps are working well too. At this time of the year we will start to see more days of rain and cloud cover. These can be great day for fishing. Try using bright colored baits, like fire tiger, and hot steel Rapalas. Also, gold and copper blades seem to work better than silver during low light conditions. Bass: Good. The shad are staging in 15-30 feet of water on main lake points and at the mouths of major creek arms. There are small little clusters of shad, and there are huge schools. A lot of the fish are targeting shad as their primary food source. Try using shad patterned deep diving crank-baits and deep rip-baits to get to the depth they are feeding at. Strike King 6xd in a sexy shad pattern is a great bait for deep cranking, and a Lucky Craft Staycee 90 is a good rip bait that will get down deep. A good trick to get a little more depth out of your baits is to add some suspend dots or suspend strips. These adhesive pieces of lead are easy to apply to any bait and you can make a suspending bait slowly sink, or make a floating bait suspend. When you locate fish that are too deep to target with plugs, try using a ½-ounce spoon or a drop-shot rig. Glory Hole Sports  (209) 736-4333, (209) 586-2383