Georgetown Lake

Georgetown Lake is Montana’s preeminent public flatwater fishery. Rimmed by the Pintler Mountains, it’s also among the state’s most beautiful. But what attracts us are rainbow trout in the 16″- 24″ range. Yes, we said 24″ rainbows. As if these giant rainbows weren’t enough – we catch numbers of brook trout over 16” and several every year exceeding 20”! You don’t need to travel to Labrador to see fish like this – they live here – and plenty of them.

Special regulations imposed nearly two decades ago, continue to pay huge dividends. Much of the lake shore is closed to fishing before July 1st to maximize rainbows’ opportunity to grow well into maturity and anglers can only keep one brook trout per day. As the water warms in June, these leviathans fresh off the spawn gorge themselves on damsel fly nymphs, leaches, callibaetis mayflies, scuds, giant olive sedge and midges. We typically pitch small buggers and leaches to single cruisers and across spring holes through the month. Later in July continuing on into September we rarely fish a nymph or streamer. We’re sight fishing to them in just inches to a few feet of water. If you’re a saltwater angler, it will remind you of polling the flats scanning for bones, but instead of them rooting out crabs they are toilet bowling dries on the surface.

Blanketing damsel fly hatches, early morning callibaetis, gulping midge clusters and the giant olive sedge skating across the water just before dark are the occurrences you don’t want to miss! There is nothing else quite like it in Montana.  Poor river fishing conditions with bright days under high sun are often the best here.  Trips to Georgetown Lake are timing sensitive so when your guide recommends you take a day to fish there – don’t make a mistake – take them up on it.