Bourinot Lake, Ontario: Fishing Spots and Seasons

• Overview

  Set in Cochrane District, Bourinot Lake is an Ontario water. The bank gives way to northern bush. At 1.56 sq km this is proper open water rather than a pond. With 6.1 km or so of shoreline, boat anglers cover ground the bank cannot. It ranks high for size among our Cochrane District listings. 56 km away sits Kapuskasing, the nearest town. For a city, Greater Sudbury is 324 km off. No county line comes close, which keeps the paperwork simple.

• Where to Fish on Bourinot Lake

  Without a survey to go on, judge depth from how the bank falls away. Bays and points beat straight shoreline every time on water like this. Read the surface for the wind lane, then fish the edge of it. Open biodiversity records for Cochrane District list northern pike, yellow perch and white sucker. Records at county level tell you what is around, not what is stocked here. At Bourinot Lake the first feature you find is worth twenty minutes.

• Seasonal Patterns

  July is the warm end of the year here, averaging about 17°C, while January sits near -18°C. The fishing year opens late and shuts early. Look for the thaw near early May; the fishing lifts straight after. On the long-run averages the water opens up around early May and starts locking again about mid November. The open run goes from the thaw to the freeze, and April through October covers most of it. The season on Bourinot Lake rarely departs from it.

• Tackle & Baits

  The paperwork position is blank for this one. No dam controls it, and the level follows the season. Access is unmapped, which usually means a farm track and a walk. Bass water: a Texas-rigged worm near cover, a spinnerbait when you need to cover ground. A landowner's word beats anything printed elsewhere. A polite question at the farm gate opens more banks than anything else. South Moosehorn Lake, 1.5 km away, makes the obvious fallback. Check the position at Bourinot Lake before loading the car.