Fishing at Lake Arrowhead, Otsego County, Michigan

• Overview

  Lake Arrowhead lies in Otsego County, Michigan. The water sits 1,257 feet up. This is sizeable water at about 295 acres, and a boat opens up most of it. Around 2.3 miles of margin, front to back. On our Otsego County list it sits near the top for size. Supplies mean a trip to Gaylord, 8.6 miles off. It is 144 miles to Grand Rapids, the nearest city. The nearest boundary is well away, so one set of rules covers the water.

• Where to Fish on Lake Arrowhead

  Depth is not on record here, which means reading the ground instead. This is a lake, so the margins and the first drop matter most. Look for the band where the shallows give up and the bottom falls away. Survey and observation records for Otsego County include rock bass, white sucker, largemouth bass and northern pike. Those are county-wide records, so not every one of them will be in this water. At Lake Arrowhead the first feature you find is worth twenty minutes.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Averages move between 17°F in January and 66°F in July. The freeze arrives properly here and holds. Look for the thaw near mid April; the fishing lifts straight after. Open water usually runs from mid April until about early December. The open run goes from the thaw to the freeze, and April through October covers most of it. That is the shape of the year on Lake Arrowhead.

• Tackle & Baits

  Public sources are silent on who controls the bank. It formed naturally, so levels move with rainfall rather than with a gate. No made access is recorded, so a short walk in is the likely arrangement. For the bass here, soft plastics worked slow along cover and a spinnerbait for searching do most of the work. Some banks are open only from a marked point. Some ground is open by custom rather than by right, so tread carefully. Lake Little Bear sits 0.3 miles off and takes the overflow. Ask locally about Lake Arrowhead if anything is unclear.