White Iron Lake Stats
- Acres: 3237.47
- Max Depth: 47 feet
- Mean Depth: 16 feet
- Water Color: Brown Stain
- Water Clarity: 6 feet
- Shore length: 26 miles
- Google Maps Location
Fish Species in White Iron Lake
- Tiger Muskie
- Northern Pike
- Walleye
- Largemouth Bass
- Smallmouth Bass
- Burbot
- Black Crappie
- Yellow Perch
- Bluegill
- Rock Bass
- Lake Whitefish
- White Sucker
- Sunfish
- Hybrid Sunfish
Watch us fish White iron in late May
Boat Landings on White Iron
White Iron has two public boat landings. One on the northwest side and the other on the southwest side. I’ve always used the one on the south end. To be honest, I didn’t realize it had a landing on the north end until researching this. I wish I knew it because the south landing is not the greatest.
Above is the landing on the south end. The landing itself is nice. The main issue here is the parking situation.
There is room for about one vehicle on either side of the launch area. All the surrounding land is private with posted signs.
The landing has a nice concrete launch with a dock. The water is deep enough to make unloading the boat easy. When you back in, you will be sticking out into the road, so be careful of oncoming traffic.
The above photo is the north end landing. I have not actually been there, but it looks much nicer, and appears to have parking on the opposite side of the street.
Commentary on White Iron Lake
White Iron Lake is located only five miles from Ely, MN and is a moderately deep lake located in the Superior National Forest. The Kawishiwi river runs through it, which connects it to several other lakes including, Farm, Garden, and Birch lakes.
You can see from this picture that the water is heavily stained from the tannin coming from the many bogs and wetlands in the White Iron watershed.
Based on my personal experience, spot #1 and #2 are great spots to fish. According to The Sportsman’s Connection Fishing Guide (Which I highly recommend), spot #3 is a must fish spot. It is the outlet of the Kawishiwi River and is known as Silver Rapids.
There is a slow current that passes through Silver Rapids and with it comes some big walleye and northern. The walleye are suppose to be in the 3-4lb range, and northern up to 20-25lbs!
Spot #1 is our favorite spot to fish. We normally like to fish the shallower waters where the weedlines are, and fish with spinner baits. Spot #1 is the best spot in my opinion to find good weedbeds, along with plenty of northern pike. I even pulled out a decent sized walleye on one day.
Even the eagles prefer this spot. We got to see this one pull a fairly large pike out of the water. Well. actually it couldn’t lift it, so it swam it to shore.
See the eagle in action here
Spot #2 holds some big pike as well. There is a group of small islands scattered throughout this small bay. Just work your way around them throwing spinnerbaits or Rapalas. You might just catch yourself a big one.
Fishing Experience on White Iron
Reggie and I have been to White Iron a couple of times. We have done pretty good each time. We usually head to spot #1 first and catch a handful of northern pike. They are abundant there, but usually on the smaller side for this lake.
I was here is May on our last trip, and the weeds hadn’t fully developed yet. On other years, I’ve come here in the fall, and the weeds are much thicker.
As usual, the green spinnerbait outperformed all our other baits. I found ones with a green skirt and a single colorado blade is the best combination.
The wind was so bad last time we were here, that we had to cut the day short. We tried going up to the north end, but the waves were just too much.
On a previous trip, Reggie caught this 7 pound pike at spot #2. It just shows what’s possible in here. The average northern in here is around 24 inches.
Black crappie and smallmouth bass are also in White Iron lake, but they are scarce, and probably not worth targeting. The DNR survey did sample a tiger muskie, so you might find one of those in here too, but I wouldn’t expect to catch one.
I’d recommend White Iron as a good place to fish if you are in the area. Just remember to use the landing on the north end and try your luck at some monster fish!
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