406-756-BAIT (2248) | 756BAIT.com https://www.flickr.com/photos/mustangjoe/ Cold temps this past week have really dropped the water temps. This has formed some ice on certain lakes. This will change later this week as temps will be higher. Always have safety gear when going out on first ice! Bitterroot Lake Rainbow bite has been good again. Troll planer boards close to shoreline. Capt Andy’s Flies and Plug-It lures work best. Trilling for Salmon has also produced nice fish. Use beer can flashers and a wedding ring tipped with maggots. Blanchard Lake Reports say Ice is starting to form along shorelines, but not fishable. Church Slough Water levels are dropping as well as the temps. Crappie can be found suspended in deeper water over tall structure. Echo Lake
Be careful when navigating by boat as water levels are quite low. Anglers targeting bass have had luck fishing deeper water using a Ned rig. Flathead Lake Good laker action down deep for smaller fish – 120-160ft is the target depth. Larger lakers can be found closer to shorelines. Reports of whitefish around the shallows in rock piles. Flathead River Good news as the whitefish are finally stacked up around steel bridge. Use 1/8 to 1/4oz jigs with craw patterns or select tubes to catch these fish. A few decent lakers and rainbows have also been caught using this method. Koocanusa If you like catching large rainbows, now is the time to be trolling. Numerous reports of double-digit fish landed. Troll with planer boards and Capt Any’s Flies close to shore. Keep lure hovering over 20ft of water for good results. Lake Mary Ronan No reports of ice formations yet. Perch fishing is still good by boat. Jigging works best along the South East shoreline in 17ft of water. Lynch Lake 3-4in of ice and the pike are biting well! Island is still open with small patches of ice along shallow shorelines. McWenneger Slough Some ice has been forming with some open water, not safe for fishing! Lower Stillwater Boat access is frozen, but the main body is still open. Shouldn’t be long now…. Rodgers Lake Reports say there is 2-3in of ice covering the lake. A few nice grayling and cutthroats are biting. Try using Clam Leech Spoons with maggots. Smith Lake 3-4in of solid ice, but USE CAUTION down by Eagle Tree…. Maybe some open water. Small jigs like a glow demon with a wax worm catches perch. Remember only 10 perch over 10in! Thompson Lake No recent report of ICE or fishing. Comments are closed.
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