Irrelevant
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Bitterroot bass
- Thread starter Irrelevant
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Dougfirtree
Well-known member
Not good. Hard to imagine how it got there unless someone released it there...
Irrelevant
Well-known member
It'll end up being a helluva smallie fishery.
Dougfirtree
Well-known member
And so will the Clark Fork, if they're actually breeding.
MThuntr
Well-known member
I bet they're already there (at least in the lower stretches) from the Flathead
Nameless Range
Well-known member
I have a strong disdain for bass and do not understand the appeal of bass fishing. It feels like a passion chiefly belonging to easterners to me. Maybe it was the Saturday Morning fishing shows I grew up watching. It's a damn shame, and I wonder if there is anything to be done.
Smallies are awesome fish. Far smarter and better fighting than largemouth. That being said, this is no place for smallies.
SAJ-99
Well-known member
Not many trout out east, which probably explains it. I can see where if you grow up in the west you naturally grow to be a "trout snob". Trout fishing usually comes with a spectacular view, which helps. Bass fishing usually comes with oppressive mosquitos and humidity. To be honest, some bass are more fun than trout. White bass are like little sticks of dynamite and stripers are like hooking onto a train. The hybrids are the best of both. Smallies can hold their own for sure. They just need to be kept in their proper place so we can enjoy the differences in species.
@Nameless Range - an 18" smallie on a fly is every bit the game fish a similar sized trout it. They're fun, stupid and bite often.
And they make excellent fish tacos. Kill 'em all in the Bitterroot.
And they make excellent fish tacos. Kill 'em all in the Bitterroot.
Nameless Range
Well-known member
I get it, maybe it’s an unreasonable concern, but it wouldn’t be the first time in Montana that folks love fishing for a non-native so much that the fishery becomes pretty much conceded to those species.
The world’s got enough bass fishing, and the river trout fishing in Montana is on a recent and steep decline.
The world’s got enough bass fishing, and the river trout fishing in Montana is on a recent and steep decline.
westbranch
Well-known member
Since they are in Thompson falls reservoir it looks like the only thing blocking smallies from the Bitterroot is some of the bigger rapids?
It seems like a lot of Northern Idaho trout rivers/streams have avoided smallmouth invading when they have had unimpeded access from downstream lakes and lower portions of rivers. Not sure what would be different about some of the rivers here. Water colder overall than Clark Fork and Bitterroot? Of course the cutthroat and bull trout that used to live in those lakes and lower river portions are virtually gone. Seems impossible to put the toothpaste back in the tube.
It seems like a lot of Northern Idaho trout rivers/streams have avoided smallmouth invading when they have had unimpeded access from downstream lakes and lower portions of rivers. Not sure what would be different about some of the rivers here. Water colder overall than Clark Fork and Bitterroot? Of course the cutthroat and bull trout that used to live in those lakes and lower river portions are virtually gone. Seems impossible to put the toothpaste back in the tube.
Elky Welky
Well-known member
I'm with ya @Nameless Range. Bass fishing was always an eastern thing growing up, with a very different culture that I never associated with MT. I went so far as to be quite upset when Bass Pro bought out Cabela's. One felt like it represented hunters and anglers out here, the other, not so much.
Irrelevant
Well-known member
From fishing standpoint smallies are 10x what trout are, they have surpassed all other freshwater fish in my eyes as my favorite fish to catch (because that's what you do, catch them, lots of them, over and over, and they fight like Ali).
But trout... trout are so much more than what they offer an angler. They are more art than anything. The places they live are uniquely and incredibly pretty places.
So yes. Kill 'em all. The 'root tain't the place.
Flatbrimmer
Well-known member
This is so true. I love bass. Smallmouth largies, striper, black. I love em all. Do I want them in our trout waters, I’ll be damned… I know I may have argued about the mule deer in the past, but I simply cannot contest the decline in fishing- both in overall numbers and in average size.
Badlandcat
Active member
Big pike in the Missouri now between Great Falls and Holter.
Also a few being caught in Holter. They have lots of trout to eat.
There has been pike in the Bitterroot for at least 45 years. mtmuley
westbranch
Well-known member
Classic American fish eating German trout.
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