Nicholson Lake in Sudbury: How and When to Fish It

• Overview

  Nicholson Lake is a Sudbury water, in Ontario. Height above sea level is 436 metres. With some 19 hectares of water, there is room for a boat but no need of one. You are looking at roughly 5.3 km of shoreline, with plenty of water between access points. It sits higher than most water we list in Ontario. Chapleau at 30 km is the nearest place to stop. After that come Wawa at 77 km and Hornepayne at 156 km. No boundary runs near, so the local rules hold throughout.

• Where to Fish on Nicholson Lake

  Open data we checked carries no depth for this water. 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. Sudbury records list smallmouth bass, northern pike, yellow perch, Iowa darter and walleye among the fish reported. What holds for the county may not hold for this water. Read Nicholson Lake for ten minutes before the first cast goes out.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Averages move between -16°C in January and 17°C in July. Cold dominates the year and the fishing works around it. Look for the thaw near early May; the fishing lifts straight after. The open-water window runs from around early May to about mid November in an average year. The open run goes from the thaw to the freeze, and April through October covers most of it. Plan any trip to Nicholson Lake around it.

• Tackle & Baits

  Nothing we hold confirms whether access is permitted. It formed naturally, so levels move with rainfall rather than with a gate. Public data shows nothing built here, so treat the whole approach as informal. Bass water: a Texas-rigged worm near cover, a spinnerbait when you need to cover ground. Bank access can be seasonal on ground like this. Barbless rules turn up on managed water more often than not. Should this one be busy, Bevin Lake is 2.4 km off. What applies at Nicholson Lake may have changed since it was mapped.