Bear Head Lake Stats
- Acres: 662
- Max Depth: 46 feet
- Shore Length: 12.07 miles
- Mean Depth: 12 feet
- Water Color: light green
- Water Clarity: 2-3 meters
- Google Maps Location
Fish Species in Bear Head Lake
- Northern Pike
- Walleye
- Largemouth Bass
- Burbot
- Black Crappie
- Yellow Perch
- Bluegill
- Pumpkinseed
- Green Sunfish
- Hybrid Sunfish
Watch us fish Bear Head lake in late May
Boat Landings on Bear Head Lake
Bear Head lake has one public boat landing located inside of Bear Head Lake State Park. You will need a state park permit to enter and use this landing.
All those boats you see lined up to the right of the landing are rentals. If you are camping here and don’t have a boat, they have plenty of options for you.
There is a concrete boat launch and the water is deep enough for larger boats. It has nice “L” shaped dock making it easy to get into your boat.
Next to the boat launch is a fishing pier. It is fairly shallow around the pier with lots of logs laying in the water.
The road to the boat launch goes in a loop. After putting your boat in the water, just continue back up the hill to the parking area. Its a big wide open gravel surface. Just park along the edge somewhere.
At the parking area is your standard state park pit toilet. Which is nicer than the porta-potties you find at most landings.
Commentary on Bear head Lake
Bear Head lake is near the town of Tower in northern Minnesota. It is a medium sized lake and is completely within the Bear Head Lake State Park.
Bear Head Lake is a partner in the Sentinel lakes project. The Sentinel Lakes Program is an intensive, long-term lake ecosystem monitoring program created to detect and understand the physical, chemical and biological changes occurring in Minnesota’s lakes.
I’ve been here a few times now. I’m usually camping here to fish many of the lakes in the Tower and Ely area, like Vermilion and Burntside. Since Bear Head Lake is right in the park, we always fish here too.
Bear Head has lots of structure on the bottom. It is full of logs and old trees. Even though the water is fairly clear, it looks really dark.
The above map shows where we have caught most of our fish.
Spot #1 opens up into a shallow area on the very north end. It has nice weeds and holds lots of bass and some panfish too.
Spot #2 is my favorite spot. This spot is loaded with many species. I put a camera on my fishing line and had four different fish approach my bait in a matter of a few seconds.
Spot #3 is another good spot. Just be careful here. The water depth gets very shallow far out into the lake. I get on the edge of this shallow shelf, right where it starts to drop off into deeper water. This spots has sporadic weeds and holds some fish.
The east bay on the northeast side of the lake is the deepest part of the lake. I have yet to catch anything here. That doesn’t mean its not any good, I just don’t know how to fish it. Its 30-40 feet deep with a rocky bottom. It might be a good spot for walleye.
Fishing Experience at Bear Head Lake
I really enjoy this lake. The scenery is amazing and the fishing is good too.
This beautiful pike was the first catch of the day, just north of the boat landing at spot #1.
We continued to the north end and caught a few more. I got this beauty pictured above. It was only 9 inches, but it had some cool stripes. In the past, we have caught many bass here on chatterbaits. On this trip, we caught almost all our fish on our favorite green spinnerbait. I’m telling you, this thing catches everything! Check it out here.
We had a few bites as we worked our way around the lake, but we caught most of the fish at spot#2.
We caught several northern at spot #2, and I saw many other fish here too, including bass and crappie.
We caught enough to have a nice fish fry for dinner at the campsite. Does it get any better than this?
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