Burnt Lake in Sudbury: How and When to Fish It

• Overview

  Out in Sudbury, Ontario, sits Burnt Lake. It sits in spruce and muskeg country. At 6 hectares it is the sort of place you fish for an evening rather than a day. On size it sits at the modest end of our Sudbury list. Some 41 km away sits Chapleau, the nearest settlement. For a city, Greater Sudbury is 277 km off. The nearest edge is a long way off, so local rules apply throughout.

• Where to Fish on Burnt Lake

  Our records hold no depth for this water. The productive water is a rod length or two out, not a hundred. Bays and points beat straight shoreline every time on water like this. Records held for Sudbury cover smallmouth bass, northern pike, yellow perch, Iowa darter and walleye. Take it as the county picture rather than a promise for this water. On Burnt Lake the first feature you find is usually worth a session.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Averages here run 16°C at the top of summer and -16°C at the bottom of winter. The freeze holds for the better part of the year. Firm cover through the cold months, then open water from early May. Ice clears near early May and comes back about mid November in a typical year. The first weeks of open water and the last are the ones to plan for. At Burnt Lake the season follows that pattern closely.

• Tackle & Baits

  Access status is simply unknown for this water. There is no mapped parking or launch nearby, which keeps numbers down. Bass water: a Texas-rigged worm near cover, a spinnerbait when you need to cover ground. Where access is informal, keep it that way by behaving. Signs go up and come down, so check on the day. Lily Lake, 0.8 km away, makes the obvious fallback. Where Burnt Lake is concerned, a local answer beats a written one.