Clear Lake fishing: Northern Pike, Largemouth Bass, Walleye

Target species: Northern Pike, Largemouth Bass, Walleye, Smallmouth Bass, Bigmouth Buffalo, Channel Catfish, Freshwater Drum
Boat: 2 ramps and launches on file for this water.
Start here: Launch at Clear Lake (N) Public Water Access Site, 1 lane.

The lake

Clear Lake covers 421 acres in Minnesota, across Jackson County. It is a lake: the deepest point measured is at least 8 feet (2.4 m). Our records hold 14 species for this water.

7 target fish, led by Northern Pike

  • Northern Pike — Feeding water: 50–75°F.
  • Largemouth Bass — Feeding water: 65–85°F.
  • Walleye — Feeding water: 50–75°F.
  • Smallmouth Bass — Feeding water: 60–75°F.
  • Bigmouth Buffalo — Feeding water: 70–80°F.
  • Channel Catfish — Feeding water: 70–85°F.
  • Freshwater Drum — Feeding water: 60–75°F.

Also recorded here: Black Bullhead, Black Crappie, Bluegill, Yellow Perch, Green Sunfish, Yellow Bullhead, Common Carp.

Sunset over North Shore of Clear Lake.jpg
Readthisandlearn · CC BY-SA 3.0

Depth and bottom

Deepest measured point: at least 8 ft (2.4 m). That is the deepest contour line: the bottom goes deeper. We hold 25 depth contour lines for this water.

  • 1–3 ft: 1.6% of the water
  • 3–5 ft: 8.8% of the water
  • 5–6 ft: 7.4% of the water
  • 6–7 ft: 8.6% of the water
  • 7–8 ft: 73.5% of the water

2 ramps and launches on this water

On this water we hold 2 trailer ramps.

  • Clear Lake (N) Public Water Access Site — 1 lane, restrooms. DNR Division of Parks and Trails.
  • Clear Lake (S) Public Water Access Site — 1 lane. Jackson County.

Fee and opening hours are blank for all 2 places in this list: a blank means we hold no such field, not that it is free or always open, and this list may not be complete.

Water and conditions

Our water temperature readings average 70°F; they do not cover the whole year, so this is not a yearly average. pH averages 8.6. These readings span 2022–2023.

What is hard here

Only 2 public ramps are on file, so the launch decides where you fish.

Where this data comes from

  • Minnesota DNR — Minnesota DNR: depth contours: class A, a survey of the bottom.
  • Minnesota DNR — Minnesota DNR: reported depths: class B, a depth figure measured and published by an agency, without a bottom map.
  • 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.