Fishing at Blacktail Lake, Lake County, Montana

• Overview

  Within Lake County, Montana, you have Blacktail Lake. Height above sea level is 6,808 feet. This is a pocket water of some 5 acres, and every part of it is reachable from the bank. On size it sits at the modest end of our Lake County list. Seeley Lake sits 18 miles from the bank. The nearest city of size is Spokane, 169 miles away. The county line is nowhere near, so one local authority covers the water.

• Where to Fish on Blacktail Lake

  The records we hold are silent on depth, so plan to find it yourself. A soft bed grows weed late into autumn, which keeps fish shallow. This is a lake, so the margins and the first drop matter most. Open biodiversity records for Lake County list rainbow trout, sockeye salmon and smallmouth bass. Several of these carry legal protection or closed seasons; the rulebook comes before the rod. Read Blacktail Lake before you fish it and the day goes better.

• Seasonal Patterns

  The seasonal spread runs 17°F to 55°F. Fishing here follows the temperature more than the calendar. The lid usually goes in mid May, which opens the strongest weeks of the year. In an average year the thaw lands around mid May and the freeze near mid November. From the thaw to midsummer the fishing improves week by week. Blacktail Lake runs to that rhythm year in and year out.

• Tackle & Baits

  Who may fish here is not settled in anything we hold. Public data shows nothing built here, so treat the whole approach as informal. Bass water: a Texas-rigged worm near cover, a spinnerbait when you need to cover ground. Parking space is the usual limit rather than the bank itself. Where parking is tight, arriving early solves most problems. If the gate is shut, Scenic Lakes at 0.9 miles is the nearest alternative. For Blacktail Lake, the notice at the access point is the final word.