Fishing at Blue Lakes, Flathead County, Montana

• Overview

  Within Flathead County, Montana, you have Blue Lakes. Height above sea level is 4,449 feet. The water measures roughly 6 acres, so nothing here is far from anything else. On size it sits at the modest end of our Flathead County list. Start from Bigfork, 38 miles down the road. The nearest city of size is Lethbridge, 125 miles away. It lies deep inside the county rather than near an edge.

• Where to Fish on Blue Lakes

  We hold no depth figure for this one. The shallow end warms first and pulls fish in ahead of the rest. Bays and points beat straight shoreline every time on water like this. Flathead County records list rainbow trout, sockeye salmon, largemouth bass and brook trout among the fish reported. Several of these carry legal protection or closed seasons; the rulebook comes before the rod. Work Blue Lakes in sections rather than trying to cover it.

• Seasonal Patterns

  The year swings from about 18°F in January to roughly 57°F in August. Expect a real winter and a strong spring after it. Count the season from break-up, usually late April. Open water usually runs from late April until about mid November. The shoulder weeks of the open season are the productive ones. Blue Lakes fishes to that pattern most years.

• Tackle & Baits

  The rules here are undocumented as far as public sources go. Nothing in the way of made access shows up nearby: no ramp, no car park, no path. For the bass here, soft plastics worked slow along cover and a spinnerbait for searching do most of the work. A landowner's word beats anything printed elsewhere. Signs go up and come down, so check on the day. Shelf Lake, 2.2 miles away, makes the obvious fallback. Ask locally about Blue Lakes if anything is unclear.