Chick Lake, Ontario: Fishing Spots and Seasons

• Overview

  Set in Nipissing District, Ontario, this is Chick Lake. Around the bank it is lake country bush. It covers about 2 hectares, so this is small water you can walk round in under an hour. Our Nipissing District list holds plenty of bigger water. United Townships of Dysart, Dudley, Harcourt, Guilford, Harburn, Bruton, Havelock, Eyre and Clyde sits 46 km from here and is the nearest stop. Haliburton Village lies 63 km off, Huntsville another 69 km. The nearest boundary is a fair way off.

• Where to Fish on Chick Lake

  We hold no survey for this water; read the slope of the shoreline instead. Weed, then depth: that is the order to fish a water of this kind. The productive water is a rod length or two out, not a hundred. Nipissing District records list smallmouth bass, cisco and yellow perch among the fish reported. County data is a starting point rather than a guarantee. On Chick Lake the obvious spot is not always the productive one.

• Seasonal Patterns

  The warm month here averages 18°C; the cold one sits at -13°C. Expect a real winter and a strong spring after it. Ice fishing carries the winter, and the water opens about late April. Ice usually gives way near late April, and forms again about late November. Fish feed hardest at the start and the close of the open season. The season on Chick Lake rarely departs from it.

• Tackle & Baits

  Whether the bank is open is not something our records settle. No slipway, car park or made path shows up nearby in mapping, so treat access as rough. Largemouth respond to soft plastics tight to cover; go weedless where the growth is heavy. Where a permit is needed, the nearest town usually sells it. Close seasons apply to some species and not others. Should this one be busy, Bab Lake is 1.6 km off. For Chick Lake in particular, ask before you travel.