Woodstock Lake in Kenora District: How and When to Fish It

• Overview

  Kenora District in Ontario is where Woodstock Lake sits. It lies 346 metres above sea level. It runs to roughly 83 hectares — big enough to hold fish away from the bank, small enough to learn. The margin runs to about 6.0 km in total. 223 km away sits Sioux Lookout, the nearest town. Thunder Bay is the closest city, 322 km away. One jurisdiction covers this water end to end.

• Where to Fish on Woodstock Lake

  Nothing we hold settles how deep this runs. Look for the band where the shallows give up and the bottom falls away. A soft bed grows weed late into autumn, which keeps fish shallow. Survey and observation records for Kenora District include northern pike, longnose sucker and white sucker. These are county-wide records, so not all of them will be in this water. On Woodstock Lake the quiet end is the one worth the extra effort.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Expect July to average close to 16°C, with January the cold end at about -21°C. The fishing year opens late and shuts early. Break-up comes around early May, and the run that follows is short and strong. Break-up near early May, freeze-up near early November: that is the shape of an average year. The weeks after the thaw and the ones before the freeze are the strongest. The season on Woodstock Lake follows the weather closely.

• 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. Access points are not mapped for this water, which suits people who like quiet. Pike mean a wire trace, no exceptions; big spoons and jerkbaits do the searching. Some banks are open only from a marked point. Where parking is tight, arriving early solves most problems. Heather Lake, 7.1 km away, makes the obvious fallback. Check the position at Woodstock Lake before loading the car.