Montana Fish Report

The trout bite has been getting better each week as the water temperature continues to drop.  There are more fish showing up near the surface making them easier to catch for both trolling anglers and bank anglers.  The trout are targeting balls of very small shad.  The trout will push the bait from deep to shallow water.  Try finding shallow water areas with deep water access.  Trolling anglers should try top lining small plug style baits.  Rapalas, Speed Traps, and Lucky Craft baits will do the trick.  Be sure to let plenty of line out, to where your lure is clear of your boat wake.  Try shad patterned colors on clear days and firetiger or rainbow trout colors on cloudy days.  Be sure to add scent to entice a few more strikes. Bass seem to be spread out from deep to shallow water.  The shad are schooled up and there are bass that target these balls of bait.  The tough part about fishing for these fish is there is generally a short window of opportunity where they will be feeding.  Try using a shad patterned grub on a ¼ oz. darthead.  This is a great setup that can be fished in multiple ways.  You can drag it on the bottom, fish it vertically, or swim it at any depth.  Also if you use your electronics and find bait in deeper water a great way to catch them is with a vertical jigging spoon or with a drop shot rig fished directly under the boat.  The bass are also feeding on crawdads.  Try using football head jigs to target these bass. The catfish are still in fairly shallow water and feeding heavily.  At this time of the year we generally see some really large cats being caught, especially if we get a little rain.  They will move into feeder creeks and feed on whatever washes into the lake.  Try using a variety of different baits until the fish tell you what they want to feed on.  Night crawlers, liver, shad, and anchovies seem to produce the majority of fish.  Glory Hole Sports  (209) 736-4333