It’s really to bad Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks got sucker punched on the Walleye gig when they already have a good Large and Smallmouth Bass population going. If you want to bring in tournament fishing dollars I think you’d have a tough time topping Bassmasters.
At any rate, with rivers getting ready to start plowing up the countryside, chasing Bass is a great plan B.
Montana Largemouth Bass
Montana Largemouth Bass
Incidentally, Montana’s Largemouth record was broken a couple weeks ago at a tournament on Noxon Reservoir in western Montana (the dammed Clark Fork), 8lb., 6 oz.
These are just pups, 5 and 6 lb. class.
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I’m hitting Noxon all this weekend. Any reports or tips? Went there for Memorial Day two years ago and had a blast. Usually tend to fly fish for trout and pike in Missoula, but you can’t be Noxon when the rivers are this high.
The only thing I have heard recently out of Noxon is that a new state record Largemouth came out of there two or three weeks past. As you probably know its usually warmer there than the rest of western Montana so water temperatures should be moving up some.
I’ve just started fishing Bass so I don’t know what would be a hit but generally, shallow water and structure (logs, brush, stumps, ledges, riprap, docks etc) right now. We found them the last couple weeks locally using crank baits and plastic (worms, brushhogs etc.) mostly around structure and fairly shallow. I am still struggling with getting big ones on my fly rod. I would really like to hook into a large Noxon Smallmouth on my fly rod. I’ve caught them upriver near Perma on Woolybuggers up to 13-14 inches. They are scrappers. As much as I like trout I have a feeling that an 18-20 inch Smallie would leave you in tatters. That’s something I’m looking forward to!