Fishing at Inter Lake, Thunder Bay District, Ontario

• Overview

  Inter Lake lies in Thunder Bay District, in Ontario. It sits in northern bush country. Roughly 74 hectares: a morning covers one end, an afternoon the other. The bank runs about 4.3 km all the way round, so one visit can cover most of it. Nearest place of any size is Amethyst Harbour, 54 km away. Thunder Bay sits 73 km out, and it is the nearest city worth the name. No border sits close enough to matter.

• Where to Fish on Inter Lake

  Without a survey to go on, judge depth from how the bank falls away. On a natural lake the weed line and the shelf beyond it do the work. The productive water is a rod length or two out, not a hundred. Public occurrence data for Thunder Bay District names cisco, blackfin cisco, rainbow smelt, bloater and shortjaw cisco. County records show what lives in the area; the local agency holds the water-by-water list. Inter Lake gives up more to patience than to distance.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Averages move between -19°C in January and 17°C in July. The ice season is long here and the open one short. The lid usually goes in early May, which opens the strongest weeks of the year. The lid tends to go about early May and return around mid November. September and October fish steadily right up to the freeze. The season on Inter Lake follows the weather closely.

• Tackle & Baits

  Access is not recorded for this water. It formed naturally, so levels move with rainfall rather than with a gate. Public mapping records no formal access here, so plan for a walk and soft ground. A light spinning outfit with a small box of lures and some bait covers most of what swims here. A landowner's word beats anything printed elsewhere. Close seasons apply to some species and not others. For a change of water, Buffy Lake is 1.9 km distant. None of that is settled for Inter Lake in what we hold.