Mud Lake near Arnold: Fishing Spots, Seasons and Access

• Overview

  Mud Lake is set in Saint Louis County, Minnesota. It sits at 1,398 feet above sea level. It runs to roughly 31 acres — big enough to hold fish away from the bank, small enough to learn. Shoreline comes to about 0.9 miles, small enough to learn in a day. The town to know is Arnold, 1.6 miles out. Beyond it, Duluth at 6.5 miles and Hermantown at 7.3 miles. One jurisdiction covers this water end to end.

• Where to Fish on Mud Lake

  No depth figure appears in our records, so the bank has to tell you. Read the surface for the wind lane, then fish the edge of it. Weed, then depth: that is the order to fish a water of this kind. Public occurrence data for Saint Louis County names yellow perch, northern pike and white sucker. County data is a starting point rather than a guarantee. The shape of Mud Lake rewards a slow walk along one bank.

• Seasonal Patterns

  The warm month here averages 66°F; the cold one sits at 8°F. The middle months are generous; the ends are demanding. After late April the shallows warm and the fish move up. In an average year the thaw lands around late April and the freeze near late November. September and October fish steadily right up to the freeze. Mud Lake runs to its own calendar within the local pattern.

• Tackle & Baits

  The rules here are undocumented as far as public sources go. No dam controls it, and the level follows the season. The car has to stay half a mile away, which shapes how much tackle you bring. Largemouth respond to soft plastics tight to cover; go weedless where the growth is heavy. Parking space is the usual limit rather than the bank itself. Close seasons apply to some species and not others. Should this one be busy, Wild Rice Lake Reservoir is 3 miles off. None of that is settled for Mud Lake in what we hold.