Fishing Nevins Lake in Schoolcraft County, Michigan

• Overview

  Nevins Lake is one of the Schoolcraft County listings for Michigan. The water sits 909 feet up. Roughly 278 acres of surface: treat each bay as a water in its own right. Some 4.8 miles of bank gives room to move when the wind turns. On our Schoolcraft County list it sits near the top for size. Start from Munising, 21 miles down the road. For a city, Green Bay is 163 miles off. The nearest boundary is a fair way off.

• Where to Fish on Nevins Lake

  Nothing we hold settles how deep this runs. Look for the band where the shallows give up and the bottom falls away. Still water like this holds fish on the edges rather than out in the open. Records held for Schoolcraft County cover rainbow smelt, alewife and bloater. What holds for the county may not hold for this water. Nevins Lake repays a walk before the first cast.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Expect July to average close to 64°F, with January the cold end at about 16°F. A hard winter is normal, and the thaw brings a strong few weeks. Firm cover through the cold months, then open water from late April. Averages place the thaw at late April and the freeze at early December. The weeks after the thaw and the ones before the freeze are the strongest. That is the shape of the year on Nevins Lake.

• Tackle & Baits

  Access status is simply unknown for this water. No dam controls it, and the level follows the season. There is no mapped parking or launch close by, which usually means walking in. Bass water: a Texas-rigged worm near cover, a spinnerbait when you need to cover ground. Local rules can differ across the county line, so check where you stand. Some stretches are reserved and marked as such on the ground. Deer Lake sits 0.7 miles off and takes the overflow. Treat Nevins Lake as unsettled until someone local tells you otherwise.