Lake Stats
- Acres: 252
- Max Depth: 44 feet
- Mean Depth: 14 feet
- Shoreline: 3.26 miles
- Bottom: 38% sand, 45% gravel, 0% rock, 17% muck
- DNR Contour Map: Click Here
- DNR Interactive Map: Click Here
- Google Maps Location: Click Here
Fish Species
- Northern Pike (Common)
- Walleye (Present)
- Largemouth Bass (Common)
- Panfish (Common)
Watch us fish Island lake in late September
Boat Landings
There is one landing on the south end of the lake. I’ve seen maps showing a landing on the west side too, I don’t think that is accurate.
Like most lakes in the area, you will find a info board and a cleaning station to help prevent the spread of invasive species.
The boat launch is directly off the main road, so the parking is on the opposite side of the road. It makes a horseshoe, so its easy to enter and exit. There are no designated parking spots, so just pull along the edge somewhere.
At the back of the parking lot is an outhouse, if you want to call it that. I’m not sure if it is usable, but I wouldn’t use it.
The launch itself might be the steepest one I have ever launched my boat from. It is not very long, but it drops straight down into the lake.
The picture doesn’t do it justice. Just be prepared for your boat to roll off the trailer if it is not secured down when backing in. My trailer has rollers, so I had to back in far enough until the back end started floating before unhooking it.
If you have a heavy boat, or if the landing it wet, you might need four wheel drive to exit this landing.
Commentary
I never noticed this lake before, then I got a message from Tim, who lives near Spooner, WI. He asked if I would do a review of either Dunn or Island Lake.
Dunn is directly south of Island lake. We tried that lake first, but the landing was too shallow and muddy to launch, so we went to Island lake instead.
Island lake is located between Spooner and Minong. There are a few homes along it’s shoreline, but other than that, it is surrounded by forests.
According to the publications available for Island lake, it has clear water and is hard to fish. It mostly mentions walleye, but it also contains northern pike, and from our own experience, it also has bass and bluegill.
Island lake has an interesting bottom structure. Most of the lake is 5-10 feet deep with good weed beds. When you get to the edge of the weeds, the bottom drops out and it goes straight down into deeper water.
As you can see from the above photos, the weedline quickly disappears. This is a small lake, so it is easy to fish. Look for the weed beds around 8 feet deep. I found the edge of the weedbeds produced well. Here are the spots we caught most of our fish.
When researching Island lake, I noticed that there were many lakes named “Island Lake.” So make sure you are researching the right one. I’m guessing this lake got its name from the island on the south end.
This is state owned land and according to the sign on the Island, there is no camping, picnicking, swimming, or fires. So basically you can’t do anything fun on this island.
Fishing Experience
I really had no idea what to expect from this lake because I new very little about it. It is a small lake, so we just hung a left out of the landing and worked our way around it.
We were throwing some crankbaits on the edge of the weeds, and had a few bites right away. As we worked our way around the north side of the landing we pulled in a couple of small northern pike.
Then we moved north of the island where it starts to drop off and pulled in a bass.
Then we went to the far north end where it narrows into a small bay. It was 10 feet deep at the edge of the lily pads, but we were seeing some bluegills, so we threw in some small jigs and caught a few small bluegills.
I also found some small pike here too. Unfortunately none of the pike even reached 20 inches. I think this might be our biggest one at 16 inches.
On our way back to the landing we trolled a crankbait down the west side of the lake. I had an underwater camera attached to the line. I never know what is captured until I get home. I was surprised like usual when I saw several northern pike hit my lure that I never even knew about.
If you fish this lake, you will have some action, but don’t expect to catch anything big. There are plenty of spots to fish, and you can cover the whole lake in half a day. They say there are walleye in here, but I don’t think it is worth coming here for them. Especially when there are much better lakes in the area.
After we fished here we went to a lake called Big Casey, which is very close by, a few miles to the southwest. We did considerably better there.
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