Elgin Lake in Sudbury: How and When to Fish It

• Overview

  Set in Sudbury, Elgin Lake is an Ontario water. It sits at 431 metres above sea level. Around 17 hectares of surface means several distinct areas to work. There is roughly 2.0 km of shoreline here, which is a short walk end to end. Chapleau at 73 km is the nearest place to stop. Greater Sudbury is the closest city, 239 km away. The nearest boundary is a fair way off.

• Where to Fish on Elgin Lake

  Without a survey to go on, judge depth from how the bank falls away. The productive water is a rod length or two out, not a hundred. Weed, then depth: that is the order to fish a water of this kind. Open biodiversity records for Sudbury list smallmouth bass, northern pike, yellow perch and Iowa darter. These are county-wide records, so not all of them will be in this water. Elgin Lake repays a walk before the first cast.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Averages here run 17°C at the top of summer and -14°C at the bottom of winter. A solid cap is the normal state through winter. Ice fishing carries the winter, and the water opens about late April. The open-water window runs from around late April to about mid November in an average year. Right after break-up, and again as the nights sharpen, is when to go. The season on Elgin Lake follows the weather closely.

• Tackle & Baits

  The paperwork position is blank for this one. It formed naturally, so levels move with rainfall rather than with a gate. There is no mapped parking or launch nearby, which keeps numbers down. For the bass here, soft plastics worked slow along cover and a spinnerbait for searching do most of the work. Look for a notice board at the entrance. Rules for boats are stricter than rules for the bank in many places. If the gate is shut, Camel Lake at 3.4 km is the nearest alternative. Check the position at Elgin Lake before loading the car.