Pickerel Lake Fishing near Keewatin, Minnesota

• Overview

  Out in Itasca County, Minnesota, sits Pickerel Lake. It stands 1,332 feet above sea level. The water covers some 234 acres, so pick a bank rather than trying to cover it all. Some 3.8 miles of bank gives room to move when the wind turns. Size puts it in the front rank of our Itasca County list. 32 miles away sits Chisholm, the nearest town. Keewatin is 32 miles and Hibbing 34 miles. There is no boundary nearby to worry about.

• Where to Fish on Pickerel Lake

  No chart reached our records; the first cast is your sounding. The productive water is a rod length or two out, not a hundred. The shallow end warms first and pulls fish in ahead of the rest. Itasca County records list yellow perch, largemouth bass and northern pike among the fish reported. Take it as the county picture rather than a promise for this water. Pickerel Lake gives up more to patience than to distance.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Average temperature peaks around 66°F in July and bottoms out near 5°F in January. Cold winters and warm summers give a wide working range. Hard water holds through the cold months, breaking up near late April. Ice usually gives way near late April, and forms again about mid November. Late spring and early autumn carry the year between them. It sets the rhythm of the year at Pickerel Lake.

• Tackle & Baits

  The access position is unclear from public sources. This is a natural basin, not a dammed one. No slipway, car park or made path shows up nearby in mapping, so treat access as rough. For the bass here, soft plastics worked slow along cover and a spinnerbait for searching do most of the work. Sort the permit out before you load the car. Rules for boats are stricter than rules for the bank in many places. Should this one be busy, Battle Lake is 0.9 miles off. Rules at Pickerel Lake are worth checking on the day.