Tucker Lake in Sudbury: How and When to Fish It

• Overview

  Set in Sudbury, Tucker Lake is an Ontario water. This is northern bush country. The water covers some 11 hectares, so pick a bank rather than trying to cover it all. A shoreline of some 3.1 km keeps the choices simple. Most waters listed here for Sudbury are larger. The nearest place of any size is Chapleau, 74 km away. Further out sit Wawa (78 km) and Hornepayne (109 km). There is no boundary nearby to worry about.

• Where to Fish on Tucker 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. On a natural lake the weed line and the shelf beyond it do the work. Fish documented in Sudbury include smallmouth bass, northern pike, yellow perch, Iowa darter and walleye. What holds for the county may not hold for this water. Tucker Lake responds to conditions more than to tactics.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Temperature averages peak at 16°C in July and bottom out at -16°C in January. Everything is compressed into the middle of the year. The freeze runs deep into the year, with break-up near early May. On average, early May opens the water and mid November closes it again. The strongest runs come at either end of the open season. Plan around that when you fish Tucker Lake.

• Tackle & Baits

  The rules here are undocumented as far as public sources go. It formed naturally, so levels move with rainfall rather than with a gate. No slipway, car park or made path shows up nearby in mapping, so treat access as rough. A landowner's word beats anything printed elsewhere. Close seasons apply to some species and not others. For a change of water, Spring Lake is 1 km distant. Where Tucker Lake is concerned, a local answer beats a written one.