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Home › Waters › Montana › Flathead Lake
Lake · Flathead Valley · Montana

Flathead Lake Fishing Guides

The largest natural freshwater lake west of the Mississippi, twenty-eight miles of clear water under the Mission Mountains, with a lake trout fishery and a complicated conservation story.

A broad northern lake broken by wooded islands under open sky

Map of the Flathead Lake

23 numbered points: 1 access point, 1 campsite, 17 parks and conservation areas, 1 agency office, 2 hazards, 1 USGS gauge. Tap a marker for details. Reviewed Sep 15, 2026.

Printable version →
  • Access / boat ramp (1)
  • Campsite (1)
  • Park / conservation area (17)
  • Agency / conservation office (1)
  • Dam / hazard (2)
  • 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 23 points on this map
#PointTypeLat, LonNotes
1Polson / Flathead Lake KOA Holiday
Private · Polson		Campsite47.69943, -114.18752
2Seli’š Ksanka Qlispe’ Dam
Energy Keepers, Inc. · lake outlet		Dam / hazard47.67756, -114.23416The dam at the lake's outlet into the Flathead River.
3Walstead Park
West shore		Park / conservation area47.81138, -114.26540
4Big Arm Unit — Flathead Lake State Park
Montana FWP · camping and boat access		Park / conservation area47.80869, -114.31265Ramp and campground share the site in OpenStreetMap; shown as one point.
5Lakeside Community Park
Lakeside · town park		Park / conservation area48.01970, -114.22328OpenStreetMap also carries a “Volunteer Park” 60 m away; treated as the same green.
6Flathead Lake State Park — West Shore Unit
Montana FWP		Park / conservation area47.94939, -114.18845
7Flathead Waterfowl Production Area
US Fish & Wildlife Service · north shore		Park / conservation area48.08079, -114.15040
8Bigfork Ranger Station
Flathead National Forest		Agency / conservation office48.06619, -114.08324
9Flathead Lake State Park — Wayfarers Unit
Montana FWP · camping and boat access		Park / conservation area48.05440, -114.08206Unit and campground are mapped separately; shown as one point.
10Osborn Landing
Bigfork		Access / boat ramp48.06153, -114.07203The one public boat landing on this lake that OpenStreetMap actually maps as an access.
11Sliter Memorial Park
Bigfork · town park		Park / conservation area48.05862, -114.07280
12Big Fork Dam
Bigfork · Swan River		Dam / hazard48.05910, -114.07108On the Swan just above its mouth at the lake's north-east corner.
13Beardance Picnic Area
East shore		Park / conservation area47.95637, -114.03441
14Flathead Picnic Area
East shore		Park / conservation area47.94106, -114.02789
15Flathead Lake State Park — Yellow Bay Unit
Montana FWP · east shore		Park / conservation area47.87578, -114.02836
16Finley Point Unit — Flathead Lake State Park
Montana FWP · camping and boat access		Park / conservation area47.75454, -114.08265
17Mission Bay Preserve
South-east shore		Park / conservation area47.69521, -114.11283
18Boettcher Park
Polson · town park		Park / conservation area47.69791, -114.13317
19Ducharme Park
Polson · town park		Park / conservation area47.69357, -114.15416
20Salish Point Park
Polson · town park		Park / conservation area47.69670, -114.16039
21USGS 12371550 — Flathead Lake at Polson
USGS gauging station		USGS gauge47.69691, -114.16130
22Sacajawea Park
Polson · town park		Park / conservation area47.69579, -114.16350
23Riverside Park
Polson · at the outlet		Park / conservation area47.69337, -114.16609

Guides on the Flathead Lake

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.

Order on this page: premium and outfitter plans first (labelled Premium placement), then claimed free profiles, then unclaimed — one published price, no bidding for position. How placement works

About the Flathead Lake

Flathead Lake is the largest natural freshwater lake west of the Mississippi, running twenty-eight miles south from the Flathead River delta to Polson under the wall of the Mission Mountains. It is deep, cold and exceptionally clear, and it sits at the centre of one of the more closely watched fisheries management stories in the West.

Lake trout dominate the catch. They were introduced a century ago, expanded dramatically after mysis shrimp were established in the system, and are now the main target for anglers and simultaneously the main problem for the native fish. Both the state and the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes actively encourage lake trout harvest, and there are organised removal events.

The native fish are the other half of the story. Bull trout and westslope cutthroat trout are present, both are of conservation concern, and the rules around them are strict and specific. Anyone fishing here should read the current regulations carefully rather than assume, because they differ from most of Montana and because the southern half of the lake lies within the Flathead Reservation and is managed under tribal rules and permits.

Lake whitefish and yellow perch are abundant and provide excellent everyday fishing, and northern pike hold in the weedy bays and the river delta.

Scale is worth stating plainly. Flathead covers close to two hundred square miles and reaches nearly four hundred feet deep, and the wind can build serious water on it in an afternoon. A boat adequate for a Montana reservoir is not necessarily adequate here.

The gauge below reports lake elevation. Flathead is regulated at Polson, filled through early summer and drawn down through autumn, and the swing is enough to change shoreline access and where fish hold along the drop-offs.

This water needs a real photo

The photo at the top of this page is not Flathead Lake.

It is a regional stand-in, honestly captioned but generic — we will not put a name to a river we cannot prove. Send us a photograph you took here and it replaces the stand-in, with your credit on it.

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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.

Pool right now

2,891.26ft
  • 24 hours-0.06 ft → steady
  • For the dateHigh for the date

Reading taken 29 min ago at USGS 12371550, Flathead Lake at Polson MT. Elevation is the surface of the lake above the survey datum, not depth. Source.

Fished this water? Add a photo

Reviewed by hand before it appears. Pick the water, not the spot — we never publish exact locations.

Never published. We use it only if we need to ask about the photo.

Posting to Flathead Lake.

JPG, PNG or WebP, up to 12 MB. We resize it and strip the location data out of the file.

The name shown under the photo. Leave blank to stay anonymous.

Reader photo license v1.0 — the short version:

  • You grant Guided Floats, LLC a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to publish, resize and crop your photo on guidedfloats.com and in GuidedFloats’ own social posts and apps. You keep the copyright and can use the photo anywhere else.
  • You confirm that you took the photo yourself, that publishing it does not infringe anyone else’s rights, and that anyone recognisable in it (or a parent or guardian, if they are under 18) is happy for it to appear here.
  • Credit is printed beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, using the credit name you give us. Leave it blank and we use your name; write “Anonymous” for no name. Your email address is never published.
  • 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.

Lake level alert

Tell me when the pool at Flathead Lake ft

Now: 2,891.26 ft pool elevation, read 5:30 am CST, Mon Nov 2, 2026 (USGS 12371550, Flathead Lake at Polson MT).

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

Access

Polson and the south shore: ramps and services, within the Flathead Reservation.
Wayfarers, Yellow Bay and Finley Point state parks: ramps and camping on the east shore.
Somers and Lakeside: north and west shore access.
Big Arm and Elmo: western shore state park access.
The Flathead River delta at the north end is shallower, weedier water.
Kalispell and Polson have full services and guides.
Note: the southern half is within the Flathead Reservation. Tribal permits apply.

Seasons

Winter: lake trout and perch, with limited ice in the sheltered bays.
Spring: lake trout accessible in shallower water and perch in the bays.
Summer: deep lake trout, whitefish, and the clearest water of the year.
Fall: the drawdown, feeding lake trout and very few boats.

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Questions

What species can you catch on the Flathead Lake?

Anglers target Bull Trout, Lake Trout, Lake Whitefish, Northern Pike, Westslope Cutthroat Trout, Yellow Perch on the Flathead Lake in Montana.

Are there fishing guides on the Flathead Lake?

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

Where can you access the Flathead Lake?

Polson and the south shore: ramps and services, within the Flathead Reservation. Wayfarers, Yellow Bay and Finley Point state parks: ramps and camping on the east shore. Somers and Lakeside: north and west shore access. Big Arm and Elmo: western shore state park access. The Flathead River delta at the north end is shallower, weedier water. Kalispell and Polson have full services and guides. Note: the southern half is within the Flathead Reservation. Tribal permits apply.

When is the best time to fish the Flathead Lake?

Winter: lake trout and perch, with limited ice in the sheltered bays. Spring: lake trout accessible in shallower water and perch in the bays. Summer: deep lake trout, whitefish, and the clearest water of the year. Fall: the drawdown, feeding lake trout and very few boats.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Flathead Lake?

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