Good thing Glenn had fished at Yellow Water Reservoir in rural Central Montana 25 years ago because if you didn’t know it was here, you’d never find it. Located about 10 miles outside of Winnett, MT (population 182), you have to find an unmarked dirt road that has no signage anywhere to tell you it is the turnoff for the reservoir. The dirt road is about 5 miles back into typical high plains desert landscape with a few small rock buttes. Don’t let my grousing about getting back to the lake fool you — it was totally worth it.
It is located on BLM (Bureau of Land Management) land and you can camp for free. There are no developed sites or roads so you can find your own place near the water or anywhere in the open scrubrush. There is a small access to launch a boat – it isn’t concrete or even graveled – just gentle incline. It was perfect to launch our Porta-Bote. We trolled and did some lure fishing with no luck. There was only one other person that ventured out to the reservoir and they said it hadn’t been stocked with trout for a couple of years so fishing wasn’t good like it used to be.
Even without good fishing, this is a great place to kick back and relax and just hike around or bird watch.