Fishing Garnet Lake in Algoma, Ontario

• Overview

  In Ontario, Garnet Lake belongs to Algoma. The water sits 290 metres up. The water covers around 1.30 sq km, which puts most of it out of reach from the bank. With 8.4 km or so of shoreline, boat anglers cover ground the bank cannot. Few waters listed in Algoma are bigger. Hornepayne lies 30 km from the water. Thunder Bay sits 350 km out, and it is the nearest city worth the name. It sits well inside the county, so one set of rules covers it.

• Where to Fish on Garnet Lake

  The records we hold are silent on depth, so plan to find it yourself. Weed, then depth: that is the order to fish a water of this kind. On a natural lake the weed line and the shelf beyond it do the work. Records held for Algoma cover walleye, northern pike, Iowa darter, yellow perch and white sucker. Read it as a county summary, not a water-by-water list. Take Garnet Lake a stretch at a time.

• Seasonal Patterns

  July is the warm end of the year here, averaging about 16°C, while January sits near -19°C. Little of the calendar is open water, so timing counts for everything. Look for the thaw near early May; the fishing lifts straight after. Break-up sits around early May on average, with the water closing again about mid November. The middle of summer slows a little, with dawn and dusk carrying it. Anyone fishing Garnet Lake regularly works to that calendar.

• Tackle & Baits

  Access is not recorded for this water. No dam controls it, and the level follows the season. No made access appears within a short radius, so plan to park on a verge and walk. Bass water: a Texas-rigged worm near cover, a spinnerbait when you need to cover ground. Where a permit is needed, the nearest town usually sells it. Some ground is open by custom rather than by right, so tread carefully. For a change of water, Elsie Lake is 1.5 km distant. Treat access at Garnet Lake as something to verify.