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

• Overview

  Toronto Lake sits in Thunder Bay District, out in Ontario. The country here is spruce and muskeg. It measures some 9.58 sq km, and wind has room to build across it. There is roughly 35 km of bank, and each arm behaves like its own water. It is among the larger waters listed here for Thunder Bay District. Greenstone is the closest town at 83 km. Geraldton is 94 km and Longlac 112 km. It lies deep inside the county rather than near an edge.

• Where to Fish on Toronto Lake

  No chart reached our records; the first cast is your sounding. Look for the band where the shallows give up and the bottom falls away. Bays and points beat straight shoreline every time on water like this. County-wide records name cisco, blackfin cisco, rainbow smelt and bloater. The county list is broader than any single water. Toronto Lake gives up more to patience than to distance.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Average temperature peaks around 16°C in July and bottoms out near -20°C in January. Everything is compressed into the middle of the year. Once it clears, about early May, the fishing comes on quickly. Averages place the thaw at early May and the freeze at mid November. Just after the ice goes and just before it returns, the fishing lifts. Keep it in mind when planning a trip to Toronto Lake.

• Tackle & Baits

  Access is not recorded for this water. It formed naturally, so levels move with rainfall rather than with a gate. Access is unmapped, which usually means a farm track and a walk. One rod, a handful of hooks and floats, and a few small lures are enough for this water. A landowner's word beats anything printed elsewhere. Where tickets apply, they are sold in the nearest town rather than on the bank. East Ketchikan Lake sits 4.8 km off and takes the overflow. Nothing on Toronto Lake should be assumed from this page alone.