Russell Lake near Carrington: Fishing Spots, Seasons and Access

• Overview

  Russell Lake is a Foster County water, in North Dakota. The surface lies 1,565 feet up. It runs to roughly 66 acres — big enough to hold fish away from the bank, small enough to learn. The bank runs about 2.1 miles all the way round, so one visit can cover most of it. It is a small entry by Foster County standards. Some 5.2 miles away sits Carrington, the nearest settlement. Fargo sits 117 miles out, and it is the nearest city worth the name. No boundary runs near, so the county rules hold throughout.

• Where to Fish on Russell Lake

  Depth is not on record here, which means reading the ground instead. On a natural lake the weed line and the shelf beyond it do the work. Read the surface for the wind lane, then fish the edge of it. Russell Lake gives up more to patience than to distance. Small features hold more than big empty water.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Long-run averages give July about 69°F and January about 6°F. The year splits cleanly: hard water, then open water. Winter locks it down, and mid April brings it back. Open water usually runs from mid April until about late November. The strong weeks are the first after break-up and the last before the freeze. The season on Russell Lake rarely departs from it.

• Tackle & Baits

  Whether the bank is open is not something our records settle. Records list it as a natural water body rather than an impoundment. No launch point is recorded nearby, so this is a bank water unless you carry a boat in. Where access is informal, keep it that way by behaving. Where the way in crosses private ground, ask first. Should this one be busy, Lake George is 9.7 miles off. None of that is settled for Russell Lake in what we hold.