‘I Was in Disbelief.’ Fishing Guide Releases Montana’s Pending-Record Smallmouth Bass

Fort Peck Lake in northeast Montana is a sprawling reservoir that holds plenty of walleyes and smallmouth bass. And it’s where part-time fishing guide Josh Johnson caught the bronzeback of his dreams on Tuesday.

“I’d always wanted to catch a record-book fish, and I’d been after Montana’s smallie record since 2017,” Johnson tells Outdoor Life. “I guide on the lake part-time [when I’m not at] my oil field job in North Dakota, and I know the lake very well.”

Johnson, who lives in Williston, North Dakota, went out on Fort Peck on Tuesday for a promotional trip with a tackle company. He was fishing with Rob Doke from Swate Fishing Company, cameraman Cody Adams, and tournament angler John Hunter.     

“We were in my 23-foot Skeeter, and we were really on the smallmouths that day,” says Johnson. “We had a five-fish bag of over 30 pounds, with plenty of 5- and 6-pounders. I’d guess we caught about 30 bass that day.”

Read Next: The Best Smallmouth Bass Lures, Tested and Reviewed

Johnson says that soon after 5 p.m., with the day about over, he picked up the bait-casting rod that Hunter had just used to catch another 5-pounder. It was rigged with a ¾-ounce brown-and-green jig on 12-pound fluorocarbon line.

“I cast to a rocky point in the main lake that I fish regularly when conditions are right,” says Johnson, who owns Fishcast Angling guide service. “I caught a small bass, and then about three casts later I got a strike, but the fish dropped the lure. Then the jig just felt heavy, so the bass must have come back to hit the jig [again.]”

The fish ran right at the boat and then went deep. A few minutes later Johnson worked it topside where everyone in the boat could see it.

“It was a short, intense fight, and when Rob hoisted it into the boat I was in disbelief,” Johnson says. “I put a tape measure on it and it was over 22 inches long. I’d never caught a smallmouth that long, and I thought it might be a record. But the bass was long and lean, not short and blocky like most big smallmouths from Fort Peck.”

Johnson weighed the bass on a handheld scale he had in the boat. It showed the fish was over 8 pounds — enough to set a new Montana record. (The current record of 7.84 pounds was also caught from Fort Peck Reservoir, in 2020.)

Johnson put the lunker in his boat’s livewell and ran straight to a nearby marina, where they put the bass on certified scales. It weighed 8.4 pounds and measured 22.4 inches long. Johnson says he’s already submitted the paperwork and is just waiting for the state to approve the new record.

After weighing the bass, Johnson returned it to his live well, ran to some deep-water structure in the lake, and released the fish.

Read Next: ‘I Wasn’t Going to Kill That Bass.’ Tournament Angler Releases Possible State-Record Smallmouth

“I let that fish go, and it swam away fast,” says Johnson, who plans to have a replica mount made. “I know where I released it, and maybe a year from now I can catch it again and maybe break my own record.”