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

• Overview

  Set in Thunder Bay District, Ontario, this is Perute Lake. The setting is northern bush. It runs to roughly 94 hectares — big enough to hold fish away from the bank, small enough to learn. With 10 km or so of shoreline, boat anglers cover ground the bank cannot. Schreiber at 51 km is the nearest place to stop. Thunder Bay sits 175 km out, and it is the nearest city worth the name. This one is safely inside the county line.

• Where to Fish on Perute Lake

  No chart reached our records; the first cast is your sounding. A natural lake fishes on cover, and cover here means weed and timber. Bays and points beat straight shoreline every time on water like this. Species logged across Thunder Bay District include cisco, blackfin cisco and rainbow smelt. Those are county-wide records, so not every one of them will be in this water. At Perute Lake the first feature you find is worth twenty minutes.

• Seasonal Patterns

  The seasonal spread runs -18°C to 16°C. Ice holds for a long stretch, so the open weeks matter more here than further south. Count on hard cover from midwinter, and open water from early May. Break-up near early May, freeze-up near mid November: that is the shape of an average year. May into June fishes hardest, and September gives a second good stretch before the lid returns. Perute Lake runs to its own calendar within the local pattern.

• Tackle & Baits

  Ownership and access are not documented in what we hold. Records list it as a natural water body rather than an impoundment. Nothing is mapped in the way of a ramp or car park within a short radius. One rod, a handful of hooks and floats, and a few small lures are enough for this water. Where the road in crosses private land, ask first. Where the way in crosses private ground, ask first. If the gate is shut, Keane Lake at 1.7 km is the nearest alternative. Where Perute Lake is concerned, a local answer beats a written one.