Kelly Lake, Ontario: Fishing Spots and Seasons

• Overview

  Sudbury, Ontario, is where Kelly Lake sits. Beyond the shoreline you have pine and birch. It runs to roughly 35 hectares — big enough to hold fish away from the bank, small enough to learn. The bank runs about 4.3 km all the way round, so one visit can cover most of it. 63 km away sits Timmins, the nearest town. For a city, Greater Sudbury is 158 km off. The nearest boundary is well away, so one set of rules covers the water.

• Where to Fish on Kelly Lake

  Nothing we hold settles how deep this runs. The productive water is a rod length or two out, not a hundred. The shallow end warms first and pulls fish in ahead of the rest. Fish documented in Sudbury include smallmouth bass, northern pike, yellow perch and Iowa darter. Those are county-wide records, so not every one of them will be in this water. Fish Kelly Lake to its features, not to its size.

• Seasonal Patterns

  On the long-term average, July reads 17°C and January reads -17°C. Expect a real winter and a strong spring after it. Once it clears, about early May, the fishing comes on quickly. The open-water window runs from around early May to about mid November in an average year. The first weeks of open water and the last are the ones to plan for. The season on Kelly Lake follows the weather closely.

• Tackle & Baits

  Our records carry no access rule either way. No dam controls it, and the level follows the season. Nothing built is recorded close to the bank here. For the bass here, soft plastics worked slow along cover and a spinnerbait for searching do most of the work. Season dates differ by species, so read the table. Where tickets apply, they are sold in the nearest town rather than on the bank. For a change of water, Wrigley Lake is 1.9 km distant. None of that is settled for Kelly Lake in what we hold.