Fishing at Lake Ste. Marie, Thunder Bay District, Ontario

• Overview

  Lake Ste. Marie sits in Thunder Bay District, out in Ontario. The setting is boreal forest on every side. Roughly 32 hectares: a morning covers one end, an afternoon the other. The bank runs about 3.4 km all the way round, so one visit can cover most of it. Greenstone is the closest place, 58 km off. Geraldton lies 66 km off, Longlac another 84 km. No border sits close enough to matter.

• Where to Fish on Lake Ste. Marie

  Depth figures are not published for this one. The productive water is a rod length or two out, not a hundred. Look for the band where the shallows give up and the bottom falls away. Public occurrence data for Thunder Bay District names cisco, blackfin cisco and rainbow smelt. What holds for the county may not hold for this water. Lake Ste. Marie gives up more to patience than to distance.

• Seasonal Patterns

  In an average year July sits at 16°C and January at -20°C. Everything is compressed into the middle of the year. Count the season from break-up, usually early May. On the long-run averages the water opens up around early May and starts locking again about mid November. Reckon on open water from spring through to late autumn, with May and June the strongest. Lake Ste. Marie runs to that rhythm year in and year out.

• Tackle & Baits

  No public source sets out the position on this bank. This is a natural basin, not a dammed one. We find no slipway, car park or made path within a short radius, so treat access as rough. A light spinning outfit with a small box of lures and some bait covers most of what swims here. Provincial rules still apply whatever the bank status. Where tickets apply, they are sold in the nearest town rather than on the bank. Lone Loon Lake, 1.8 km away, makes the obvious fallback. Check the position on Lake Ste. Marie before loading the car.