Dawn Lake in Bayfield County: How and When to Fish It

• Overview

  The Bayfield County end of Wisconsin holds Dawn Lake. It stands 1,362 feet above sea level. It covers about 10 acres, so this is small water you can walk round in under an hour. You are 15 miles from Hayward. Saint Paul is the closest city, 121 miles away. Rules can differ a short way off, since the county line is near. There is enough here to keep coming back.

• Where to Fish on Dawn Lake

  No depth figure has reached our records, which makes a plummet useful. Read the surface for the wind lane, then fish the edge of it. A natural lake fishes on cover, and cover here means weed and timber. County-wide records name rainbow smelt, brown trout, yellow perch and rainbow trout. Species recorded across the county may be limited to a few waters. Dawn Lake repays a walk before the first cast.

• Seasonal Patterns

  The year swings from about 8°F in January to roughly 66°F in July. The freeze arrives properly here and holds. 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. Reckon on open water from spring through to late autumn, with May and June the strongest. On Dawn Lake that shapes the whole year.

• Tackle & Baits

  Who may fish here is not settled in anything we hold. No launch point is recorded nearby, so this is a bank water unless you carry a boat in. Bass water: a Texas-rigged worm near cover, a spinnerbait when you need to cover ground. Parking space is the usual limit rather than the bank itself. Where tickets apply, they are sold in the nearest town rather than on the bank. For a change of water, Dawn Lake is 0.4 miles distant. For Dawn Lake, the notice at the access point is the final word.