Upper Miner Lakes Fishing Guide, Lemhi County, Idaho

• Overview

  Upper Miner Lakes lies in Lemhi County, in Idaho. Lake country bush runs right down to the water. It runs to roughly 41 acres — big enough to hold fish away from the bank, small enough to learn. With about 1.4 miles of edge, you can try several depths in one session. Size puts it in the front rank of our Lemhi County list. The nearest town is Salmon, 12 miles away. Boise sits 169 miles out, and it is the nearest city worth the name. It sits well inside the county, so one set of rules covers it.

• Where to Fish on Upper Miner Lakes

  Open data we checked carries no depth for this water. Bays and points beat straight shoreline every time on water like this. A natural lake fishes on cover, and cover here means weed and timber. Public occurrence data for Lemhi County names rainbow trout, cutthroat trout, Chinook salmon and brook trout. Protected fish appear in the records for this area, so treat the list as information, not an invitation. Fish Upper Miner Lakes where the bottom changes rather than where it looks deep.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Typical July readings run about 52°F; by December the average is down near 17°F. The year splits cleanly: hard water, then open water. Count the season from break-up, usually late May. Going by climate averages, expect open water from about late May until roughly early November. June through September is the settled part of the year, with the shoulders busier for fish. It holds true on Upper Miner Lakes more years than not.

• Tackle & Baits

  No public source sets out the position on this bank. This is a natural basin, not a dammed one. No launch point is recorded nearby, so this is a bank water unless you carry a boat in. Light line and small metal for the trout; a fly rod earns its place on calm evenings. A landowner's word beats anything printed elsewhere. Where parking is tight, arriving early solves most problems. Lake Geneva, 1.2 miles away, makes the obvious fallback. What applies at Upper Miner Lakes may have changed since it was mapped.