Montana’s Only Chinook Salmon Fishery, You May Be Surprised Where

When you tell people that they can go Chinook Salmon fishing in Montana, they get pretty excited. When you tell them where, they also typically get surprised.

Northeast Montana. Fort Peck Lake.

That's right- you can go salmon fishing in Fort Peck Lake. If you were told that you can salmon fish in Montana, it might be easy to assume that you'd have to be in Northwest Montana.

Montana Fish Wildlife & Parks recently sent out an advisory noting how the summer salmon fishing season is starting to wind down, but how the "much more 'accessible' snagging and archery season will be begin starting Oct. 1, along with FWP’s annual salmon egg collection efforts."

When did salmon first get introduced into Fort Peck? 1983.

Due to the abundance of their preferred forage fish – cisco – salmon have shown excellent growth, with males maturing in two to four years and females in three to four years…often leading to large fish of 20 pounds or more.

When do FWP staff start collecting salmon eggs?

In the spring of 2025, a total 230,000 Chinook salmon were released back into Fort Peck from the fall of 2024 egg take. FWP fisheries and hatchery staff will begin collecting adult Chinook salmon on Fort Peck starting the first week of October. The annual collection effort lasts through much of October, with the goal of collecting enough eggs to fill the Fort Peck Hatchery.

When does the salmon snagging and archery season begin? Wednesday, Oct. 1

The archery season runs through Oct. 15 and the snagging season runs through Nov. 30. This popular fishery brings in a lot of folks to the bays and boat ramps at the lower (dam end) of Fort Peck Reservoir, as the salmon tend to congregate near boat ramps and shorelines where they were first stocked.

 

Click here for the full advisory from MT FWP.