Fishing Black Lake in Kenora District, Ontario

• Overview

  Black Lake is set in Kenora District, Ontario. Elevation runs to 366 metres. At about 93 hectares, a day is enough to walk the shoreline properly. The shoreline runs about 5.7 km, so it pays to pick a stretch and stay with it. The nearest place of any size is Sioux Lookout, 23 km away. Thunder Bay sits 260 km out, and it is the nearest city worth the name. The nearest boundary is well away, so one set of rules covers the water.

• Where to Fish on Black Lake

  Depth remains unrecorded, so treat the first session as a survey. Bays and points beat straight shoreline every time on water like this. Weed, then depth: that is the order to fish a water of this kind. Across Kenora District, recorded fish include northern pike, longnose sucker, white sucker and johnny darter. The county figures include rivers and lakes alike. Work Black Lake in sections rather than trying to cover it.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Climate records put July near 18°C and January near -19°C. A full turn of seasons, with the strongest sport on either side of summer. Winter locks it down, and late April brings it back. Break-up near late April, freeze-up near mid November: that is the shape of an average year. The weeks after the thaw and the ones before the freeze are the strongest. At Black Lake the season follows that pattern closely.

• Tackle & Baits

  Who may fish here is not settled in anything we hold. This is a natural basin, not a dammed one. No built facilities appear in mapping around this water. Pike mean a wire trace, no exceptions; big spoons and jerkbaits do the searching. Parking is often the real limit rather than the bank itself. Where parking is tight, arriving early solves most problems. Should this one be busy, Clamshell Lake is 3 km off. Treat access at Black Lake as something to verify.