Fishing Kidney Lake in Sudbury, Ontario

• Overview

  Kidney Lake is one of the Sudbury listings for Ontario. The surface lies 445 metres up. With some 37 hectares of water, there is room for a boat but no need of one. Roughly 2.6 km of bank means you can walk to a fresh area when one goes quiet. Compared with other Ontario water on our list, it sits high. For a base, Chapleau sits 24 km out. Greater Sudbury sits 233 km out, and it is the nearest city worth the name. No boundary runs near, so the local rules hold throughout.

• Where to Fish on Kidney Lake

  Depth is not on record here, so the bank has to tell you. Still water like this holds fish on the edges rather than out in the open. Weed, then depth: that is the order to fish a water of this kind. Survey and observation records for Sudbury include smallmouth bass, northern pike, yellow perch and Iowa darter. County data is a starting point rather than a guarantee. Kidney Lake responds to conditions more than to tactics.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Expect July near 16°C and January near -15°C on the long-run figures. This far north the hard season runs and runs. The open season starts with the thaw, near enough late April. The lid tends to go about late April and return around mid November. The open run goes from the thaw to the freeze, and April through October covers most of it. On Kidney Lake the same rules apply, with local timing.

• Tackle & Baits

  Our records carry no access rule either way. No dam controls it, and the level follows the season. There is no mapped parking or launch close by, which usually means walking in. For the bass here, soft plastics worked slow along cover and a spinnerbait for searching do most of the work. Rules differ from one water to the next round here. Where the way in crosses private ground, ask first. Failing this one, try Hogan Lake, 3.2 km away. None of that is settled for Kidney Lake in what we hold.