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Montana is best known for its blue-ribbon trout streams. But as eight-year-old Garin Hicks proved last weekend, the state\u2019s warmwater reservoirs are not to be overlooked. <\/p>\n
On May 27, the young angler from Kalispell caught a 13.6-ounce green sunfish from Gartside Reservoir. Hicks\u2019 panfish was just accepted by Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks<\/a> as a new state record for the species, edging out the previous record by a fraction of an ounce. That record belonged to Bette Schmieding, who caught her 13.4-ounce greenie<\/a> from Castle Rock Lake in 2009 when she was just three years old.<\/p>\n Both reservoirs are in the eastern part of the state, with Gartside situated a stone\u2019s throw from the Yellowstone River near the North Dakota state line. The reservoir<\/a> also holds largemouth and smallmouth bass, as well as bluegills, walleyes, and pike.<\/p>\n Green sunfish are an introduced (non-native) species in Montana, according to FWP<\/a>. They can be found throughout the lower Yellowstone and Little Missouri drainages, where they are \u201cwell suited to radically changing conditions found in prairie streams.\u201d The species\u2019 native range<\/a> stretches from the Great Lakes down to Mexico, and includes all of the Central Plains west of the Appalachian Mountains and east of the Rocky Mountains.<\/p>\n Read Next:<\/strong> Meet the Alabama Angler on a Mission to Grow (and Catch) the Next World-Record Bluegill<\/a><\/p>\n As the agency points out, these \u201chardy little fish\u201d rarely exceed five inches in length. This makes Hicks\u2019 10-inch green sunfish a whopper by Montana standards. The IGFA all-tackle record<\/a> for the species is more than twice that size, however, measuring 15 inches long and weighing 2 pounds, 2 ounces. That fish was caught by Paul Dilley in 1971 at Missouri\u2019s Stockton Lake. \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n