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Iron Range fly fishing trip
0 waters in the Iron Range, Minnesota, have a page here. June, July and August carry the most recorded hatches, 23 insects in June, 21 insects in July and 15 insects in August. In range: 8 blocks of public land with a page of their own and 4 fly shops. Everything below is measured or published — no ranking on this page is ours.
The St. Louis and Cloquet drainages under the Mesabi — big tannic water through the cut-over north.
The water
| Water | Miles | July mean |
|---|
Ordered by mapped length. July mean is measured at the USGS gauges standing in each river; a dash means no gauge on it reports temperature.
Hatches to hit
The months with the most recorded hatches in northern Wisconsin: June (23), July (21), August (15).
| Insect | Months | Hook |
|---|---|---|
| Fish Eggs | October–January and April | #10–16 |
| Little Brown Stonefly | February–April | #12–16 |
| Blue-Winged Olive | March–May and September–November | #16–22 |
| Blackfly | April–June | #18–22 |
| Cranefly | April–June and September–October | #6–10 |
| Grannom | April–May | #14–16 |
| Green Rock Worm / Green Weenie | April–June and September–October | #10–14 |
| Hendrickson | April–May | #12–14 |
| Alderfly | May–June | #10–14 |
| Caterpillar | May–September | #8–14 |
| Crayfish | May–October | #4–8 |
| Giant Black Stonefly (Salmonfly) | May–June | #4–6 |
| Green Sedge | May–August | #12–16 |
| Light Cahill | May–July | #12–16 |
Recorded from northern Wisconsin, earliest first. The year-round records sit at the bottom because they are true and they are not news.
Public land in range
- Anchor Lake WMA — 7.5 mi
- Cloquet Valley State Forest — 12.4 mi
- Cloquet Valley — 12.4 mi
- Zim WMA — 12.9 mi
- Fermoy WMA — 13.3 mi
- Sax WMA — 13.8 mi
- Riverlands — 15.3 mi
- Iron Range Off-Highway Vehicle — 17.4 mi
Blocks of ground with a page of their own, nearest first. Ownership from PAD-US as Minnesota publishes it.
Camping and lodging
We have campground records for Michigan and for no other state, so there is nothing to list here rather than a list somebody guessed. The public land above is where the dispersed camping is, where the state allows it.
Fly shops
- Agate Bay Outfitters — 35.5 mi, Two Harbors
- Sportsman's Choice — 39.8 mi
- The Bait Box — 42.8 mi
- Southside Bait & Tackle — 43.0 mi
From OpenStreetMap and a curated list, across all five states on this site. Call before you drive — a shop in a file is not a shop that is open.