Largemouth & Smallmouth Bass from Flathead Lake

Flathead Lake offers fishermen trolling by boats and fishing from banks with a choice of trout, whitefish, largemouth bass, northern pike, and perch.

Largemouth Bass

Smallmouth Bass

Largemouth Bass Food

Bass eat a wide variety of foods. They prefer meals like minnows, crayfish, and large aquatic insects. Bass will eat many other things as well-including frogs, snakes, mice, and even small birds.

Largemouth bass belong to a large family of fish including other species of bass, bluegills, crappie, and many other varieties of sunfish. Largemouth bass are not NATIVE to Montana, which means they were not found here when the state was first visited by Lewis & Clark. Today, largemouth bass are found scattered across the state, but the greatest numbers of bass are found in eastern Montana, and in the Flathead Valley.

Although they can survive the cold waters of Montana winters, bass prefer warm water temperatures of 70-75°. Because so many lakes and ponds in Montana are colder than that, bass here do not grow as quickly as fish found in southern states. Largemouth bass prefer stillwater areas like lakes and ponds over moving water in rivers and streams. They also like areas with lots of weeds and lily pads.