Fishing at Pickerel Lake, Alger County, Michigan

• Overview

  Pickerel Lake lies within the bounds of Alger County, Michigan. The ground around here is lake country bush. Surface area runs to about 11 acres — small enough to read in one session. Head to Munising, 26 miles away, for anything you forgot. Then Newberry, 33 miles, and Manistique, 41 miles. Nearby alternatives: Pelican Lake at 0.2 miles, Alger Lake (0.3 miles), Birch Lakes at 0.6 miles, Mallard Lake (0.9 miles) and Clyde Lake at 1.4 miles. One jurisdiction covers this water end to end.

• Where to Fish on Pickerel Lake

  No depth figure has reached our records, which makes a plummet useful. Read the surface for the wind lane, then fish the edge of it. Still water like this holds fish on the edges rather than out in the open. Alger County records list yellow perch, rainbow smelt, northern pike, white sucker and rock bass among the fish reported. Read it as a county summary, not a water-by-water list. The shape of Pickerel Lake decides where the fish sit.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Expect July to average close to 64°F, with January the cold end at about 16°F. The freeze arrives properly here and holds. Count the season from break-up, usually late April. Climate averages put the opening at about late April and the closing near early December. The weeks after the thaw and the ones before the freeze are the strongest. Anyone fishing Pickerel Lake regularly works to that calendar.

• Tackle & Baits

  No access rule appears in what we hold. Nothing in the way of made access shows up nearby: no ramp, no car park, no path. For the bass here, soft plastics worked slow along cover and a spinnerbait for searching do most of the work. Rules differ from one water to the next round here. Barbless rules turn up on managed water more often than not. Pelican Lake, 0.2 miles away, makes the obvious fallback. Treat access at Pickerel Lake as something to verify.