Dirty Mike Lake Fishing near Coleraine, Minnesota

• Overview

  You will find Dirty Mike Lake in Itasca County, Minnesota. Height above sea level is 1,316 feet. Surface area runs to about 23 acres — small enough to read in one session. The nearest place of any size is Coleraine, 4.3 miles away. Grand Rapids is 8.6 miles and Cohasset 9.9 miles. No boundary runs near, so the county rules hold throughout.

• Where to Fish on Dirty Mike Lake

  Open data we checked carries no depth for this water. Weed, then depth: that is the order to fish a water of this kind. The shallow end warms first and pulls fish in ahead of the rest. Survey and observation records for Itasca County include yellow perch, largemouth bass and northern pike. These are county-wide records, so not all of them will be in this water. Dirty Mike Lake gives up more to patience than to distance.

• Seasonal Patterns

  July is the warm end of the year here, averaging about 67°F, while January sits near 5°F. Hard water is a season in its own right here. Ice-out usually falls in mid April, and the weeks after it fish hardest. Break-up near mid April, freeze-up near late November: that is the shape of an average year. Reckon on open water from spring through to late autumn, with May and June the strongest. That shapes the year on Dirty Mike Lake.

• Tackle & Baits

  The paperwork position is blank for this one. Nothing in the way of made access shows up nearby: no ramp, no car park, no path. A small crankbait along the drop and a worm in the thick stuff cover the bass. A phone call first saves an afternoon. Some ground is open by custom rather than by right, so tread carefully. The nearest alternative is Little Reiley Lake, 1.2 miles out. What applies at Dirty Mike Lake may have changed since it was mapped.