Waters · Lakes · MT · Thu, Oct 8

Canyon Ferry Lake water level today 3784.67 ft, falling

Bite index 5/10 — Picky — mid-morning is your stretch.

Work for it.

Built from solunar, pressure, level, wind. This water has no live gauge for every reading — see the sources below.

5/10
Picky

Today's bite windows

12 AM6 AMNoon6 PM11 PM
Minor
4:50 AM–5:50 AM
Moonrise
Major
10:44 AM–12:44 PM
Moon overhead
Minor
5:24 PM–6:24 PM
Moonset

Sunrise 7:35 AM · sunset 6:52 PM · tomorrow's first major 11:07 PM–1:07 AM · windows on every water

Solunar · computed updated 9:09 AM

Conditions right now

Water temp estimated
≈55.7°F
7-day mean of air temperature, ±4.5°F typical
computed from NOAA C7710 updated 8:43 AM
Water level
3784.67ft
-0.05 ft in 24h
USBR Canyon Ferry Lake Dam Powerplant and Helena Valley Pumping Plant reading for Oct 7
Pressure
30.21inHg
rising · +2.7 hPa/12h
NOAA C7710 updated 8:43 AM
Wind
3mph ESE
NOAA C7710 updated 8:43 AM
Moon
4% waning
Solunar · computed updated 9:09 AM

What this means

Largemouth bass, Crappie, Catfish
This gauge reports level but no water temperature, so depth calls stay open. Read the windows and the pressure trend instead.

Canyon Ferry Lake level over the last 8 days

3784.67 ft down 0.05 ft in 24 hours

That sits 0% of the way up the band it has held over the last 9 days, between 3784.67 and 3785.09 ft. Over the week it is down0.32ft.

09-28 3784.67–3785.09 ft 10-07
USBR Canyon Ferry Lake Dam Powerplant and Helena Valley Pumping Plant reading for Oct 7

The week ahead

Fri 7 Biting
Sat 7 Biting
Sun 7 Biting
Mon 7 Biting
Tue 6 Biting
Wed 5 Picky
Thu 6 Biting

Forecast days carry solunar and the wind outlook. Pressure and gauge movement land the morning of.

Before you go

A Montana fishing license covers this water — $21 a year for residents. FWP sets the rules and is the one that counts.

What it costs, and who is exempt →

Nearby waters today

Questions people ask about Canyon Ferry Lake

Answered from the same readings as the rest of this page. Where we have no basis for an answer, there is no entry — spot-by-spot local knowledge is not something we can claim for Canyon Ferry Lake.

Is it worth fishing Canyon Ferry Lake today?
5 out of 10 — picky. Work for it. The strongest stretch is 10:44 AM–12:44 PM. That number is worked out fresh each morning from the solunar windows, the pressure trend, the water level.
What time should you fish Canyon Ferry Lake?
Today's major windows run 10:44 AM–12:44 PM, with minor windows at 4:50 AM–5:50 AM and 5:24 PM–6:24 PM. Sunrise is 7:35 AM and sunset 6:52 PM. A major landing on first or last light is the stretch worth setting an alarm for.
What is the water temperature at Canyon Ferry Lake?
No gauge on Canyon Ferry Lake measures it, so this is an estimate: roughly 55.7°F, worked out from the 7-day mean of air temperature at NOAA weather station C7710 (CW7710 Logan). Checked against the lakes that do have a thermometer, that method lands within about 4.5°F of the real reading and was off by 8.3°F at worst. Treat it as a ballpark, not a measurement — and note the bite index above ignores it entirely, because an error that size would move the verdict as often as it would fix it.
What is the water level at Canyon Ferry Lake right now?
3784.67 ft, the reading for October 7 from the Canyon Ferry Lake Dam Powerplant and Helena Valley Pumping Plant gauge run by the USBR, which publishes one value a day. Over 24 hours it is down 0.05 ft.
Are water levels rising or falling at Canyon Ferry Lake?
Falling. The lake is down 0.05 ft in 24 hours and down 0.32 ft over the week. Over the last 9 days it has held between 3784.67 and 3785.09 ft. Every figure here is a difference between two gauge readings, not a forecast — what the level does next depends on rain and on what the dam releases.
Can you eat the fish you catch in Canyon Ferry Lake?
That is a health question, and it is answered officially rather than by us. Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, with the health and environmental departments publishes the fish consumption advisory covering these waters, where issued as one statewide document rather than a searchable database, with 21 new or revised PFAS advisories in 2026. Read it before you keep a meal — we give no eating advice.
Do you need a licence to fish Canyon Ferry Lake?
Yes. A Montana fishing license covers this water, required from age 12. FWP sets the rules and is the one that counts.
What size fish can you keep in Montana?
It depends on the species, and several have slot limits rather than a simple minimum. Open to harvest today: combined trout (brown, rainbow, golden, cutthroat and grayling), largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, northern pike. Seasons here change mid-year by agency order, so the status is re-checked every morning.

Where these numbers come from

Read at the dam by the Bureau of Reclamation once a day. No temperature sensor.

No one types these in by hand. If a source goes quiet, the page says so instead of showing you yesterday.