Fishing Philip Lake in Algoma, Ontario

• Overview

  Philip Lake is one of the Algoma waters in Ontario. This is northern bush country. Surface area runs to about 4 hectares — small enough to read in one session. It is a small entry by Algoma standards. Wawa lies 35 km from the water. Greater Sudbury is the closest city, 331 km away. Others close at hand: Dipneedle Lake sits 0.5 km out, Summit Lake within 0.6 km, Emily Lake sits 1.5 km out, Jackson Lake within 1.9 km and Wysor Lake sits 2 km out. No boundary runs near, so the local rules hold throughout.

• Where to Fish on Philip Lake

  Without a survey to go on, judge depth from how the bank falls away. Look for the band where the shallows give up and the bottom falls away. Weed, then depth: that is the order to fish a water of this kind. Open biodiversity records for Algoma list walleye, northern pike, Iowa darter and yellow perch. Records at this level tell you what is in the area. Philip Lake gives up more to patience than to distance.

• Seasonal Patterns

  The seasonal spread runs -16°C to 16°C. The season is measured in weeks rather than months. Hard water holds through the cold months, breaking up near early May. Averages place the thaw at early May and the freeze at mid November. From the thaw to midsummer the fishing improves week by week. On Philip Lake that shapes the whole year.

• Tackle & Baits

  Whether you may fish here is not something records settle. No launch point is recorded nearby, so this is a bank water unless you carry a boat in. Bass water: a Texas-rigged worm near cover, a spinnerbait when you need to cover ground. Where access is informal, keep it that way by behaving. Where the way in crosses private ground, ask first. For a change of water, Dipneedle Lake is 0.5 km distant. Treat Philip Lake as unsettled until someone local tells you otherwise.