Blue Lake Fishing in Custer County, Idaho

• Overview

  You will find Blue Lake in Custer County, Idaho. Height above sea level is 6,480 feet. It covers about 3 acres, so this is small water you can walk round in under an hour. It is a small entry by Custer County standards. Nearest place of any size is Challis, 34 miles away. It is 95 miles to Boise, the nearest city. No boundary runs near, so the county rules hold throughout.

• Where to Fish on Blue Lake

  No depth figure has reached our records, which makes a plummet useful. Bays and points beat straight shoreline every time on water like this. Weed, then depth: that is the order to fish a water of this kind. County-wide records name rainbow trout, cutthroat trout, Chinook salmon and sockeye salmon. Protected fish appear in the records for this area, so treat the list as information, not an invitation. On Blue Lake the first feature you find is usually worth a session.

• Seasonal Patterns

  July runs about 55°F on average, December about 18°F. The season turns properly here, and fish follow it closely. The freeze runs deep into the year, with break-up near early May. The open-water window runs from around early May to about mid November in an average year. The shoulder weeks of the open season are the productive ones. That shapes the year on Blue Lake.

• Tackle & Baits

  Who may fish here is not settled in anything we hold. Nothing formal is recorded here: no ramp, no car park, no marked path. Trout here take small spinners, spoons and, where fly water allows, a nymph or dry. Parking space is the usual limit rather than the bank itself. Some stretches are reserved and marked as such on the ground. Failing this one, try Kidney Lake, 7.6 miles away. For Blue Lake, the notice at the access point is the final word.