Fishing at Arms Lake, Thunder Bay District, Ontario

• Overview

  Arms Lake is one of the Thunder Bay District listings for Ontario. It sits in taiga country. The water covers some 57 hectares, so pick a bank rather than trying to cover it all. With 6.3 km or so of shoreline, boat anglers cover ground the bank cannot. You are 45 km from Longlac. It is 269 km to Thunder Bay, the nearest city. No county line comes close, which keeps the paperwork simple.

• Where to Fish on Arms Lake

  Depth remains unrecorded, so treat the first session as a survey. On a natural lake the weed line and the shelf beyond it do the work. This is a lake, so the margins and the first drop matter most. Across Thunder Bay District, recorded fish include cisco, blackfin cisco, rainbow smelt and bloater. These are county-wide records, so not all of them will be in this water. Fish Arms Lake to its features, not to its size.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Expect July to average close to 16°C, with January the cold end at about -18°C. Winter runs most of the calendar, and everything worth doing happens in the gap. Ice fishing carries the winter, and the water opens about early May. Averages place the thaw at early May and the freeze at mid November. The strong weeks are the first after break-up and the last before the freeze. Anyone fishing Arms Lake regularly works to that calendar.

• Tackle & Baits

  Whether the bank is open is not something our records settle. It formed naturally, so levels move with rainfall rather than with a gate. No car park, ramp or path is recorded within easy reach of the shore. Check locally before you travel, because a wasted drive is a long one. Barbless rules turn up on managed water more often than not. If the gate is shut, Eino Lake at 1.5 km is the nearest alternative. Nothing here settles the position at Arms Lake for certain.