Sassafras Lake Fishing in Thunder Bay District, Ontario

• Overview

  In Ontario, Sassafras Lake falls inside Thunder Bay District. Everything around it is rolling bush. About 3.26 sq km, so local knowledge or a boat saves a lot of walking. At about 17 km of edge, most people work one arm at a time. Few waters listed in Thunder Bay District are bigger. Ignace sits 95 km from the bank. Thunder Bay sits 189 km out, and it is the nearest city worth the name. Rules here are straightforward: one set of provincial rules.

• Where to Fish on Sassafras Lake

  Our records carry no depth, so judge it from the bank. Look for the band where the shallows give up and the bottom falls away. Where the bottom changes texture, fish gather; find that line. Open biodiversity records for Thunder Bay District list cisco, blackfin cisco, rainbow smelt, bloater and shortjaw cisco. What holds for the county may not hold for this water. At Sassafras Lake the first feature you find is worth twenty minutes.

• Seasonal Patterns

  The warm month here averages 17°C; the cold one sits at -20°C. Hard water is a season in its own right here. Winter fishing happens on the ice here, with open water back around early May. Break-up near early May, freeze-up near mid November: that is the shape of an average year. The shoulder weeks of the open season are the productive ones. Time your trip to Sassafras Lake by conditions rather than dates.

• Tackle & Baits

  Who may fish here is not settled in anything we hold. This is a natural basin, not a dammed one. Public mapping records no formal access here, so plan for a walk and soft ground. One rod, a handful of hooks and floats, and a few small lures are enough for this water. Look for a notice board at the entrance. Some stretches are reserved and marked as such on the ground. Dunne Lake, 3.5 km away, makes the obvious fallback. None of that is settled for Sassafras Lake in what we hold.