Summer transitions are underway at Canyon Ferry, and while the fish are shifting their habits, the action remains steady if you know where to look. Thank you to Jonathan Miller with Capital Sports in Helena—a true Montana Outdoor Approved partner—for providing this week’s breakdown. Whether you are targeting shallow-water walleye or hunting hard-fighting rainbows near the dam, Jonathan’s insights and precise speed tactics will help you dial in your presentation.
Here is the full breakdown of what’s biting, where they are hiding, and the exact colors hitting the mark right now:
Canyon Ferry:
Fishing on the south end continues to perform. The shallower bite has slowed down a bite but there are still walleye being caught on crankbaits in the 6’ to 8’ range. Perch patterns will still produce fish but the brighter colors with the murky/stained water will get more attention. Fire tiger or firetail patterns are my staple bright cranks that I prefer. With the fish sliding out to the deeper water, bottom bouncers are going to become the primary presentation of choice. Still the usual suspects, orange, chartreuse and fire tiger patterns on the worm harness are going to be the standard picks. I have luck before on black/gold in previous years as well as blue. I would start looking in the 15’ of water and work deeper each pass until you find the walleye. Staying under 1.0mph when using bottom bouncers has given me my best results.
Jigging mid lake for the walleye is slow. Granted the biggest walleye so far we have caught was mid lake but it was a long day for only a couple fish. The better action was still south from white earth. Chartreuse and pearl seemed to be the preferred color but a few other fish were caught on minnow/goby color patterns. Targeting the deeper shelves is where the fish seemed to prefer to hangout.
The trout mid lake to the dam were very willing to bite. Weird bite windows though. When they were on they would bite anything and everything but once that window ended you couldn’t pay for a fish. So it is one of those things that the more time you can spend on the water the better the chances. Overall the rainbows were responding best to a hot steel or crazy steel color pattern but fire tiger or chartreuse and pearl patterns were getting their attention too. If trolling cranks, 2.0mph to 2.5mph is a good speed range. If you want to try cowbells then aim for the 1.5mph range. The surprising thing was how high in the lake the trout were when I was fishing. They seemed to range as shallow as 10’ and bottomed out at 20’ for the most part. That being said, the deeper fish seemed more willing than the shallow fish and they fought HARD!
Inflow took a dive down to 2800cfs but the lake is relatively healthy and holding at 87.5%
