Fishing Cat Lake in Sudbury, Ontario

• Overview

  Cat Lake lies in Sudbury, in Ontario. Country round the bank runs to taiga. At about 37 hectares, a day is enough to walk the shoreline properly. Bank access stretches around 2.3 km in total. Start from Chapleau, 88 km down the road. The nearest city of size is Greater Sudbury, 149 km away. It sits well inside the county, so one set of rules covers it.

• Where to Fish on Cat Lake

  There is no recorded depth, so work from what you can see. 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. Records held for Sudbury cover smallmouth bass, northern pike and yellow perch. These are county-wide records, so not all of them will be in this water. Treat Cat Lake as a water to read rather than to cover.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Between January at about -16°C and July at about 17°C, the water has a wide range to work through. The freeze holds for the better part of the year. The lid usually sets by midwinter and gives way around late April. Average temperatures cross freezing around late April in spring and again near mid November in autumn. The middle of summer slows a little, with dawn and dusk carrying it. Anyone fishing Cat Lake regularly works to that calendar.

• Tackle & Baits

  We hold no note on access for this one. No dam controls it, and the level follows the season. Public data shows nothing built here, so treat the whole approach as informal. A small crankbait along the drop and a worm in the thick stuff cover the bass. Sort the permit out before you load the car. Rules for boats are stricter than rules for the bank in many places. The nearest alternative is Cavell Lake, 3.7 km out. Where Cat Lake is concerned, a local answer beats a written one.