Fishing at St. Croix Lake, Thunder Bay District, Ontario

• Overview

  St. Croix Lake is listed under Thunder Bay District, Ontario. The surface lies 375 metres up. Surface area runs to about 8 hectares — small enough to read in one session. It is one of the smaller waters we list in Thunder Bay District. Greenstone sits 13 km from the bank. Geraldton is 26 km and Longlac 56 km. The nearest edge is a long way off, so local rules apply throughout.

• Where to Fish on St. Croix Lake

  No chart reached our records; the first cast is your sounding. The productive water is a rod length or two out, not a hundred. On a natural lake the weed line and the shelf beyond it do the work. Records held for Thunder Bay District cover cisco, blackfin cisco, rainbow smelt, bloater and shortjaw cisco. Those are county-wide records, so not every one of them will be in this water. The shape of St. Croix Lake decides where the fish sit.

• Seasonal Patterns

  The warmest month averages 16°C, the coldest about -19°C. The window is narrow, and fish feed hard while it lasts. Count on hard cover from midwinter, and open water from early May. In an average year the thaw lands around early May and the freeze near mid November. September and October fish steadily right up to the freeze. The season on St. Croix Lake rarely departs from it.

• Tackle & Baits

  The paperwork position is blank for this one. There is no mapped parking or launch nearby, which keeps numbers down. A light spinning outfit with a small box of lures and some bait covers most of what swims here. A landowner's word beats anything printed elsewhere. Where tickets apply, they are sold in the nearest town rather than on the bank. Viva Lake, 3.5 km away, makes the obvious fallback. Confirm before you fish St. Croix Lake.