Fishing at Slim Lake, Sudbury, Ontario

• Overview

  Look for Slim Lake in Sudbury, Ontario. Height above sea level is 432 metres. It runs to roughly 11 hectares — big enough to hold fish away from the bank, small enough to learn. Shoreline comes to about 2.2 km, small enough to learn in a day. Our Sudbury list holds plenty of bigger water. Nearest place of any size is Chapleau, 41 km away. Wawa is 65 km and Sault Ste. Marie 146 km. There is no boundary nearby to worry about.

• Where to Fish on Slim Lake

  Depth is not on record here, which means reading the ground instead. On a natural lake the weed line and the shelf beyond it do the work. Look for the band where the shallows give up and the bottom falls away. Fish documented in Sudbury include smallmouth bass, northern pike and yellow perch. The county list is broader than any single water. On Slim Lake the obvious spot is not always the productive one.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Between January at about -15°C and July at about 16°C, the water has a wide range to work through. Long winters and short summers set the pattern. Count on hard cover from midwinter, and open water from late April. Averages place the thaw at late April and the freeze at mid November. Early summer and early autumn carry the open-water season. Slim Lake runs to that rhythm year in and year out.

• Tackle & Baits

  Who may fish here is not settled in anything we hold. This is a natural basin, not a dammed one. Nothing is mapped in the way of a ramp or car park within a short radius. Bass water: a Texas-rigged worm near cover, a spinnerbait when you need to cover ground. Where a permit is needed, the nearest town usually sells it. Some stretches are reserved and marked as such on the ground. Arva Lake, 1.9 km away, makes the obvious fallback. Treat Slim Lake as unsettled until someone local tells you otherwise.