Nelson Lake, located just a couple miles north of Hayward is well-known for its production of panfish and walleyes. It's a horseshoe shaped lake with numerous bays and points and islands. The lake develops good summertime weedlines and is spotted with old tree stumps and logs in most of the bays. Maximum depth is 30 feet but most of the lake is in the 10 to 15 foot depth range. Sky clears Fish species include walleye, northern, bass, bluegill, crappie, perch and bullhead.
Fishing is rated as excellent for walleye, bluegill, crappie and largemouth bass.
In fact, the bass fishing is an overlooked resource and if we'd had more time on the lake, we'd have tried for them. The lake also has produced several of the state's bluegill records. Although the weather had been unsettled before our arrival with numerous fronts pushing wind and rain, our arrival day was bright and sunny and unseasonably warm with temperatures in the 80s. There was a brisk breeze which at times pushed to boat too fast for the best presentation by drifting. But it didn't seem to make any difference.