Fort Peck guide report: smallmouth on the rocks, lake trout still in 120 feet

Fort Peck’s smallmouth are on the rocks, and the lake trout have not made the fall move yet. Guide Don Wilkins’ weekly report, posted Oct. 16, 2026, on Montana Outdoor, says last week’s smallmouth fishing was good from 10 feet out to 35 on rock. An eighth- or quarter-ounce hair jig with a minnow, or a slip bobber and minnow, caught the mess of them. A jig with a 3.3-inch paddletail also worked.

Pike are still stacked on shallow weed beds. A 1-ounce hammered silver or copper spoon was the best bait, and the boat also caught several on topwater. The weeds that produced had 6 to 10 feet of water over the tops.

Lake trout were a different depth. Wilkins found a few shallow toward the end of the week, but most of the fish were still in 120 to 135 feet. He puts the temperature in the upper 50s and says the majority have not moved up. A three-quarter-ounce jig, green or red, with a 4.8-inch paddletail was what they used. He also writes that salmon were in the bays at times, and that one report from the egg-take crew put the collection just above 300,000 eggs, with more still needed. That egg figure is the guide passing along a report, not a Fish, Wildlife and Parks news release.

This is a The Gillnet news desk summary, not a reprint.

Source: Montana Outdoor — Don Wilkins’ Weekly Fort Peck Fishing Report, 10.16.26 (posted Oct. 16, 2026).