Richard “The Macman” Zimmer shares update on fishing

Fishermen:

As waters warm the fishing opportunities are on the increase, but some of the best fishing is only temporary. For optimum results there are three area bodies of water that you should plan to fish in the near future.

Last Sunday, Roger Smart and I went to Lake Mary Ronan after hearing that the kokanee bite was improving. We arrived at our choice of fishing holes around 9:30 a.m. By 10:30, we had our 2-ten/fish limits. Our newest creation we call an “H-wana-B” was incredibly effective along with an inline glow smile hook above it. Raw shrimp again proved to be the most effective bait. Our approach to chumming is to have a gallon bag of rolled corn with a can of corn added for more scent. Intermittantly throwing just a pinch of this mixture is adequate.

Personally I haven’t seen the salmon fish this fast and furious for about three years. It has also been years since they were this big. I’d say our largest was close to 14 inches.

Fishermen have been reporting nice catches of large “largemouth” bass from Nine pipes Reservoir. A variety of darker plastic baits seemed to work best with the Gary Yamamoto “Senko” being at the top of the list.

On Tuesday, May 15, my brother Ken and I went on a bait fishing search. After three or four hours of zilch, we decided to redeem the day with some perch out in East Bay. With about an hour of daylight remaining, we began to catch fish in a 5.7-foot depth directly north of Ducharme Creek. We had a dynamite hour of fishing with lots of doubles using two-hook “smile” and “fuzz bugz” setups. We used mostly nightcrawlers but cut perch was also successful. This bite should last into June.

The fishing in all three of the lakes I’ve mentioned will be on the decline as water temperatures increase.

It’s not too early to begin to plan for the whitefish and perch fishing in Flathead Lake proper (all the lake north of the narrows). Both of these could kick by the first week of July.

Using a whole fish for large lake trout also improves this time of year.

For more information contact Zimmer Tackle at (406) 675-0068 or macman@ronan.net or visit www.zimmertackle.com.

Good fishing,

The Macman