Horsehead Lake Fishing near Geraldton, Ontario

• Overview

  Horsehead Lake is a Thunder Bay District water, in Ontario. Around the bank it is spruce and muskeg. It runs to roughly 21 hectares — big enough to hold fish away from the bank, small enough to learn. Bank access stretches around 2.1 km in total. Supplies mean a trip to Geraldton, 23 km off. Longlac is 24 km and Greenstone 36 km. No county line comes close, which keeps the paperwork simple.

• Where to Fish on Horsehead Lake

  Nothing we hold settles how deep this runs. Read the surface for the wind lane, then fish the edge of it. Look for the band where the shallows give up and the bottom falls away. Open biodiversity records for Thunder Bay District list cisco, blackfin cisco and rainbow smelt. County data is a starting point rather than a guarantee. Fish Horsehead Lake to its features, not to its size.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Long-term averages put July at about 16°C and January near -19°C. This far north the hard season runs and runs. Ice fishing carries the winter, and the water opens about early May. Break-up near early May, freeze-up near mid November: that is the shape of an average year. The shoulder weeks of the open season are the productive ones. Plan any trip to Horsehead Lake around it.

• Tackle & Baits

  Access is not recorded for this water. This is a natural basin, not a dammed one. Access is unmapped, which usually means a farm track and a walk. One rod, a handful of hooks and floats, and a few small lures are enough for this water. Rules differ from one water to the next round here. Keep proof of licence with you rather than in the car. Siwash Lake, 2.7 km away, makes the obvious fallback. Check the position on Horsehead Lake before loading the car.