Grass Lake in Schoolcraft County: How and When to Fish It

• Overview

  Grass Lake lies within the bounds of Schoolcraft County, Michigan. Around the bank it is lake country bush. Roughly 32 acres: a morning covers one end, an afternoon the other. Manistique lies 8.5 miles from the water. Gladstone is 30 miles and Escanaba 34 miles. This one sits near enough to a boundary to be worth checking. The character changes with the season more than with the year.

• Where to Fish on Grass Lake

  Depth is unknown to us, and the shoreline is the better guide. Weed, then depth: that is the order to fish a water of this kind. The productive water is a rod length or two out, not a hundred. County-wide records name rainbow smelt, alewife and bloater. Those are county-wide records, so not every one of them will be in this water. Fish Grass Lake where the bottom changes rather than where it looks deep.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Long-term averages put July at about 65°F and January near 16°F. The freeze arrives properly here and holds. The lid arrives early and lasts until roughly mid April. Averages place the thaw at mid April and the freeze at early December. The strong weeks are the first after break-up and the last before the freeze. On Grass Lake that shapes the whole year.

• Tackle & Baits

  Nothing on record says whether the bank is open or closed. Formal access is not mapped, so the last stretch is likely on foot. For the bass here, soft plastics worked slow along cover and a spinnerbait for searching do most of the work. Where access is informal, keep it that way by behaving. Where parking is tight, arriving early solves most problems. Ninemile Lake at 0.9 miles is the sensible second choice. Nothing on Grass Lake should be assumed from this page alone.