Bear Lake fishing: Rainbow Trout, Brook Trout, Brown Trout
Target species: Rainbow Trout, Brook Trout, Brown Trout
Boat: 1 ramp or launch on file for this water.
Start here: Launch at Bear Lake, 1 lane.
The lake
Bear Lake covers 318 acres in Michigan, across Kalkaska County. It is a lake: 91.8% of it is 48 feet deep or less; the deepest point measured is at least 50 feet (15.2 m). Our records hold 3 species for this water.
Stocking: 863,888 fish, 1997–2026
Michigan DNR records list 863,888 fish released into this water from 1997 to 2026.
- Brown Trout: 707,765 in 2007–2026
- Rainbow Trout: 155,379 in 2007–2026
- Brook Trout: 744 in 2020
Depth and bottom
Deepest measured point: at least 50 ft (15.2 m). That is the deepest contour line: the bottom goes deeper. 91.8% of the water is 48 feet or shallower. We hold 24 depth contour lines for this water.
- 0–3 ft: 0.9% of the water
- 3–6 ft: 6.9% of the water
- 6–9 ft: 6.8% of the water
- 9–12 ft: 5.4% of the water
- 12–15 ft: 4.7% of the water
- 15–18 ft: 4.2% of the water
- 18–21 ft: 3.9% of the water
- 21–24 ft: 3.7% of the water
- 24–27 ft: 3.7% of the water
- 27–30 ft: 3.9% of the water
- 30–33 ft: 4.4% of the water
- 33–36 ft: 6.5% of the water
- 36–39 ft: 9.8% of the water
- 39–42 ft: 17.3% of the water
- 42–45 ft: 6.2% of the water
- 45–48 ft: 3.5% of the water
- 48–50 ft: 8.2% of the water
3 target fish, led by Rainbow Trout
- Rainbow Trout — Feeding water: 50–65°F.
- Brook Trout — Feeding water: 50–65°F.
- Brown Trout — Feeding water: 50–65°F.
Water and conditions
Our water temperature readings average 71°F; they do not cover the whole year, so this is not a yearly average. These readings span 2017–2023.
1 ramp or launch on this water
On this water we hold 1 trailer ramp.
- Bear Lake — 1 lane, restrooms. Hartwick Pines State Park. phone 989-348-7068
The place listed has no fee or opening hours on file: a blank means we hold no such field, not that it is free or always open, and this list may not be complete.
What is hard here
Only 1 public ramp is on file, so the launch decides where you fish.
Where this data comes from
- Michigan EGLE — Michigan EGLE: depth contours: class A, a survey of the bottom.
- Webster, K.E., McCullough, I.M., Soranno, P.A. LAGOS-US DEPTH v1.0, EDI, doi:10.6073/pasta/64ddc4d04661d9aef4bd702dc5d8984f (CC BY 4.0); Cheruvelil et al. LAGOS-US LOCUS v1.0 (EDI) — LAGOS-US DEPTH v1.0: Lake depth for 17,675 lakes in the conterminous U.S.: class B, a depth figure measured and published by an agency, without a bottom map.
