Second Lake in Clearwater County: How and When to Fish It

• Overview

  The Clearwater County entry here is Second Lake, in Minnesota. The land about it is pine and birch. It measures about 70 acres, which is a comfortable size for bank fishing. Shoreline comes to about 1.5 miles, small enough to learn in a day. Start from Bagley, 3.6 miles down the road. The big place round here is Fargo, 76 miles distant. There is no boundary nearby to worry about.

• Where to Fish on Second Lake

  Depth remains unrecorded, so treat the first session as a survey. A soft bed grows weed late into autumn, which keeps fish shallow. This is a lake, so the margins and the first drop matter most. Clearwater County records list bluegill, northern pike and largemouth bass among the fish reported. What holds for the county may not hold for this water. Fish Second Lake where the bottom changes rather than where it looks deep.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Between January at about 3°F and July at about 67°F, the water has a wide range to work through. Cold locks it up for a good stretch each year. Hard cover is dependable here; it goes around mid April. Average temperatures cross freezing around mid April in spring and again near mid November in autumn. The strong weeks are the first after break-up and the last before the freeze. It sets the rhythm of the year at Second Lake.

• Tackle & Baits

  The paperwork position is blank for this one. No dam controls it, and the level follows the season. Nothing formal is recorded here: no ramp, no car park, no marked path. For the bass here, soft plastics worked slow along cover and a spinnerbait for searching do most of the work. Gates get locked out of season on water like this. Keep proof of licence with you rather than in the car. First Lake, 0.9 miles away, makes the obvious fallback. Rules at Second Lake are worth checking on the day.