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

• Overview

  Set in Thunder Bay District, Ontario, this is Snowflake Lake. Height above sea level is 316 metres. Around 47 hectares of surface means several distinct areas to work. Around 3.7 km of margin, front to back. For a base, Manitouwadge sits 52 km out. Further out sit Hornepayne (59 km) and Longlac (84 km). Within a short drive: Half Shot Lake at 0.7 km, Dead Shot Lake out at 1.5 km, One Shot Lake at 1.7 km, Thornben Lake out at 2.4 km and Toch Lake at 2.5 km. There is no boundary nearby to worry about.

• Where to Fish on Snowflake Lake

  Depth remains unrecorded, so treat the first session as a survey. Look for the band where the shallows give up and the bottom falls away. The productive water is a rod length or two out, not a hundred. Open biodiversity records for Thunder Bay District list cisco, blackfin cisco, rainbow smelt and bloater. Records at this level tell you what is in the area. At Snowflake Lake the first feature you find is worth twenty minutes.

• Seasonal Patterns

  The range across the year is -19°C to 16°C. Open water arrives late and leaves early, which concentrates the fishing. Break-up comes around early May, and the run that follows is short and strong. The lid tends to go about early May and return around mid November. Late spring and early autumn carry the year between them. The season on Snowflake Lake follows the weather closely.

• Tackle & Baits

  We hold no note on access for this one. This is a natural basin, not a dammed one. There is no mapped parking or launch nearby, which keeps numbers down. One rod, a handful of hooks and floats, and a few small lures are enough for this water. Where access is informal, keep it that way by behaving. Keep proof of licence with you rather than in the car. Half Shot Lake, 0.7 km away, makes the obvious fallback. The position on Snowflake Lake is worth confirming on the day.