Rudder Lake Fishing near Manitouwadge, Ontario

• Overview

  In Ontario, Rudder Lake falls inside Thunder Bay District. The bank is 331 metres above sea level. With some 23 hectares of water, there is room for a boat but no need of one. The bank runs about 2.7 km all the way round, so one visit can cover most of it. The nearest town is Manitouwadge, 2.5 km away. The big place round here is Thunder Bay, 261 km distant. The nearest edge is a long way off, so local rules apply throughout.

• Where to Fish on Rudder Lake

  No chart reached our records; the first cast is your sounding. Bays and points beat straight shoreline every time on water like this. Read the surface for the wind lane, then fish the edge of it. Fish documented in Thunder Bay District include cisco, blackfin cisco, rainbow smelt and bloater. Read it as a county summary, not a water-by-water list. Fish Rudder Lake to its features, not to its size.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Averages here run 16°C at the top of summer and -17°C at the bottom of winter. The freeze holds for the better part of the year. Hard water holds through the cold months, breaking up near early May. Average temperatures cross freezing around early May in spring and again near mid November in autumn. The shoulder weeks of the open season are the productive ones. That shapes the year on Rudder Lake.

• Tackle & Baits

  Who may fish here is not settled in anything we hold. It formed naturally, so levels move with rainfall rather than with a gate. Mapping records no facilities at all near this water. One rod, a handful of hooks and floats, and a few small lures are enough for this water. Rules differ from one water to the next round here. Some stretches are reserved and marked as such on the ground. For a change of water, Blades Lake is 0.9 km distant. Check the current arrangement for Rudder Lake.