Cameron Lake in Itasca County: How and When to Fish It

• Overview

  Cameron Lake falls in Itasca County, part of Minnesota. Height above sea level is 1,329 feet. Roughly 63 acres: a morning covers one end, an afternoon the other. With about 1.2 miles of edge, you can try several depths in one session. The closest town, Coleraine, is 26 miles away. For a city, Fargo is 160 miles off. There is no boundary nearby to worry about.

• Where to Fish on Cameron Lake

  Depth remains unrecorded, so treat the first session as a survey. A natural lake fishes on cover, and cover here means weed and timber. Weed, then depth: that is the order to fish a water of this kind. Open biodiversity records for Itasca County list yellow perch, largemouth bass, northern pike and bluegill. Those are county-wide records, so not every one of them will be in this water. At Cameron Lake the water rewards a slow, careful approach.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Seasonal averages run from 4°F in January up to 66°F in July. A solid cap is the normal state through winter. Ice-out usually falls in mid April, and the weeks after it fish hardest. In an average year the thaw lands around mid April and the freeze near late November. Look to early summer and the first cool weeks of autumn. It holds true on Cameron Lake more years than not.

• Tackle & Baits

  No public source sets out the position on this bank. Records list it as a natural water body rather than an impoundment. No built facilities appear in mapping around this water. A small crankbait along the drop and a worm in the thick stuff cover the bass. Gates get locked out of season on water like this. Where parking is tight, arriving early solves most problems. For a change of water, Willis Lake is 1 mile distant. Signs at Cameron Lake carry more weight than any list.