Gillespie Lake near Musquodoboit Harbour: Fishing Spots, Seasons and Access

• Overview

  Gillespie Lake is a Halifax Regional Municipality water, Nova Scotia side. Height above sea level is 76 metres. The water measures roughly 2 hectares, so nothing here is far from anything else. Most waters listed here for Halifax Regional Municipality are larger. Musquodoboit Harbour sits 14 km from the bank. Further out sit Porters Lake (15 km) and Lake Echo (17 km). The nearest boundary is a fair way off.

• Where to Fish on Gillespie Lake

  Depth is unknown to us, and the shoreline is the better guide. A natural lake fishes on cover, and cover here means weed and timber. Weed, then depth: that is the order to fish a water of this kind. Open biodiversity records for Halifax Regional Municipality list brook trout, alewife, rainbow smelt, American eel and Atlantic salmon. Some of the species recorded here are protected or tightly regulated, so check what may be targeted before you fish. Gillespie Lake gives up more to patience than to distance.

• Seasonal Patterns

  August runs about 18°C on average, January about -6°C. Seasons are distinct, and each one fishes differently. Ice fishing carries the winter, and the water opens about mid April. Average temperatures cross freezing around mid April in spring and again near mid December in autumn. The shoulder weeks of the open season are the productive ones. Gillespie Lake runs to its own calendar within the local pattern.

• Tackle & Baits

  Access is not recorded for this water. Access points are not mapped for this water, which suits people who like quiet. Trout here take small spinners, spoons and, where fly water allows, a nymph or dry. Parking is often the real limit rather than the bank itself. Some stretches are reserved and marked as such on the ground. Should this one be busy, Saddleback Lake is 0.5 km off. Nothing on Gillespie Lake should be assumed from this page alone.