Fishing at Kennedy Lake, Timiskaming District, Ontario

• Overview

  The Timiskaming District end of Ontario holds Kennedy Lake. It stands 285 metres above sea level. With some 52 hectares of water, there is room for a boat but no need of one. With 6.8 km or so of shoreline, boat anglers cover ground the bank cannot. The closest town, Kirkland Lake, is 22 km away. Greater Sudbury sits 216 km out, and it is the nearest city worth the name. One jurisdiction covers this water end to end.

• Where to Fish on Kennedy Lake

  No figure exists for depth, so let the water show you. Weed, then depth: that is the order to fish a water of this kind. The shallow end warms first and pulls fish in ahead of the rest. Survey and observation records for Timiskaming District include brook trout, northern pike, yellow perch and Iowa darter. What holds for the county may not hold for this water. The near bank of Kennedy Lake is often the one people ignore.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Long-term averages put July at about 17°C and January near -17°C. The season turns properly here, and fish follow it closely. After early May the shallows warm and the fish move up. From about early May to around mid November, expect open water on the long-run figures. The shoulder weeks of the open season are the productive ones. The season on Kennedy Lake rarely departs from it.

• Tackle & Baits

  The rules here are undocumented as far as public sources go. It formed naturally, so levels move with rainfall rather than with a gate. No launch point is recorded nearby, so this is a bank water unless you carry a boat in. Sort the permit out before you load the car. Night access is frequently treated as a separate matter. McCurdy Lake, 1.8 km away, makes the obvious fallback. Treat Kennedy Lake as unsettled until someone local tells you otherwise.