Fishing at Knife Lake, Algoma, Ontario

• Overview

  Knife Lake belongs to Algoma, Ontario. It stands 410 metres above sea level. Roughly 5.65 sq km of surface: treat each bay as a water in its own right. Around 20 km of bank, which is a long day on foot. It is among the larger waters listed here for Algoma. Start from Wawa, 42 km down the road. The nearest city of size is Thunder Bay, 307 km away. This one is safely inside the county line.

• Where to Fish on Knife Lake

  Without a survey to go on, judge depth from how the bank falls away. Look for the band where the shallows give up and the bottom falls away. The productive water is a rod length or two out, not a hundred. Records held for Algoma cover walleye, northern pike and Iowa darter. What holds for the county may not hold for this water. On Knife Lake the quiet end is the one worth the extra effort.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Temperature averages peak at 16°C in July and bottom out at -16°C in January. Ice holds for a long stretch, so the open weeks matter more here than further south. Count the season from break-up, usually 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. Time your trip to Knife Lake by conditions rather than dates.

• Tackle & Baits

  Whether you may fish here is not something records settle. It formed naturally, so levels move with rainfall rather than with a gate. No built facilities appear in mapping around this water. 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. Some stretches are reserved and marked as such on the ground. Patron Lake, 2.6 km away, makes the obvious fallback. Ask locally about Knife Lake if anything is unclear.