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Home › Waters › Montana › Big Spring Creek
Spring creek · Central Montana, Fergus County, the Judith Basin below Lewistown at the foot of the Big Snowy Mountains · Montana

Big Spring Creek Fishing Guides

A central Montana limestone spring creek rising from one of the largest freshwater springs in the state, running cold and weedy through the Judith Basin below Lewistown with wild rainbow and brown trout.

A river meandering through open sage flats under big sky in the Northern Rockies

Map of the Big Spring Creek

28 numbered points: 7 access points, 1 bait & fly shop, 10 bridges, 5 parks and conservation areas, 2 agency offices, 1 hazard, 1 spring, 1 USGS gauge. Tap a marker for details. Reviewed Sep 23, 2026.

Printable version →
  • Access / boat ramp (7)
  • Bait, tackle & fly shop (1)
  • Bridge crossing (10)
  • Park / conservation area (5)
  • Agency / conservation office (2)
  • Dam / hazard (1)
  • Spring (1)
  • USGS gauge (1)
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Points are curated from OpenStreetMap and state agency sources; confirm access and hours before you go.

Print it. Bag it. Bring it.Phones die, screens crack, and most of this water has no signal. Print this map, fold it into a zip-top bag or dry bag with your license, and you have a backup your electronics can’t give you. Every marker is numbered so you can say exactly where you are.

Open the printable map
All 28 points on this map
#PointTypeLat, LonNotes
1Big Spring
Source of Big Spring Creek - Lewistown's water supply		Spring47.00250, -109.34357One of the largest freshwater springs in the United States. The creek starts here at about 1,269 m and runs roughly 60 km north-west to the Judith River; the whole fishery below this point is spring-fed and fishes year round.
2Fish Hatchery Road
First crossing below the spring		Bridge crossing47.00815, -109.34987Upstream of the state hatchery, about 1.3 km down from the spring.
3Hatchery
Montana FWP fishing access site		Access / boat ramp47.00765, -109.35074The uppermost FWP site on the creek, at the Big Springs trout hatchery about 5 miles south of Lewistown on Big Spring Creek Road (MT 466), bearing right at the Y onto Fish Hatchery Road. Wade access - this is not a float stream.
4Dill LaneBridge crossing47.01633, -109.35479Road crossing about 3.2 km below the spring.
5Fish Hatchery Road
Second Fish Hatchery Road crossing		Bridge crossing47.02204, -109.36166The road crosses the creek twice; this is the lower of the two, about 4.3 km below the spring.
6Spring Creek
Montana FWP fishing access site		Access / boat ramp47.02936, -109.38066About 3 miles south of Lewistown on Upper Spring Creek Road (MT 238). FWP's own site name is just 'Spring Creek' - it is on Big Spring Creek.
7Swan LaneBridge crossing47.03323, -109.38590Road crossing about 9.6 km below the spring, upstream of Lewistown.
8Foxfarm RoadBridge crossing47.03384, -109.39067Road crossing about 10.2 km below the spring.
9Green Bridge
Named bridge on the upper creek		Bridge crossing47.03332, -109.39479About 10.7 km below the spring, just upstream of the Brewery Flats reach.
10Brewery Flats
Montana FWP fishing access site		Access / boat ramp47.04711, -109.412331 mile south of Lewistown on Upper Spring Creek Road (MT 238). The reach here was re-meandered in a well-known stream restoration project and is the most walked water on the creek.
11Jaycees Park
Lewistown city park		Park / conservation area47.05037, -109.42301Creekside park on the south edge of town, at the foot of the Brewery Flats reach.
12Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge
Refuge headquarters, Lewistown		Agency / conservation office47.05144, -109.44232USFWS office about 1.6 km west of the creek; the refuge itself is on the Missouri, not on this creek.
13Frank Day Park
Lewistown city park		Park / conservation area47.05797, -109.41836On the creek where it enters town, next to the Lewistown trail system.
14Bureau of Land Management - Lewistown Field Office
BLM field office, north-east Lewistown		Agency / conservation office47.07080, -109.40067About 1.6 km from the creek. The field office covers the surrounding public land, not the creek itself.
15Weir in Lewistown
Unnamed in OSM		Dam / hazard47.05982, -109.41606A weir on the creek inside Lewistown, beside the trail system. It is mapped with no name and no operator - read it on the ground before wading through it.
16Lewistown Trail System footbridge
Pedestrian crossing		Bridge crossing47.05978, -109.41647Trail bridge next to the weir; the town trail follows the creek from here north.
17Sport Center
Sporting goods, Lewistown		Bait, tackle & fly shop47.06558, -109.42470Sells fishing tackle; the shop's own site carries a fishing department. OSM name is 'Sport Center'; the business trades as The Sport Center. About 100 m from the creek in the middle of town.
18Hawthorne Park
Lewistown city park		Park / conservation area47.06886, -109.42963
19Mill Ditch Park
Lewistown city park		Park / conservation area47.06880, -109.42257Right on the bank, about 60 m off the water.
20East Main Street
US 87 business route through Lewistown		Bridge crossing47.06853, -109.42144The main crossing in the middle of town.
21Lazy KB
Montana FWP fishing access site		Access / boat ramp47.07390, -109.42728On the edge of the Lewistown city limits off US 191.
22Kendall RoadBridge crossing47.07500, -109.42900Crossing at the north edge of town, just below the Lazy KB site.
23Judith Park
Lewistown city park		Park / conservation area47.07386, -109.43129
24Carroll Trail
Montana FWP fishing access site		Access / boat ramp47.08176, -109.445491 mile north of Lewistown on Joyland Road.
25USGS 06111800 - Big Spring Cr at R&B Trading Post nr Lewistown
Live flow and gauge height		USGS gauge47.08783, -109.45750The creek's only USGS gauge, at the Reed & Bowles (R&B) Trading Post site. Coordinates are the USGS station record.
26Joyland RoadBridge crossing47.09306, -109.46087Crossing just below the gauge and the Reed & Bowles site.
27Reed & Bowles
Montana FWP fishing access site		Access / boat ramp47.09463, -109.465302 miles north of Lewistown on Joyland Road, at the historic Reed and Bowles trading post the USGS gauge is named for.
28Hruska
Montana FWP fishing access site		Access / boat ramp47.11126, -109.50574The lowest FWP site on the creek - 6 miles north-west of Lewistown off Hanover Road (MT 426) on Scott Crossing Road. Below here the creek runs about 28 km of mostly private ground to the Judith River.

Guides on the Big Spring Creek

Claimed profiles take booking requests. Unclaimed profiles are built from public records so the river is never empty; the guide can claim or remove one any time.

About the Big Spring Creek

Big Spring Creek rises a few miles south of Lewistown from a limestone spring that discharges a remarkable and remarkably steady volume of cold water, and it runs north through the Judith Basin to meet the Judith River. It is the genuine article as spring creeks go. The water emerges at close to a constant temperature year round, and that single fact shapes the fishery more than anything else about the drainage.

What a spring source buys an angler is stability. Flow varies far less here than on a snowmelt river, the creek does not blow out with spring runoff the way the nearby freestone streams do, and it stays cold through the hottest weeks of a central Montana summer and open through much of the winter. That constancy produces dense aquatic vegetation, enormous numbers of scuds, sowbugs and midges, and trout that grow quickly on them.

The creek fishes like a spring creek rather than a mountain stream. It is weedy, comparatively flat and often clear enough that trout see an angler well before the angler sees the trout. Presentation matters more than fly selection through much of the year, and fishing small imitations on light tippet to visible fish is the normal approach. Wild rainbow and brown trout are the mainstays, brook trout appear particularly in the upper reaches, and mountain whitefish are abundant and often take a nymph intended for something else.

Lewistown sits astride the creek, and a good deal of the water near town is accessible and locally popular. Below town the creek runs through ranch country where access requires attention to Montana’s stream access rules.

The city maintains a trout hatchery at the spring itself, which is worth a visit, and the volume pouring out of the hillside there explains the creek’s character better than any description can.

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Reader photo license v1.0 — the short version:

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  • Withdrawing is one email to hello@guidedfloats.com naming the photo. It comes off the site within 7 days.
Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

Flow alert

Tell me when the Big Spring Creek cfs

Now: 152 cfs, read 5:30 pm CDT, Sun Oct 18, 2026 (USGS 06111800, Big Spring Cr at R&B Trading Post nr Lewistown MT).

We never use this address for anything else and never share it. See the privacy policy.

Access

Lewistown - the town on the creek, with lodging, fuel, tackle and fly shop support.
Big Spring Creek Trout Hatchery - the state hatchery at the spring source south of town.
Brewery Flats - a restored reach with public access and walk in fishing near Lewistown.
Machler and Ackley fishing access sites - state access points along the drainage.
Judith River - the river the creek joins north of Lewistown.
Big Snowy Mountains - the range south of town, source of the limestone aquifer.
Crystal Lake - a small mountain lake in the Big Snowies for a change of pace.

Seasons

Spring: the creek stays fishable while freestone rivers blow out, with midges and early mayflies.
Summer: weed growth peaks, terrestrial fishing is strong and cold spring water keeps trout active.
Fall: brown trout colour up and move to spawn, and the creek fishes very well in cooling weather.
Winter: much of the creek stays open and ice free, and midge fishing continues on milder days.

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Questions

What is the current flow on the Big Spring Creek?

As of Oct 18, 5:30 pm, the USGS gauge Big Spring Cr at R&B Trading Post nr Lewistown MT reads 152 cfs. Conditions update every 15 minutes.

What species can you catch on the Big Spring Creek?

Anglers target Brook Trout, Brown Trout, Mountain Whitefish, Rainbow Trout, Westslope Cutthroat Trout, White Sucker on the Big Spring Creek in Montana.

Are there fishing guides on the Big Spring Creek?

GuidedFloats lists 1 guide and outfitters on the Big Spring Creek. Claimed profiles accept booking requests; unclaimed profiles are built from public records and link to the business.

Where can you access the Big Spring Creek?

Lewistown - the town on the creek, with lodging, fuel, tackle and fly shop support. Big Spring Creek Trout Hatchery - the state hatchery at the spring source south of town. Brewery Flats - a restored reach with public access and walk in fishing near Lewistown. Machler and Ackley fishing access sites - state access points along the drainage. Judith River - the river the creek joins north of Lewistown. Big Snowy Mountains - the range south of town, source of the limestone aquifer. Crystal Lake - a small mountain lake in the Big Snowies for a change of pace.

When is the best time to fish the Big Spring Creek?

Spring: the creek stays fishable while freestone rivers blow out, with midges and early mayflies. Summer: weed growth peaks, terrestrial fishing is strong and cold spring water keeps trout active. Fall: brown trout colour up and move to spawn, and the creek fishes very well in cooling weather. Winter: much of the creek stays open and ice free, and midge fishing continues on milder days.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Big Spring Creek?

Regulations change by season and section. Read the current rules on the Montana agency site: https://fwp.mt.gov/fish/regulations