Smallmouth Bass
West Montrose is the head of the smallmouth water. The trout tailwater ends near the Highway 86 bridge, and below the covered bridge the Grand goes shallow, rocky, and warm — 70-odd feet of riffle and run over gravel. From here the bass hold unbroken down toward the Conestogo confluence, camped on the current where the fast water meets the slow, waiting on crayfish washing through the rock.
← Back to Grand River at West Montrose conditionsHow it fishes
The pattern is a current-and-rock read. Smallmouth stack in the rock eddies just below each riffle and in the deep pools where the fast water drops in, using the seams to ambush crayfish and drifting forage.
Work the fast-into-slow edges and the heads of the pools first. As the river warms through the season, the bass are the mainstay from the late-June opener onward; low summer flows shrink the holding water and pack more fish onto whatever rock still carries current.
The deeper pools and runs downstream toward the Conestogo mouth hold the better numbers when the reach right at the bridge runs thin. It's wade-and-carry water — no ramp — so cover it on foot or from a canoe.
Structure
The shallow, rock-and-gravel current lanes through the reach — smallmouth relate to the rock and the moving water, and the rocky water near the bridges holds fish.
The prime holding water, where fast water drops into a pool or slacks behind rock and bass sit on the seams to ambush crayfish and drifting forage.
Downstream of the bridge the pools and runs deepen and hold better numbers of smallmouth — the fallback when the reach at West Montrose runs low.
Regulations
This is a summary, not the legal regulation — confirm current rules with the official source before fishing.