Four Mile Lake Fishing near Dowling, Ontario

• Overview

  Look for Four Mile Lake in the Sudbury part of Ontario. The surroundings are lake country bush. The water measures roughly 5 hectares, so nothing here is far from anything else. It is a small entry by Sudbury standards. Dowling sits 22 km from the bank. Then Rayside-Balfour, 32 km, and Azilda, 41 km. It lies deep inside the county rather than near an edge.

• Where to Fish on Four Mile Lake

  Nothing we hold settles how deep this runs. 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. Sudbury records list smallmouth bass, northern pike, yellow perch and Iowa darter among the fish reported. County records show the wider picture rather than this one place. Take Four Mile Lake a stretch at a time.

• Seasonal Patterns

  The warm month here averages 18°C; the cold one sits at -14°C. Cold locks it up for a good stretch each year. Count the season from break-up, usually late April. In an average year the thaw lands around late April and the freeze near late November. Fishing peaks soon after break-up and again before the cold returns. Anyone fishing Four Mile Lake regularly works to that calendar.

• Tackle & Baits

  Whether the bank is open is not something our records settle. There is no mapped parking or launch close by, which usually means walking in. A small crankbait along the drop and a worm in the thick stuff cover the bass. A landowner's word beats anything printed elsewhere. Where the way in crosses private ground, ask first. Should this one be busy, Three Mile Lake is 1.7 km off. Treat Four Mile Lake as unsettled until someone local tells you otherwise.