Welcome back to another year of exploring the Belgrades! It’s shaping up to be an exceptional season and everyone is chomping at the bit to get out and enjoy this beautiful area. We’ve been spending a lot of time targeting largemouth and smallmouth bass on the lakes; although fly fishing the local ponds and streams is always fun too.
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Everett Day caught this big largemouth bass last week in the Belgrades. The bass was hiding in a fallen tree in about 3 feet of water. |
The smallmouth bass fishing is off the charts right now! Because of the early spring and above average temperatures, anglers are getting to experience awesome fishing a little earlier in the season than usual. Right now the male bass are busy making nests and are easily found up and down the shorelines. The bigger females are often found hanging in 8 – 10 feet of water somewhere off-shore near the beds. The tricky part is getting her to bite. Baits like Senkos, plastic worms and tube jigs probably account for more smallmouth bass than any other options, but top- water lures can often trick the biggest fish. If conditions are right, fishermen can expect intense strikes as the bigger bass crush slowly moving surface plugs. Another option this time of year for the bigger bass is to use slash baits like the Rapala X-Rap. These baits can cover a lot of water and work well when casting away from the shoreline. Once you find a series of bass beds that have male bass protecting the nest, try fan casting out toward deeper water to search for his girlfriend. Chances are she’s out there waiting for just the right moment to move shallow.
As for largemouth bass like the beauty in this picture, we’ve been finding a lot of quality fish on a number of the Belgrade lakes. The largemouth fishing has been very impressive so far. The bass seem to be holding in traditional heavy cover, especially fallen trees and sunken timber. They have also been stacking up near currents like culverts or dams. We’ve been having good luck on jigs in black with pumpkin/red flake trailers. If you catch a couple of crayfish out of the lake you’ll notice that many of them have small bright red marks down their backs. So it only makes sense to try red flake trailers on your jigs.
As you can see by the other attached picture, I made a few furry friends early this spring. This was a very special treat indeed because otters are one of my favorite animals to watch. Otters are much more active at night and like to play and feed in backwaters, so most anglers never see them. I first spotted this group about a week after ice out. They were very active and playful. When you think about it, otters a very social, love to frolic with their friends, are wicked cute, and go fishing every day! No wonder they are my favorite critter! This group was extremely curious and would hang around my boat each time our paths crossed. There were five otters in this group, but I couldn’t get a picture of all five at once. They would swim like a porpoise around the boat and then stop and pop their heads up to watch us. But as soon as I would move the camera they would scatter. It’s amazing how long they can stay underwater – we estimated up to 4 minutes and they would cover a couple of hundred yards before popping back up for air! Hopefully they will show up again soon so I can take some more pictures! Good luck!
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