Fishing Shady Grove Lake in Grant County, Minnesota

• Overview

  Shady Grove Lake stands in Grant County, Minnesota. The setting is mixed forest. Roughly 55 acres: a morning covers one end, an afternoon the other. Bank access stretches around 1.9 miles in total. Elbow Lake is the closest town at 6 miles. The big place round here is Fargo, 75 miles distant. The county line runs close by, so rules can change within a short drive.

• Where to Fish on Shady Grove Lake

  Depth is not on record here, which means reading the ground instead. The shallow end warms first and pulls fish in ahead of the rest. The productive water is a rod length or two out, not a hundred. Fish documented in Grant County include common carp, largemouth bass, walleye, bluegill and yellow perch. The county figures include rivers and lakes alike. Take Shady Grove Lake a stretch at a time.

• Seasonal Patterns

  The range across the year is 8°F to 70°F. A solid cap is the normal state through winter. 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. June through September is the settled part of the year, with the shoulders busier for fish. Anyone fishing Shady Grove Lake regularly works to that calendar.

• Tackle & Baits

  Who may fish here is not settled in anything we hold. 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. Largemouth respond to soft plastics tight to cover; go weedless where the growth is heavy. Where a permit is needed, the nearest town usually sells it. Fishing rules and camping rules are set separately here. Schmall Marsh at 1 mile is the sensible second choice. Nothing on Shady Grove Lake should be assumed from this page alone.