Clear Lake Fishing in Stearns County, Minnesota

• Overview

  You will find Clear Lake in Stearns County, Minnesota. It sits at 1,161 feet above sea level. It measures about 112 acres, which is a comfortable size for bank fishing. The bank runs about 1.8 miles all the way round, so one visit can cover most of it. 5.2 miles away sits Richmond, the nearest town. Minneapolis sits 73 miles out, and it is the nearest city worth the name. No border sits close enough to matter.

• Where to Fish on Clear Lake

  The records we hold are silent on depth, so plan to find it yourself. Weed, then depth: that is the order to fish a water of this kind. This is a lake, so the margins and the first drop matter most. Reported across Stearns County: largemouth bass, bluegill and northern pike. The county figures include rivers and lakes alike. Clear Lake fishes better once you know its edges.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Typical July readings run about 71°F; by January the average is down near 10°F. Cold locks it up for a good stretch each year. Count on hard cover from midwinter, and open water from early April. The water is typically free of ice between early April and late November. The strongest runs come at either end of the open season. Plan any trip to Clear Lake around it.

• Tackle & Baits

  The paperwork position is blank for this one. Records list it as a natural water body rather than an impoundment. No slipway, car park or made path shows up nearby in mapping, so treat access as rough. Bass water: a Texas-rigged worm near cover, a spinnerbait when you need to cover ground. Rules differ from one water to the next round here. Keep proof of licence with you rather than in the car. Big Rice Lake, 0.7 miles away, makes the obvious fallback. None of that is settled for Clear Lake in what we hold.