Old Woman Lake Fishing near Fort Belknap Agency, Montana

• Overview

  Montana holds Old Woman Lake, in Blaine County. Everything around it is open dry country. The water measures roughly 18 acres, so nothing here is far from anything else. On size it sits at the modest end of our Blaine County list. Fort Belknap Agency is the closest town at 16 miles. Billings sits 176 miles out, and it is the nearest city worth the name. The nearest boundary is well away, so one set of rules covers the water.

• Where to Fish on Old Woman Lake

  No chart reached our records; the first cast is your sounding. A natural lake fishes on cover, and cover here means weed and timber. Read the surface for the wind lane, then fish the edge of it. Across Blaine County, recorded fish include rainbow trout, walleye and black crappie. The list covers the county rather than this water alone, so treat it as a guide. Old Woman Lake fishes better once you know its edges.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Averages here run 69°F at the top of summer and 14°F at the bottom of winter. The freeze arrives properly here and holds. Break-up comes around early April, and the run that follows is short and strong. On the long-run averages the water opens up around early April and starts locking again about late November. June through September is the settled part of the year, with the shoulders busier for fish. At Old Woman Lake the season follows that pattern closely.

• Tackle & Baits

  Public data does not answer the access question here. Access points are not mapped for this water, which suits people who like quiet. For the bass here, soft plastics worked slow along cover and a spinnerbait for searching do most of the work. Parking space is the usual limit rather than the bank itself. Signs go up and come down, so check on the day. Bigby Lake, 4.9 miles away, makes the obvious fallback. Treat Old Woman Lake as unsettled until someone local tells you otherwise.