St. Onge Lake Fishing near Thessalon, Ontario

• Overview

  Set in Algoma, Ontario, this is St. Onge Lake. This is lake country bush ground. Roughly 50 hectares: a morning covers one end, an afternoon the other. You are looking at roughly 6.0 km of shoreline, with plenty of water between access points. Nearest town is Thessalon, 32 km off. Greater Sudbury is the closest city, 198 km away. It sits well inside the county, so one set of rules covers it.

• Where to Fish on St. Onge Lake

  Depth here is unknown, so count the lead down before committing. A soft bed grows weed late into autumn, which keeps fish shallow. A natural lake fishes on cover, and cover here means weed and timber. Public occurrence data for Algoma names walleye, northern pike and Iowa darter. These are county-wide records, so not all of them will be in this water. On St. Onge Lake the quiet end is the one worth the extra effort.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Temperature averages peak at 18°C in July and bottom out at -12°C in January. Hard water is a season in its own right here. The lid usually goes in late April, which opens the strongest weeks of the year. The open-water window runs from around late April to about late November in an average year. Fish feed hardest at the start and the close of the open season. That is the shape of the year on St. Onge Lake.

• Tackle & Baits

  Who may fish here is not settled in anything we hold. It formed naturally, so levels move with rainfall rather than with a gate. There is no mapped parking or launch close by, which usually means walking in. Largemouth respond to soft plastics tight to cover; go weedless where the growth is heavy. Bank access can be seasonal on ground like this. Where tickets apply, they are sold in the nearest town rather than on the bank. Wakegijig Lake sits 0.7 km off and takes the overflow. Check the position at St. Onge Lake before loading the car.