Puppy Lake in Kenora District: How and When to Fish It

• Overview

  The Kenora District entry here is Puppy Lake, in Ontario. It lies 341 metres above sea level. It covers about 9 hectares, so this is small water you can walk round in under an hour. Most waters listed here for Kenora District are larger. 23 km away sits Kenora, the nearest town. It is 174 km to Winnipeg, the nearest city. No boundary runs near, so the local rules hold throughout.

• Where to Fish on Puppy Lake

  Without a survey to go on, judge depth from how the bank falls away. A soft bed grows weed late into autumn, which keeps fish shallow. The productive water is a rod length or two out, not a hundred. Survey and observation records for Kenora District include northern pike, longnose sucker, white sucker, johnny darter and logperch. It is the county picture; the agency list is water-specific. Work Puppy Lake in sections rather than trying to cover it.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Averages here run 19°C at the top of summer and -18°C at the bottom of winter. Winter shuts things down for a spell, then spring reopens them fast. Expect a solid lid for months and a thaw around late April. Averages suggest open water from about late April through to roughly mid November. The weeks after the thaw and the ones before the freeze are the strongest. Time your trip to Puppy Lake by conditions rather than dates.

• Tackle & Baits

  Public data does not answer the access question here. Nothing built is recorded close to the bank here. Pike mean a wire trace, no exceptions; big spoons and jerkbaits do the searching. Bank access can be seasonal on ground like this. Access can change hands, so last year's answer may not hold. Paddy Lake sits 0.8 km off and takes the overflow. Where Puppy Lake is concerned, a local answer beats a written one.