Balfour Lake Fishing in Sudbury, Ontario

• Overview

  Balfour Lake lies within the bounds of Sudbury, Ontario. The setting is spruce and muskeg on every side. At 1.14 sq km this is proper open water rather than a pond. With 9.2 km or so of shoreline, boat anglers cover ground the bank cannot. Few waters listed in Sudbury are bigger. Nearest place of any size is Chapleau, 30 km away. Wawa lies 75 km off, Sault Ste. Marie another 151 km. It sits well inside the county, so one set of rules covers it.

• Where to Fish on Balfour Lake

  No depth figure has reached our records, which makes a plummet useful. Look for the band where the shallows give up and the bottom falls away. This is a lake, so the margins and the first drop matter most. Open biodiversity records for Sudbury list smallmouth bass, northern pike, yellow perch, Iowa darter and walleye. Records at this level tell you what is in the area. At Balfour Lake the first feature you find is worth twenty minutes.

• Seasonal Patterns

  The range across the year is -15°C to 16°C. A short, intense season is the rule this far north. The freeze runs deep into the year, with break-up near late April. Break-up near late April, freeze-up near mid November: that is the shape of an average year. Fish feed hardest at the start and the close of the open season. On Balfour Lake that shapes the whole year.

• Tackle & Baits

  Our records carry no access rule either way. This is a natural basin, not a dammed one. Formal access is not mapped, so the last stretch is likely on foot. Bass water: a Texas-rigged worm near cover, a spinnerbait when you need to cover ground. A landowner's word beats anything printed elsewhere. Where parking is tight, arriving early solves most problems. Should this one be busy, Scully Lake is 2 km off. Confirm before you fish Balfour Lake.