Mountbatten Lake Fishing near Chapleau, Ontario

• Overview

  Set in Sudbury, Mountbatten Lake is an Ontario water. The ground round it is taiga. At about 54 hectares, a day is enough to walk the shoreline properly. With 5.0 km or so of shoreline, boat anglers cover ground the bank cannot. Chapleau at 32 km is the nearest place to stop. It is 204 km to Greater Sudbury, the nearest city. It sits well inside the county, so one set of rules covers it.

• Where to Fish on Mountbatten Lake

  Without a survey to go on, judge depth from how the bank falls away. The productive water is a rod length or two out, not a hundred. 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, Iowa darter and walleye. County data is a starting point rather than a guarantee. Fish Mountbatten Lake where the bottom changes rather than where it looks deep.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Seasonal averages run from -16°C in January up to 17°C in July. The season is measured in weeks rather than months. Count on hard cover from midwinter, and open water from late April. Break-up sits around late April on average, with the water closing again about mid November. Fish feed hardest at the start and the close of the open season. Plan any trip to Mountbatten Lake around it.

• Tackle & Baits

  The paperwork position is blank for this one. This is a natural basin, not a dammed one. Nothing is listed nearby for parking or launching a boat. Bass water: a Texas-rigged worm near cover, a spinnerbait when you need to cover ground. Look for a notice board at the entrance. Some stretches are reserved and marked as such on the ground. For a change of water, Whitney Lake is 3.9 km distant. Signs at Mountbatten Lake carry more weight than any list.