Fishing at Menona Lake, Nipissing District, Ontario

• Overview

  Out in Nipissing District, Ontario, sits Menona Lake. It stands 296 metres above sea level. Surface area is around 42 hectares, which gives you real water without needing a boat. About 3.7 km of bank, so nothing stays unexplored for long. 45 km away sits Mattawa, the nearest town. Deep River is 64 km and Chalk River 67 km. The nearest edge is a long way off, so local rules apply throughout.

• Where to Fish on Menona Lake

  There is no recorded depth, so work from what you can see. This is a lake, so the margins and the first drop matter most. Look for the band where the shallows give up and the bottom falls away. Reported across Nipissing District: smallmouth bass, cisco, yellow perch, pumpkinseed and rock bass. The county figures include rivers and lakes alike. Fish Menona Lake to its features, not to its size.

• Seasonal Patterns

  July is the warm end of the year here, averaging about 18°C, while January sits near -13°C. Expect a real winter and a strong spring after it. Hard cover is dependable here; it goes around late April. Averages suggest open water from about late April through to roughly late November. Look to early summer and the first cool weeks of autumn. The season on Menona Lake rarely departs from it.

• 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. There is camping recorded roughly 390 m off. For the bass here, soft plastics worked slow along cover and a spinnerbait for searching do most of the work. Where access is informal, keep it that way by behaving. A polite question at the farm gate opens more banks than anything else. Wee George Lake, 1.9 km away, makes the obvious fallback. Where Menona Lake is concerned, a local answer beats a written one.