Pete Lake, Ontario: Fishing Spots and Seasons

• Overview

  Set in Thunder Bay District, Pete Lake is an Ontario water. It sits at 511 metres above sea level. Roughly 20 hectares: a morning covers one end, an afternoon the other. Around 2.8 km of margin, front to back. Compared with other Ontario water on our list, it sits high. The nearest town is Neebing, 41 km away. Thunder Bay is the closest city, 46 km away. It sits well inside its county, with no border complications.

• Where to Fish on Pete Lake

  Depth went unrecorded, which puts the reading back on you. Still water like this holds fish on the edges rather than out in the open. Look for the band where the shallows give up and the bottom falls away. Survey and observation records for Thunder Bay District include cisco, blackfin cisco, rainbow smelt, bloater and shortjaw cisco. Those are county-wide records, so not every one of them will be in this water. The near bank of Pete Lake is often the one people ignore.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Averages here run 17°C at the top of summer and -17°C at the bottom of winter. Winter puts a hard lid on this one. The lid usually goes in early May, which opens the strongest weeks of the year. The lid tends to go about early May and return around mid November. The middle of summer slows a little, with dawn and dusk carrying it. It sets the rhythm of the year at Pete Lake.

• Tackle & Baits

  Nothing in our records says who may fish here. No dam controls it, and the level follows the season. We find no slipway, car park or made path within a short radius, so treat access as rough. A light spinning outfit with a small box of lures and some bait covers most of what swims here. Read any posted signs at the access point rather than assuming. Some stretches are reserved and marked as such on the ground. Length Lake at 2.8 km is the sensible second choice. What applies at Pete Lake may have changed since it was mapped.