Montana Fish Report

The lake will "turn over" when surface water cools to the same temperature as the deeper water - around 53-54 degrees. This usually happens around Thanksgiving, and then the trout bite really turns on for bank-anglers and trollers alike. Good news, the middle ramp on Glory Hole Point is open, which makes for an easy walk. Trout fishing is fair. Trollers had very little luck this week fishing the main lake. The trout seem to be in transition from deep to shallow water. We have had reports of fish being caught from 5 to 65 feet of water. With the water temperature dropping we should start seeing more fish being caught toward the surface. 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 might coax a few fish into biting. 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 fishing is good. Shad are staging in 15 to 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. 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