Captain’s Column: Sporadic Spring Fishing Provides Opportunities for Big Fish
By Kjel

Posted: April 26, 2012

The last weekend in April brings with it plenty of choices to try and catch the bigger one if you are fishing for trout or smaller one if you are after perch! The past few days that brought warm weather to the region has now made most of the popular fishing lakes ice free. On the other hand the warm weather has also blown out most of the rivers but some of some of them might become fishable with cooler weather in the forecast this weekend. Your best bet in my opinion if you want to shore-fish or fish from a boat would be to head to one of the many lakes that are located in Western and Central Montana.

Trout anglers are having some good success over at Holter, Hauser, and Canyon Ferry Reservoir. Spawning trout are heading close to shore on those reservoirs and can be caught by using power bait and an assortment of flies. A lot of the angler activity is concentrated around the boat ramp areas in these lakes because that is where FWP plants the trout from the hatcheries. Also a lot of anglers love to fish from boat trolling lures. The selection used by fisherman range from rapalas to spoons to baited wedding rings. It seems that everybody has their favorite lure. Mine happens to be the j-7 jointed rapala lure in a variety of colors. I also have had good luck with the needlefish and the syclops lures. This time of the year you will catch most of the fish trolling about 10-16 feet below the surface on the reservoirs over by Helena.

Browns Lake has ice off and should start fishing well. Shore fishing on Browns is fair. When you do hook into one of those monster trout the fight you receive is certainly worth the trip. Another method of catching trout from shore that works well is using an egg sack with power bait. Fishing from boat has been slow but this is the time of the year that trolling for fish will start to pick up.

A lake a lot of folks forget about this time of the year is Lake Como. The shore fishing is good right now and will continue that way for a little while longer. Once again using different colored power bait eggs seem to work the best from shore. It is a fun place to take the kids fishing. If the fish are not biting, fast a furious, then the kids will stay busy exploring the shoreline.

Flathead Lake is also one of your best bets for catching perch. The warmer the weather the better the fishing seems to be for the perch. The perch bite should continue for another week. A small boat, some night crawlers, split-shot, bobber and a hook will do the trick. Perch fishing is popular this time of the year in the east Polson Bay of Flathead Lake so you will have plenty of company if you decide to give it a try.

For daily fishing updates log onto montanaoutdoor.com

 

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