Bighorn Lake fishing guide

Public access & launches

Explore public access points and the exact bank on the interactive map in the app.

Regulations

• All species

  Anglers obtaining live bait fish in Montana may use them only in the Montana portion of the lake.

• BassCentral Fishing District

  Bass: 10 daily and 20 in possession. Shovelnose sturgeon: 2 daily and in possession. Sauger/walleye: 6 daily (only 3 may be sauger) and 12 in possession (only 3 may be sauger). Channel catfish: 6 daily and in possession. Burbot (ling): 3 daily and in possession. Hook and Line: 2 lines with 2 hooks per line on open water and 6 lines with 1 hook per line through the ice. Anglers obtaining live bait fish in Montana may use them only in the Montana portion of the lake.

• Bass

  Bag

  10 daily and 20 in possession

• Burbot (ling)

  Bag

  3 daily and in possession

• Channel catfish

  Bag

  6 daily and in possession

• Sauger/walleye

  Bag

  6 daily (only 3 may be sauger) and 12 in possession (only 3 may be sauger)

• Shovelnose sturgeon

  Bag

  2 daily and in possession

• All species

  Handling and Transporting Legally Taken Fish: While fishing or on the water/ice, all fish in possession must be visibly identifiable to species. Unless size limits apply, fish may be cleaned prior to transport so long as the entire skin remains attached to the fish or fillet for identification. Two fillets will be counted as one fish. If frozen prior to transport, each fish or fillet must be packaged so it can be counted. Consumption of fish on the ice or water is allowed but counts toward daily limit.

• All species

  Fishing Methods: Fish may be taken only by hook and line or other approved methods. Regulations for the taking of fish are listed in the standard regulations for each fishing district (see pages 23, 50 & 79).

• All species

  Fishing From Boats/Vessels: When a water is closed to Fishing From Boats/Vessels, an angler may not fish while on any boat or vessel. However, an angler may use a boat or vessel to access wade fishing opportunities; the angler must be completely out of the boat or vessel while wade fishing.

As of 2026-08-28.Guidance, not legal advice — always confirm current rules with the state.Official Montana regulations

What’s in it

Recorded in/near this water. Occurrence-based unless a higher-confidence source is shown — see it per-species in the app.

More Montana fishing

Montana field notes

Bozeman, MT

Bozeman Built a Trail System Out of Handshakes and Easements

Nearly 100 miles of trail start inside Bozeman and run to the mountains, and most of it exists because a land trust spent thirty-five years negotiating easements across private ranchland one landowner at a time. The M and Drinking Horse are the famous pair. The system behind them is the actual story.

Missoula, MT

Missoula Hikes You Can Walk To From Downtown

A university town of 78,000 people sits where five valleys meet, with a mountain rising straight off the campus and a 61,000-acre wilderness up the road behind the houses. The famous hike takes forty minutes and most of the town has done it drunk at least once.

West Glacier, MT

The Highline Trail's Hand Cable Is the Least Frightening Part

Every photograph of this trail shows the same thing: a narrow ledge, a garden hose of steel cable bolted to the rock, and a very long way down. In practice that section takes four minutes and the tread is excellent. The parts worth thinking about come later: the shuttle you must book, the parking cap, and the grizzlies.

Babb, MT

Grinnell Glacier Before It's Gone: The Boat Shortcut, the Bears, and the Best Light

A trail cut into a cliff above two turquoise lakes, ending at a glacier that has been measured shrinking for a century. There is a boat that removes 3.4 miles of it, a mid-July opening date that catches people out, and enough grizzly activity that bear spray is standard equipment rather than a precaution.

West Yellowstone, MT

Fly Fishing Yellowstone National Park: Cutthroat in the Meadows, Wolves on the Ridge, and the Strangest Trout Stream on Earth

Yellowstone holds the largest concentration of wild cutthroat trout in the world, a river that flows past erupting geysers, and backcountry meadow streams where you fish with bison grazing behind you and wolves howling at dusk. It's not just fly fishing. It's fly fishing inside the world's first national park.

West Glacier, MT

Fly Fishing Glacier National Park: Native Cutthroat, Wild Rivers, and Backcountry Water That Hasn't Changed in a Thousand Years

Glacier National Park holds 700 miles of streams and over 130 named lakes, most of them holding native westslope cutthroat trout that have never seen a hatchery. The fishing is wild, the setting is the most dramatic in North America, and the native fish are counting on you to handle them with care.

Bighorn Lake fishing — FAQ