Fishing Beaver Lake

Beaver Lake offers excellent walleye fishing with very good growth rates - it only takes 3-4 years for walleye to reach legal size here, with most fish running 17-20 inches and some reaching 25 inches. The walleye population shows some natural reproduction now, though it historically relied entirely on state stocking efforts every other year. Smallmouth bass provide the top fishing opportunity with good numbers of legal-size fish over 14 inches and trophy potential to nearly 20 inches, though growth runs below average. The lake's 77-foot maximum depth creates excellent thermal stratification with suitable dissolved oxygen down to 36 feet, maintaining temperatures from 74°F at the surface to below 50°F at the bottom. Rock bass dominate the panfish community and are quite prolific with many age classes present, while yellow perch - the preferred panfish among local anglers - run mostly small under 8 inches with average growth. Northern pike remain scarce despite decades of stocking efforts, with only 2 fish caught in the 2010 survey. The lake bottom consists primarily of sand with isolated marl and gravel areas, and emergent vegetation is sparse overall. Rainbow smelt were very abundant during a 2004 survey but none were caught in 2010, likely indicating the highly variable recruitment typical of this species. Exotic species including rusty crayfish and zebra mussels are established in the lake. Twenty-six Michigan Master Angler awards have been recorded for smallmouth bass (16), bullheads (6), channel catfish (2), bluegill (1), and walleye (1). A county park and boat access on the east shore provides fishing access to this 665-acre lake.