Any Western Montana Lakes near Missoula with Cutties 20" or better?

[Onthehatch]

Hi I am a college kid without much money to explore and I was wondering if there were any alpine or lowland lakes around the Missoula area with really big Cutthroats pushing 20 inches or better. I would appreciate the information greatly and if need be you can email me if its too secret to share. Thanks.

[filetandrelease]

Welcome to the site Onthehatch
 Lots of great guys here with a wealth of knowledge

[Noon]

I ditto filetandrelase, welcome to IC and it is a great community. Living in Bozeman, and just getting into fishing the hardwater, I can't give you too much info about fishing around the missoula area for big cutties. However, I can say that the yellowstone cuts typically get bigger than the westslope cuts. You might catch a few westslope cuts over 20" while living in Montana, but I dont know of many people who can pull it off consistently. I've only caught a few on the fly in the 16-18 range and they were awesome. But I have caught a handful of Yellowstone cutties around 20. Most of them on the fly because like I said I just started ice fishing recently. I also haven't gone to too many mountain lakes in the middle of winter with all the ice gear to catch them. Hopefully some of this information was helpful to you, and hopefully someone else can give some better intel on some nice lakes, that are ice fishable, that have those cutties you are looking for.
Tight lines out there and be safe

[Hammer1Down]

Being in Missoula you might want to check out Georgetown lots of brookies and rainbows with some salmon mixed in, not any cutties that I know of.  Be sort of hard pressed to find them in the 20+ range consistently. 

[Onthehatch]

Thanks for all the info guys I appreciate it! Georgetown is excellent both for fly fishing and hardwater.... not too many bookies there this year though or there just really late spawning. I caught one at least 5-6 lbs this week and I didn't realize they even got that big in there but like I said slow fishing for them. The rainbows are everywhere as usual.

[Noon]

Thanks for all the info guys I appreciate it! Georgetown is excellent both for fly fishing and hardwater.... not too many bookies there this year though or there just really late spawning. I caught one at least 5-6 lbs this week and I didn't realize they even got that big in there but like I said slow fishing for them. The rainbows are everywhere as usual.

ive only hit georgetown once and slayed the rainbows and caught a dozen kokes between 2 of us. Not a single brookie and i havent seen any in the 5lb range ever but i dont target them. In december last year, not at georgetown, I had a day with over 80 brookies and 20 cutties (biggest was still shy of 20 inches). best day of ice fishing (or just fishing) ive ever had.  fished the same water a few more times later in the season and the brookies were no where to be found.  maybe you can get at the brookies through first ice at georgetown.

[Onthehatch]

Georgetown has the best quality trophy brook trout fishery in the state of Montana. Its absolutely incredible! I catch many this size in a normal year but this year has been much different... very low numbers of brookies and I believe it is a direct result of low kokanee numbers... Where did you catch the big cutties at?

[missoulafish]

Brookies have steadily declined after the removed the protection for them...

[Noon]

Where did you catch the big cutties at?

Caught them all near in the middle of the sea of shanties haha. It was just out from sunnyside. Forget the water depth but the fish were between 1-6 feet under the ice. Was able to sight fish most of the hits. I'll send you a message if I head that way anytime this year.

[PerchPounderMT]

Try the Dempsey drainage,Upper Elliot has the largest cutts I have seen in MT.

[Noon]

Caught them all near in the middle of the sea of shanties haha. It was just out from sunnyside. Forget the water depth but the fish were between 1-6 feet under the ice. Was able to sight fish most of the hits. I'll send you a message if I head that way anytime this year.

I just re-read this post of mine and noticed a small miscommunication. I caught "kokes" (kokane salmon) in the area described above. I caught a bunch of cutties (cutthroat) out of Hyalite reservoir. I've never iced any cutthroat out of georgetown nor do i know that they are even in there.

[Onthehatch]

Thanks guys I really appreciate the information.

[Onthehatch]

How do you access upper elliot perchpounder? thanks for your info and is there anything 20" or better?

[SpitzoMT]

How do you access upper elliot ??

Get on google earth & search Upper Elliot Lake..It's located in Dempsey Basin which is between Deer Lodge & Anaconda..There's about 8 mountain lakes in that basin..The forest service road is real good from the valley up until your entering the basin..At this point there is a nice parking lot for unloading motorcycles, ATV's, UTV's or horses..From there to any of the lakes the roads & trails are very primitive..If you're dead set on fishing Upper Elliot, it can be reached on foot, horseback, motorcycle, ATV & maybe one of the newer trail sized UTV's..I've seen 4x4 trucks & Jeeps at 2 of the lakes in the basin, but no way in hell I would ever beat the crap out of one of my vehicles by taking it up there..I've taken my UTV in there once & will probably never do it again..ATV or motorcycle for me..

[missoulafish]

Probably buried in snow now too...

[PerchPounderMT]

Get on google earth & search Upper Elliot Lake..It's located in Dempsey Basin which is between Deer Lodge & Anaconda..There's about 8 mountain lakes in that basin..The forest service road is real good from the valley up until your entering the basin..At this point there is a nice parking lot for unloading motorcycles, ATV's, UTV's or horses..From there to any of the lakes the roads & trails are very primitive..If you're dead set on fishing Upper Elliot, it can be reached on foot, horseback, motorcycle, ATV & maybe one of the newer trail sized UTV's..I've seen 4x4 trucks & Jeeps at 2 of the lakes in the basin, but no way in hell I would ever beat the crap out of one of my vehicles by taking it up there..I've taken my UTV in there once & will probably never do it again..ATV or motorcycle for me..

   <----- this,we usually camp at the last crossing and atv from there,Upper Elliot trails is a bit rough.Yes.

[CaptHoss]

Take a drive to Henry's Lake Idaho for a weekend of hardwater.  Youtube it, I think you'll like what you see 

[mtgrant]

A lot of SW MT lakes are stocked with the Yellowstone Park Cuts from McBride Lake. They are raised at a hatchery on the Yellowstone River and fry are stocked  in many lakes. They top out around 20 inches. Henry's Lake and some other lakes have different strains. Snake River Cuts, Lahotan, etc. Look for the species that you want. Cuts from Pyramid Lake get huge! Good luck

[Piltzviller]

Beaver tail pond!

[Linginator]

I would suggest Salmon, Seeley, Placid, Inez, Alva Rainey or Salmon.  All have potential of holding big WS cutts.  It's all about the amount of hours put in to fishing them in my opinion.  I would say Inez, Alva and Rainey would be the top choices.