Montana BASS-ZILLA

[Big Sky]

In the warmer states catching a big largemouth bass is probably fairly common, but in the northern states like Montana anything over 3 lbs gets a guy a little excited. Well at least it gets me excited and it doesn't happen that often for me. On Monday I caught my best Montana bass ever on a Firetiger marabou jig. I caught around 25 bass, but most were like the little one pictured at the bottom of this thread. They were mostly caught on a Rapala. However it has been my experience that while I may not catch large numbers of fish on marabou jigs (though sometimes I do), that generally I will catch bigger fish. I only caught one bass on the marabou, but I'll take him over a bucket full of little bass any day.

I didn't catch any other bass that were even close to the one above, the majority of the bass in this lake are stunted like this little buy below. Still fun to catch though.

 

[noharleyyet]

Whoa, that'n'll spike the pulse rate....looks to be a perfect day. Good pics as usual....jealous as usual.

 

[JLS]

Nice fish Troy.

 

[Big Sky]

Oh and just for the record every single fish caught went right back in the water to live another day. That big bass had lived too many years for me to want to cut his life short in any way.

 

[Wyatt G]

nice fish! from the look of that smaller one taking some fish out should help you to catch some bigger ones. when fish have a big head but small body it usually means that there are too many fish for the amount of forage.

 

[Gr8bawana]

That's a nice bass for anywhere. A few years ago my son and I caught and released dozens and dozens of 8-12 inch bass from a spring head in the Ruby marsh of NV. They would hit anything that moved. After the skirting on the little rubbler jigs finally came off from catching so many fish we still caught them on just the jig head hook. It was great fun.

 

[Big Sky]

Wyatt G you will get no argument from me. They are stunted and there are way too many bass and sunfish in that lake. However it's a long ways from my house and it might be the only time I ever fish it. I wish there were a little more pressure on it to thin the fish out a little. However it would be a great place to take some kids fishing. They would get lots of action.

 

[recon6036]

Two thumbs up!

 

[Coyotes-R-Us]

Sure glad your leaving the trout alone. A big Ata Boy!!
Very few fish fight like a small mouth bass
GOOD job.

 

[Big Sky]

Coyotes-R-Us, normally they do fight a lot like a smallie, but the water was a little cold. None of the bass fought paricilarly hard. The big one gave me a good battle for about 45 seconds and then basically gave up. I was glad too as I was using an ultralight, with light line. I wasn't expecting a big fish hence the light set up.

 

[What Map]

Looks like a fun lake to fish. Bass in Montana. Good to see it.

 

[mtbowhunter11]

I love bass fishing in Montana! Its become one of my favorite things to do in the summer. My fiancé and I bought some fishing Kayaks and I can't think of any more fun way to catch fish. Anything with decent size puts up one heck of a fight when they can drag you around the lake!
I caught this bass 2 weeks ago on a plastic lizard! My biggest to date at 4.61 pounds.

 

[Big Sky]

Nice bass mtbowhunter11!

 

[fishing4sanity]

Great fish and photos ................. envious as always.