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

• Overview

  Y Lake is one of the Thunder Bay District waters in Ontario. The ground round it is spruce and muskeg. It measures about 31 hectares, which is a comfortable size for bank fishing. Roughly 4.4 km of bank means you can walk to a fresh area when one goes quiet. Start from Longlac, 28 km down the road. For a city, Thunder Bay is 234 km off. It lies deep inside the county rather than near an edge.

• Where to Fish on Y Lake

  We hold no survey for this water; read the slope of the shoreline instead. The productive water is a rod length or two out, not a hundred. Weed, then depth: that is the order to fish a water of this kind. Public occurrence data for Thunder Bay District names cisco, blackfin cisco, rainbow smelt, bloater and shortjaw cisco. The county list is broader than any single water. The shape of Y Lake rewards a slow walk along one bank.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Expect July near 16°C and January near -18°C on the long-run figures. Winter runs most of the calendar, and everything worth doing happens in the gap. The freeze runs deep into the year, with break-up near early May. The lid tends to go about early May and return around mid November. Fish feed hardest at the start and the close of the open season. The season on Y Lake rarely departs from it.

• Tackle & Baits

  There is no clear statement anywhere on who can fish it. This is a natural basin, not a dammed 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. Ask in the nearest town if you are unsure. Where tickets apply, they are sold in the nearest town rather than on the bank. Greenwater Lake at 2.1 km is the sensible second choice. Nothing on Y Lake should be assumed from this page alone.