Lily Pond Fishing in Ontonagon County, Michigan

• Overview

  Michigan holds Lily Pond, in Ontonagon County. Elevation runs to 1,470 feet. Surface area runs to about 12 acres — small enough to read in one session. It is high ground by Michigan standards. Wakefield is the closest town at 19 miles. The big place round here is Thunder Bay, 116 miles distant. It sits well inside the county, so one set of rules covers it.

• Where to Fish on Lily Pond

  No depth figure has reached our records, which makes a plummet useful. Where the bottom changes texture, fish gather; find that line. Read the surface for the wind lane, then fish the edge of it. Ontonagon County records list yellow perch, pink salmon and walleye among the fish reported. It is the county picture; the agency list is water-specific. Read Lily Pond for ten minutes before the first cast goes out.

• Seasonal Patterns

  The warm month here averages 65°F; the cold one sits at 11°F. Winter shuts the surface down for months. The lid usually sets by midwinter and gives way around late April. Averages suggest open water from about late April through to roughly late November. June through September is the settled part of the year, with the shoulders busier for fish. Lily Pond runs to its own calendar within the local pattern.

• Tackle & Baits

  Who may fish here is not settled in anything we hold. 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. Check locally before you travel, because a wasted drive is a long one. Where parking is tight, arriving early solves most problems. For a change of water, Mirror Lake is 1.8 miles distant. What applies at Lily Pond may have changed since it was mapped.