McCloud Lake Fishing near Little Round Lake, Wisconsin

• Overview

  Look for McCloud Lake in the Bayfield County part of Wisconsin. The water sits 1,444 feet up. It runs to roughly 65 acres — big enough to hold fish away from the bank, small enough to learn. The bank runs about 1.2 miles all the way round, so one visit can cover most of it. Little Round Lake is the closest town at 20 miles. It is 130 miles to Saint Paul, the nearest city. The line between counties passes nearby, which can change who manages the water.

• Where to Fish on McCloud Lake

  Depth figures are not published for this one. The productive water is a rod length or two out, not a hundred. Where the bottom changes texture, fish gather; find that line. Open biodiversity records for Bayfield County list rainbow smelt, brown trout, yellow perch, rainbow trout and white sucker. Those are county-wide records, so not every one of them will be in this water. Take McCloud Lake a stretch at a time.

• Seasonal Patterns

  The year swings from about 9°F in January to roughly 66°F in July. Spring and autumn carry the fishing; summer and winter test it. The lid usually goes in mid April, which opens the strongest weeks of the year. Ice clears near mid April and comes back about late November in a typical year. Spring is short and heavy here; autumn is longer and steadier. It sets the rhythm of the year at McCloud Lake.

• Tackle & Baits

  Access status is simply unknown for this water. No dam controls it, and the level follows the season. 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. Check whether a boat is allowed before you tow one. Keep proof of licence with you rather than in the car. For a change of water, Hope Lake is 0.7 miles distant. For McCloud Lake, the notice at the access point is the final word.