Fishing at Lily Lake, Kenora District, Ontario

• Overview

  The Kenora District end of Ontario holds Lily Lake. It lies 353 metres above sea level. The water covers some 32 hectares, so pick a bank rather than trying to cover it all. Our Kenora District list holds plenty of bigger water. The nearest place of any size is Sioux Lookout, 9.8 km away. For a city, Thunder Bay is 282 km off. The nearest edge is a long way off, so local rules apply throughout.

• Where to Fish on Lily Lake

  Depth is unmeasured here, so let the shoreline guide you. This is a lake, so the margins and the first drop matter most. A natural lake fishes on cover, and cover here means weed and timber. County-wide records name northern pike, longnose sucker, white sucker and johnny darter. What holds for the county may not hold for this water. The near bank of Lily Lake is often the one people ignore.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Long-run averages give July about 18°C and January about -18°C. Cold locks it up for a good stretch each year. Winter fishing happens on the ice here, with open water back around late April. The lid tends to go about late April and return around mid November. Reckon on open water from spring through to late autumn, with May and June the strongest. Anyone fishing Lily Lake regularly works to that calendar.

• Tackle & Baits

  Public data does not answer the access question here. Public mapping records no formal access here, so plan for a walk and soft ground. Pike mean a wire trace, no exceptions; big spoons and jerkbaits do the searching. A landowner's word beats anything printed elsewhere. Where parking is tight, arriving early solves most problems. For a change of water, One Lake is 3.3 km distant. Where Lily Lake is concerned, a local answer beats a written one.