Canyon Ferry Lake Water Level
Canyon Ferry Lake is at 3,785.05 ft today (Oct 31), 11.95 ft below its 3,797 ft full pool, up 0.39 ft this week.
Montana · Missouri River
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Water level history
About Canyon Ferry Lake
Canyon Ferry Lake is a reservoir on the Missouri River in Montana, operated by U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. Its full summer pool sits at 3797 ft above sea level. Live water levels come from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (CWMS) and update hourly.
Understanding Canyon Ferry Lake's water level
Canyon Ferry Lake is the first big storage reservoir on the Missouri, about 27 river miles below Townsend and a short drive east of Helena. The Bureau of Reclamation built the concrete gravity dam between May 1949 and June 1954 as part of the Pick-Sloan Missouri Basin Program, authorized by the Flood Control Act of 1944, and the first generator came online in December 1953. The dam stands 225 feet high and 1,000 feet long, with a spillway of four radial gates rated at 150,000 cubic feet per second and three generating units. At the full pool of 3,797 feet the lake holds about 1.89 million acre-feet and covers roughly 35,200 acres with 76 miles of shoreline. Releases pass next into Hauser Lake, behind NorthWestern Energy's Hauser Dam, and then into Holter Reservoir, so Canyon Ferry sets the pace for the whole chain of lakes below it.
The level follows the snowpack in the Jefferson, Madison and Gallatin basins. Reclamation draws the lake down through fall and winter to make room for runoff, and over the last thirty years the spring low has usually come around late March or early April, typically 10 to 20 feet below full. Melt then refills it through May and June, and in most years it tops out in late June or early July right around 3,797 feet, the top of the joint use pool. Above that, the band from 3,797 to 3,800 feet is exclusive flood control space of about 101,000 acre-feet. In 2018, with inflows running about 100,000 acre-feet above the 1976 record, Reclamation raised releases late in May to hold the lake near full, which pushed the river up at Cascade and Ulm. Dry winters show the other side: the lake peaked near 3,790 feet in 2000, 2001, 2013 and 2021, and only about 3,786 feet in 2004.
Before the federal dam there was an older one. Samuel Hauser's Missouri River Power Company built a timber crib and rock fill dam here from 1896 to 1898 to power Helena, and its pool was called Lake Sewell. The settlement of Canyon Ferry began in 1865 as a cable ferry crossing for miners, replaced by a steel bridge in 1901. The new dam went in about a mile and a quarter downstream of the old one, and the far larger reservoir covered about 25 miles of river bottom, the town of Canton and some 4,000 acres of farmland. The fishery has changed as much as the shoreline. Walleye were first caught in Canyon Ferry in 1989, and big year classes in 1996 and 1997 began eating stocked rainbow trout fingerlings, so Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks moved to stocking rainbows over seven inches. Yellow perch, once among the most abundant fish here, declined and have been under harvest limits since 2000.
Canyon Ferry Lake — frequently asked
What is full pool at Canyon Ferry Lake?
Full pool is 3,797 feet, which Reclamation lists as both the top of the joint use pool and the top of active conservation. The lake holds about 1.89 million acre-feet there. The next three feet, up to 3,800, are exclusive flood control space worth roughly 101,000 acre-feet, and the dam crest sits at 3,808.5 feet. A reading slightly above 3,797 in early summer means some of that flood space is being used.
When does Canyon Ferry Lake fill up?
Usually in late June or early July. Over the past thirty years the median date of the yearly peak has been about June 28. The lake is drawn down through winter, bottoms out around late March or April, then rises fast once snowmelt arrives in late May and June. In 2022, for example, it sat near 3,781 feet on June 1 and reached 3,797 feet by July 8.
Why is Canyon Ferry so low in spring?
Reclamation lowers it on purpose. Fall and winter releases make room to capture the May through July runoff, which averages about 1.5 million acre-feet. In spring 2022 a cold spring delayed melt, April inflow was the lowest since 1961, and the lake sat about 18 feet below average in late May. Shannon boat launch was more than 27 feet from the water and most Kim's Marina docks were unusable until the lake came up.
What is the record high at Canyon Ferry Lake?
Reclamation's daily records show the lake at 3,800.00 feet, the top of the flood control pool, in several early years including July 1955, July 1956, July 1962 and June 1964. The highest since then was 3,799.93 feet on 9 July 1975. In the 2018 runoff, which set an inflow record, the lake peaked at 3,798.93 feet on 26 June.
What is the lowest Canyon Ferry has been?
Leaving out the first filling in 1953 and 1954, the lowest daily reading in Reclamation's record is 3,764.70 feet on 11 April 1967, about 32 feet below full pool. The lowest since then was 3,769.15 feet on 17 April 1997, and that spring the lake still refilled to 3,798.49 feet by 20 June. Note that the gauge widget on this page shows only roughly the last five years.
What are the walleye limits at Canyon Ferry?
Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks cut the reservoir limit from 20 walleye a day to 10, with only one fish over 15 inches. The aim is to steer harvest toward the plentiful small walleye so the survivors grow larger, and FWP encourages anglers to keep the small ones. Walleye were not found above the dam in sampling from 1955 to 1988. Check the current FWP regulations before you go, since limits are reviewed periodically.
What was under Canyon Ferry Lake before it was flooded?
The reservoir covered about 25 miles of Missouri River bottom, roughly 4,000 acres of farmland and the town of Canton. It also drowned the original Canyon Ferry Dam, a 29 foot timber crib dam finished in 1898 that formed a much smaller lake called Lake Sewell. The present dam sits about a mile and a quarter downstream of that first one.
Other lakes near Canyon Ferry Lake
- Fort Peck LakeMT
- Bighorn LakeMT/WY
- Tiber Reservoir (Lake Elwell)MT
- Lake Francis CaseSD
- Lewis and Clark LakeSD/NE
- Lake OaheSD/ND
See current levels for all 4 Montana lakes and reservoirs →
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