Palace Lake in Thunder Bay District: How and When to Fish It

• Overview

  Palace Lake is a Thunder Bay District water, Ontario side. What surrounds it is spruce and muskeg. At about 42 hectares, a day is enough to walk the shoreline properly. You are looking at roughly 6.1 km of shoreline, with plenty of water between access points. The closest town, Nipigon, is 49 km distant. Further out sit Greenstone (70 km) and Geraldton (83 km). Rules here are straightforward: one set of provincial rules.

• Where to Fish on Palace Lake

  No published figure covers depth, so learn it as you fish. The productive water is a rod length or two out, not a hundred. A natural lake fishes on cover, and cover here means weed and timber. Fish documented in Thunder Bay District include cisco, blackfin cisco, rainbow smelt and bloater. County records show what lives in the area; the local agency holds the water-by-water list. Read Palace Lake for ten minutes before the first cast goes out.

• Seasonal Patterns

  July is the warm end of the year here, averaging about 16°C, while January sits near -19°C. Winter owns most of the year at this latitude. After early May the shallows warm and the fish move up. Averages suggest open water from about early May through to roughly mid November. Look to early summer and the first cool weeks of autumn. The season on Palace Lake rarely departs from it.

• Tackle & Baits

  We have no record of the rules that apply on this bank. Records list it as a natural water body rather than an impoundment. There is no mapped parking or launch nearby, which keeps numbers down. Keep the gear simple: light line, small hooks, split shot and a couple of proven lures. Parking space is the usual limit rather than the bank itself. Access can change hands, so last year's answer may not hold. Pole Lake at 3.4 km is the sensible second choice. Treat access at Palace Lake as something to verify.