Fishing at Skid Lake, Thunder Bay District, Ontario

• Overview

  Skid Lake is a Thunder Bay District water, in Ontario. What surrounds it is northern bush. The water covers some 38 hectares, so pick a bank rather than trying to cover it all. Shoreline length is close to 6.1 km, and each section fishes a little differently. Longlac is the closest place, 85 km off. Then Geraldton, 96 km, and Greenstone, 101 km. The nearest boundary is a fair way off.

• Where to Fish on Skid Lake

  Depth is unknown to us, and the shoreline is the better guide. A natural lake fishes on cover, and cover here means weed and timber. The productive water is a rod length or two out, not a hundred. Survey and observation records for Thunder Bay District include cisco, blackfin cisco, rainbow smelt, bloater and shortjaw cisco. Read it as a county summary, not a water-by-water list. Skid Lake repays a walk before the first cast.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Climate normals give 16°C for July and -20°C for January. Ice holds for a long stretch, so the open weeks matter more here than further south. Ice-out usually falls in early May, and the weeks after it fish hardest. On the long-run averages the water opens up around early May and starts locking again about mid November. The strong weeks are the first after break-up and the last before the freeze. Skid Lake fishes to that pattern most years.

• Tackle & Baits

  No access rule appears in what we hold. No dam controls it, and the level follows the season. Mapping records no facilities at all near this water. A light spinning outfit with a small box of lures and some bait covers most of what swims here. Where the road in crosses private land, ask first. Keep proof of licence with you rather than in the car. For a change of water, Merkley Lake is 5.9 km distant. None of that is settled for Skid Lake in what we hold.