Where to Fish Bighorn Lake


The 525-foot-high Yellowtail Dam impounds the Bighorn River at Fort Smith, Montana. Yellowtail Dam was completed in 1965 and changed a good warmwater fishery into a high quality tailwater trout fishery below the dam. Its construction created and made accessible Bighorn Lake which lies in a sand- and limestone-walled defile cut between the Bighorn and Pryor Mountains by the Bighorn River. Hundreds of feet down, within the Bighorn Canyon, water is backed up some 41 miles in Montana and 30 miles into Wyoming. In Montana, Bighorn Lake has a surface area of 5574 acres. Yellowtail Dam is used for peaking power with the Yellowtail Afterbay Dam 2 miles downstream functioning as a re-regulating facility. Because of the dam, streamflow in the river is relatively stable with little daily fluctuation. Bighorn Lake, like the river reach it inundated, supports a warmwater fishery.

Size: 5574 acres
Elevation: 3302.96 ft
Status of the Fishery: Some native species such as Sauger and reintroduced Shovelnose Sturgeon in the reservoir rely heavily on the Bighorn River in Wyoming for spawning habitat and recruitment. The reservoir does provide spawning for Smallmouth Bass, Channel Catfish and Ling. The reservoir is managed as a Walleye fishery. The reservoir offers limited natural recruitment and is therefore annually stocked with Walleye to maintain the fishery.In 2009 the strategy for maintaining Walleye changed from stocking typical/diploid Walleye fingerling to newly available triploid/sterile Walleye fingerling which were larger in size than the diploid fingerling.
Township/Range/Section: 06S 31E 19
Latitude/Longitude: 45.3062 -107.97335
FWP Region: Region 5  
County: Carbon
Fishing District: Central
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Waterbody Section Field Form Type Date Purpose Species
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For Comparative analysis all Length Units are millimeters : all Weights are grams

Species Count Avg StdDev Min Max AvgWgt StdDevWgt MinWeight S/L Sects Surveys Waterbody
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For Comparative analysis all Length Units are millimeters : all Weights are grams

Waterbody Section Species Count AveLength StdDevLength MinLength MaxLength AveWeight StdDevWeight MinWeight MaxWeight
To see this data, first select one or more rows from the Collection Info tab.
For Comparative analysis all Length Units are millimeters : all Weights are grams

Waterbody Year Section Species Count AveLength StdDevLength MinLength MaxLength AveWeight StdDevWeight MinWeight MaxWeight
To see this data, first select one or more rows from the Collection Info tab.
This is a preview, all fields will be visible by selecting a download option. For Comparative analysis all Length Units are millimeters : all Weights are grams.

Year Species Abbrv Length Weight M/C Count Sex Mort Hook Scar Disease Scales Otolith Fin Clip Tag Comment Genetics Age Stomach Intercept Slope Gear Equipment Trip Date Pass/Run Water Section Lat/Down Lon/Down Lat/Up Lon/Up Agency Start Depth End Depth
Year Angler Days Std. Error
2021 10798 2191
2020 8117 1732
2019 4304 1109
2017 7448 1984
2015 9713 1881
View the latest Montana Fishing Regulations.

This waterbody has a fish consumption advisory. Please see the link for guidelines.

Fish Consumption Guidelines (PDF)

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