Sketch Lake in Thunder Bay District: How and When to Fish It

• Overview

  Sketch Lake stands in Thunder Bay District, Ontario. It lies 278 metres above sea level. About 2.30 sq km, so local knowledge or a boat saves a lot of walking. With 13 km or so of shoreline, boat anglers cover ground the bank cannot. It is among the larger waters listed here for Thunder Bay District. Supplies mean a trip to Greenstone, 127 km off. Thunder Bay sits 313 km out, and it is the nearest city worth the name. No border sits close enough to matter.

• Where to Fish on Sketch Lake

  No depth figure has reached our records, which makes a plummet useful. Weed, then depth: that is the order to fish a water of this kind. On a natural lake the weed line and the shelf beyond it do the work. County-wide records name cisco, blackfin cisco, rainbow smelt, bloater and shortjaw cisco. County data is a starting point rather than a guarantee. At Sketch Lake the first feature you find is worth twenty minutes.

• Seasonal Patterns

  In an average year July sits at 16°C and January at -21°C. Water stays cold even at the height of the year. Winter fishing happens on the ice here, with open water back around early May. Expect the water usable from around early May until roughly early November. The strong weeks are the first after break-up and the last before the freeze. The season on Sketch Lake follows the weather closely.

• Tackle & Baits

  No public source sets out the position on this bank. This is a natural basin, not a dammed one. Formal access is not mapped, so the last stretch is likely on foot. One rod, a handful of hooks and floats, and a few small lures are enough for this water. Some banks are open only from a marked point. Rules for boats are stricter than rules for the bank in many places. The nearest alternative is Pagan Lake, 3.7 km out. Rules at Sketch Lake are worth checking on the day.