Turquoise Lake Fishing Guide, Lake County, Montana

• Overview

  Look for Turquoise Lake in Lake County, Montana. Everything around it is mixed forest. Roughly 187 acres: a morning covers one end, an afternoon the other. About 3.1 miles of bank, so nothing stays unexplored for long. Few waters listed in Lake County are bigger. The town to know is Ronan, 16 miles out. It is 168 miles to Spokane, the nearest city. It lies deep inside the county rather than near an edge.

• Where to Fish on Turquoise Lake

  Depth remains unrecorded, so treat the first session as a survey. Look for the band where the shallows give up and the bottom falls away. On a natural lake the weed line and the shelf beyond it do the work. Public occurrence data for Lake County names rainbow trout, sockeye salmon, smallmouth bass, yellow perch and largemouth bass. Protected fish appear in the records for this area, so treat the list as information, not an invitation. At Turquoise Lake light and wind decide more than tackle does.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Average temperature peaks around 54°F in August and bottoms out near 16°F in December. A solid cap is the normal state through winter. The open season starts with the thaw, near enough mid May. Averages place the thaw at mid May and the freeze at early November. The strongest runs come at either end of the open season. Turquoise Lake runs to that rhythm year in and year out.

• Tackle & Baits

  The paperwork position is blank for this one. It formed naturally, so levels move with rainfall rather than with a gate. We find no slipway, car park or made path within a short radius, so treat access as rough. Bass water: a Texas-rigged worm near cover, a spinnerbait when you need to cover ground. Take the rules with you rather than trusting memory. Barbless rules turn up on managed water more often than not. For a change of water, Jewell Lake is 0.5 miles distant. Signs at Turquoise Lake carry more weight than any list.