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crawling a hula grub will be your best bet. Many different jig heads out there for them. Best jig heads are homemade ones you pour yourself.

Keitech swing impact fat or regular. With jig trailers always buy they bigger size. You can always bite or trim some of it if you are looking for a smaller presentation.

Roboworms, roboworms and roboworms. I love all sizes and shapes roboworm has come out with. Next best would be senkos. Not going to go into color because I would be here all day. Try to match the hatch. There are many new hooks out there which allow to fish without having to tie a palomar knot. For weights I like either using a tear drop or cylindrical weight that is not tied onto the tail line but sinched. This way if you get snagged your not losing your entire setup but just a weight. Fish it slow and let it sit.

Go to bait for smallmouth is a dropshot setup throwing roboworms, senkos and snipers. Other than that I throw a hula grub or topwater. I have had so much success with those there is no need for any other bait.

There are a lot of jerbaits out there on the market. Some are relatively cheap while others are expensive. Dont' forget soft plastic jerk baits as well. My favorite have been rapala and strike king. You cant beat a good lucky craft pointer however. They catch more fish than any of the other jerkbaits on the market. For the price I would throw smithwick rogue jerkbaits I have had success with those.

I did not start bass fishing until I was 21. My family lived in Alaska and all I ever knew was Salmon, Steelhead and bottom fishing. When I met my wife her dad was huge into bass fishing and I was hooked. Mostly because of bass fishing tournaments. I found a way to fish for money. While it has not been easy to learn to bass fish I think with all of the online content you can find now days anyone can learn how to bass fish and can be competitive in a short amount of time. The biggest thing with fishing is having the money to invest in the sport. I am now 25 and have had the opportunity to become a pro staffer. Don't get me wrong a guy can learn to fish on his own but I owe most of my success to my father in law and his friends and bass clubs. Find someone who knows the sport and go fishing with them. Pay the gas bill be respectful with others stuff and you can go a long ways in earning the respect of others. Remember its all about confidence when your fishing and confidence in what your throwing.

25-30 lb. fluorocarbon all the way. While braid is nice and it can double for throwing frogs as well I get a lot more bites using fluorocarbon. I did a test one day. I found a school of fish and I was whacking them. I decided to try to braid rig and the bite died. I picked up the fluoro and started whacking them again. I fish clear lakes so it is imperative I fish clear line. I do not like using a leader because there is just one more knot that could break or something could happen and you lose a big fish. Keep the setup simple either go full braid or fluoro. If your looking at cost fluoro is cheaper then braid. I have had good luck with P-line out here in the Northwest.

Google maps has been a huge asset to me on small lakes. While you cannot see the entire depth contours you will be able to see where there are long points and where there are good drop offs. There are websites out there that tell you what the rate of fall is for a certain weight. Go out and cast a weight and count how long it takes until your line goes slack and the weight is on the bottom. If you are wanting to look for bottom contour drag the weight around and feel. It will make you a better fisherman and you will be able to feel the difference between rock, wood and grass. If you get hung up and break off your only out a weight. Invest in a good pair of sunglasses. The good ones will be able to let you see a long ways down in the water column on a clear lake. With all the new technology though there are apps for phones which allow you to throw out sonar on your fishing rod and view the sonar on your iPhone or other device. The most important thing is just spending time on the water and slowly learning an area. By learning what bass like to do during certain times of year you can rule out certain areas and concentrate on specific areas.

Living in the Pacific Northwest our bass fishing season can be relatively short. By the time the ice is fully off the water in March most areas in the country the fish are spawning. We are just beginning the early stages of pre-spawn bass. Every lake is different and every region of the country is different so I am sure there will be guys/gals out there who will disagree with my following statements. I am lucky to have a small lake where I live where a boat is not required so I am always fishing this lake (as long as it is not frozen over I can catch bass). It is a small lake but it has all the different types of structure, deep ledges and grass a bass fisherman can ask for. The lake is fed by a spring. When the ice comes off the lake it truly is amazing how shallow they come. Now not all bass are going to move shallow there will be plenty of bass who stay deep until the weather warms up and there will be bass who move to the typical pre spawn areas such as points to bays and channels or ditches. I have done well utilizing light line techniques, specifically drop shot and grubs in green pumpkin. I like grubs on lead heads because I can swim them or hop them on the bottom. I like a drop shot because I can hop it right in front of there face until they are willing to bite. I shake my rod without moving the bait very far. Some of the biggest bass I catch during the pre-spawn are sitting no more than a poles length from shore but they are in 6-10 feet of water. There comes a time in the spring where the crawfish start molting and becoming more active (usually around the first full moon in the spring time). Then I start covering a lot of water using a jig and pig combo and swim jigs. jig colors range from black/blue to green pumpkin and trailers range from june bug/black and blue to green pumpkin as well. Middle of march to first part of April the spinnberbait bite starts to heat up. Once the spawn starts focus on shallow areas from 1-5 feet where the bass spawn. During the spring to summer transition you can catch fish almost anywhere in 1-10 feet of water or deeper depending on the lake. Once the summer time pattern begins you can catch fish anywhere. Some fish start to go back deep early in the summer and some fish stay shallow on cover. Once the middle of summer begins and the grass in the lake starts growing up I love throwing top water lures and frogs shallow in the morning and then go deep throwing 6XD crankbaits and jigs. Jig colors in the summer change to watermelons and blacks and a variety of brighter colors. Another favorite summer lure is square bills. I can go out in the summer and catch bass on every rod from senko to jig and pig to dropshot to square bill to topwater they all catch fish somewhere. Once the dog days of summer begin pitching and flipping through the thick grass is where the big bass are. Night fishing can be fun to if you are patient. Once the leaves start changing and the elk start bugling I go back to spring time fishing, jig and pig mostly. Hope this helps.

Went out last friday and caught my first bass of the year. Temps finally got in the 50s and even though half the lake was still frozen had 3 bites and got the one. Was using a single tail grub (green pumpking) on a leadhead. I also had a bite on a bitsy bug jig with a chigger craw trailer (green pumpking) also had a follower on a jerkbait was fishing it super slow.

@basseditor there are quite a few areas to bass fish in Montana. If your looking for large lakes there is Fort Peck in eastern montana that contains some giant smallmouth, walleye, pike, and a variety of other fish. Than there is Noxon Reservoir in western Montana that is loaded with smallmouth and largemouth. The current state record of 8.8 lbs came out of Noxon Reservoir and there is a video on youtube of a 7 lb. largemouth. Most of the rest of the bass fishing in the state are on small ponds/lakes. More large ponds/small lakes. There are probably over 20 different small bodies of water to largemouth and smallmouth fish. Where I live in Helena there is a decent little lake and even with the ice only half way off I got a 2.5-3 lb. largemouth to chase my jerkbait back to me. Fishing it super slow so it definitely looked at the bait a lot. Hopefully looking to catch one before march this year.

My name is mike bruce i live in helena mt and i have been bass fishing for 3 years now. Was introduced to the sport through my father in law and I aboslutely love bass fishing. Recently am getting more serious into tournament fishing and now that i am done with football and school I can concetrate on fishing a lot more. Like to fish multiple species. From Alaska so i have done it all from river fishing to the ocean and now to lakes. Hope to learn more from this site and maybe find some more Montana bass fisherman.