CARIBOU AND PIT LAKE
Grand Rapids Area
Although not officially part of the Arrowhead counties, Grand Rapids is home to several lake trout waters including Caribou Lake and Pit Lake.

Caribou Lake, located about 26 miles north of Grand Rapids on Highway 38, is a deep lake -- 152 feet at its deepest -- with clear, cold water and plenty of steep drops and underwater humps and fingers.

Fisheries specialist Gerry Albert said Caribou is a really good opportunity for anglers looking to do some lake trout fishing.

“There are good numbers of medium-sized lake trout, not to mention some large ones that are taken each year,” he said.

The situation at Pit Lake is a little different. “There are a lot of small to medium fish and an occasional lunker,” Albert said. “There are brood-stock fish in there and some of those are very large in the 10-pound-plus range.”

Albert said the DNR is watching Pit Lake carefully because there have been apparent changes in the fishery. “The lake primarily held smelt as the prey species, but those numbers have been decreasing and we stocked ciscoes to create another prey species,” he said.

Located northwest of Coleraine and Bovey, Pit Lake is also known as Canisteo Pit or the Canisteo complex because the 1,338-acre lake was formerly a taconite pit. The primary access to the lake is on the north side near the Buckeye basin north of Highway 169.

The DNR Web site’s lake finder features a map showing all the holes, humps and steep dropoffs throughout the lake.

For more information, contact the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce at (800) 472-6366 or online at www.grandmn.com.

Lake trout are a very slow-growing fish. It takes a long time for them to grow even to medium size. Catch-and-release ensures there are ample angling opportunities in the future.

Find more about Minnesota fishing and hunting at: MinnesotaSportsmanMag.com/”