Fishing for bass on the Clark Fork near Noxon, Montana

From 2010-05-09 Jay Evans near Noxon Montana with a bass

Jay Evans donated a bass fishing trip to Bitterroot Trout Unlimited. Doug Nation and Jack Mauer "bit" on the trip. Jay, Doug and Jack fished the Noxon Reservoir on the Clark Fork River in early May of this year. The water temperatures were in the mid 50 degree range and the water was clear (no big run-off yet). Both smallmouth and largemouth bass were well into the pre-spawn stage. A few weeks earlier Jay and a friend caught about 40 bass staging on main lake points (mostly 2-3 lb males, both small and large mouth) and saw a few big females starting to move up shallow (4-5 lb smallmouth and a 6 lb largemouth). The larger fish were very spooky and would not bite and according to Jay this is often the case when they first come up to the shallows.

Jay also spotted a couple areas with a bunch of 15-25 lb pike. It would be fun to fish for them with a fly rod! But that didn't happen on this trip.