Steelhead Lake, Wisconsin: Fishing Spots and Seasons

• Overview

  Set in Bayfield County, Steelhead Lake is a Wisconsin water. The surface lies 1,109 feet up. This is a pocket water of some 16 acres, and every part of it is reachable from the bank. You are 17 miles from Lake Nebagamon. Saint Paul sits 135 miles out, and it is the nearest city worth the name. Also on the doorstep: Canthook Lake at 0.4 miles, 1.2 miles out stands West Lake, Square Lake at 1.2 miles, 1.4 miles out stands Happles Lake and Basswood Lake at 1.4 miles. The nearest boundary is a fair way off.

• Where to Fish on Steelhead Lake

  No chart reached our records; the first cast is your sounding. Look for the band where the shallows give up and the bottom falls away. Read the surface for the wind lane, then fish the edge of it. Fish documented in Bayfield County include rainbow smelt, brown trout and yellow perch. These are county-wide records, so not all of them will be in this water. The near bank of Steelhead Lake is often the one people ignore.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Seasonal averages run from 9°F in January up to 66°F in July. Winter shuts things down for a spell, then spring reopens them fast. Once it clears, about mid April, the fishing comes on quickly. The open-water window runs from around mid April to about late November in an average year. Late spring and early autumn carry the year between them. That shapes the year on Steelhead Lake.

• Tackle & Baits

  We hold no note on access for this one. 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. Parking space is the usual limit rather than the bank itself. Where the way in crosses private ground, ask first. Should this one be busy, Canthook Lake is 0.4 miles off. Ask locally about Steelhead Lake if anything is unclear.