Dalton Lake in Clearwater County: How and When to Fish It

• Overview

  Dalton Lake falls in Clearwater County, part of Idaho. The water sits 6,296 feet up. The water measures roughly 6 acres, so nothing here is far from anything else. 35 miles away sits Frenchtown, the nearest town. After that come Plains at 36 miles and Orchard Homes at 43 miles. Within a short run: Pearl Lake 0.5 miles away, Heart Lake within 1.1 miles, Goose Lake 1.8 miles away, Hidden Lake within 2 miles and French Lake 2.2 miles away. No county line comes close, which keeps the paperwork simple.

• Where to Fish on Dalton Lake

  Depth is unmeasured here, so let the shoreline guide you. Look for the band where the shallows give up and the bottom falls away. Weed, then depth: that is the order to fish a water of this kind. Survey and observation records for Clearwater County include rainbow trout, cutthroat trout and Chinook salmon. Protected fish appear in the records for this area, so treat the list as information, not an invitation. Dalton Lake gives up its fish to patience rather than distance.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Seasonal averages run from 20°F in December up to 56°F in August. A solid cap is the normal state through winter. Ice-out usually falls in early May, and the weeks after it fish hardest. The open-water window runs from around early May to about mid November in an average year. Reckon on open water from spring through to late autumn, with May and June the strongest. Dalton Lake fishes to that pattern most years.

• Tackle & Baits

  Nothing in our records says who may fish here. Mapping records no facilities at all near this water. For the bass here, soft plastics worked slow along cover and a spinnerbait for searching do most of the work. Look for a notice board at the entrance. Some stretches are reserved and marked as such on the ground. Pearl Lake at 0.5 miles is the sensible second choice. Confirm before you fish Dalton Lake.