Find top fishing on Lake Nipissing

Lake Nipissing | Destination Ontario
Lake Nipissing provides a vast and hospitable habitat for Ontario’s most popular game fish, including walleye, bass, northern pike and muskie, with an average depth of less than six metres.
From the sandy beaches of North Bay to the sprawling West Arm and the countless islands of South Bay, nutrient-rich waters wash over pencil reeds, bulrushes and lily pads. Patches of thick cabbage weed join the sand drop-offs and shoals of broken rock.
At 65 kilometres long and 25 kilometres wide, this broad and shallow lake is one of the largest inland lakes in the province. Channelled into Lake Huron through the sculpted rock of the French River, the lake is rimmed by a low-slung shoreline alternating from smooth sloping rocks, capped with shapely coniferous, to sand beaches bracketed by stretches of rock and vegetation.
Navigating Lake Nipissing
Lake Nipissing is surrounded by small and welcoming communities, including Nipissing First Nation, North Bay, Callander and Sturgeon Falls, and is within a reasonable drive from southern Ontario cities.
It also features several public access points with marinas and boat launches from which to reach the lake's arms, bays and channels. The southern shore is the least developed; however, launch facilities at the Dokis First Nation community along the outflow of the French River provide access to this spectacular stretch of water.
A fishfinder or GPS unit loaded with nautical charts available through Navionics.com is very helpful when navigating Lake Nipissing. Note abrupt depth changes and avoid travelling at great speed over unfamiliar areas. Use caution and common sense to avoid being caught in rough weather or hitting rocks.
The same features that contribute to challenging navigation also make Lake Nipissing an incredibly productive body of water for fishing. Explore shorelines and nearshore island clusters, then head out to the middle of the lake. Scattered island groupings and underwater rock structures provide sanctuary to every fish species.
Top ice fishing
Named a top ice fishing destination in Canada for quantity, quality and variety, hundreds of shacks spread across Lake Nipissing in winter, creating a village community on the ice.
Ice fishing accommodations
Ice fishing is weather-dependent. Typically, outfitters are well-equipped to welcome winter visitors from mid-January through early March. However, always double-check ice safety before venturing out.
Ice fishing packages can include lodge or cottage accommodation nearby, daily ice taxi service, pre-drilled holes, bait, equipment rentals and heated ice shacks. Some operators even plow ice roads to their shacks.
Or stay in heated ice fishing bungalows on the lake that can sleep groups of anglers and are equipped with washroom facilities, bunk beds, barbecues and kitchens.
Lake Nipissing ice-fishing operators include:
Chilly Willys Ice Fishing Adventures
Perreault’s Prime Time Ice Fishing
Access points for ice fishing
Deep Water Point (Deep Bay)
Sturgeon Falls (Access to French River)
Ice fishing species
In addition to Nipissing’s incredible perch fishery, walleye and northern pike remain target ice fishing species. The walleye and yellow perch seasons run from early January to mid-March.
Opportunities for whitefish, cisco (lake herring) and burbot continue until the shacks are removed from the lake at the end of March. Popular areas include Callander Bay, Deepwater Point and South Bay.
Bait recommendations
The baits are straightforward for those looking to keep it simple: jig head and a minnow, split shot rig, spoons, vibrating and vertical gliding baits. Tip your baits with a minnow head and a Berkley Gulp! Maggot to help keep them on and add scent. Soft plastics, such as the Gulp! Minnow and Ripple Shads also work well.
Williams Ice Jig: Gold/Silver and Blue/Silver
Berkley Finisher 5 and 7: French Pearl and Perch
Berkley Vibrato 1/2oz: Nat Shiner
Northland Buck-Shot Rattle Spoon: Clown and Silver Shiner
Spring and summer fishing
Walleye
Nipissing has a long history as a walleye fishery.
The spring/summer walleye season opens on the third Saturday of May and runs through mid-June. Look for walleye in shallow water, two metres or less and close to shorelines. As the water warms into summer, walleye head offshore to deeper water and are found on sand and rock edges, rock piles and shoals.
You may keep walleye between 40 and 45 centimetres long, with a maximum of two fish per Sport Licence and one per Conservation Licence. All fish caught above or below this harvestable size must be released to protect young fish so they can mature and reproduce.
The north shore around North Bay is a popular walleye zone in spring before the walleye move from shallow flats to deeper water. The erratic structure, deep water and multiple islands, bays and narrows of places like the French River and South Bay are good places to fish mid-summer.
Walleye love live bait like minnows, worms and leeches. They are also easily fooled by soft plastic baits and even by trolling or casting crank baits.
Smallmouth and largemouth bass
Pointing to hotspots is difficult because smallmouth are widespread in Lake Nipissing.
These athletic and aggressive fish will hold in weeds and sand edges. Rocky shorelines, mid-lake shoals of broken rock and shallow waters off rocky points hold the minnows and crayfish bass love to devour.
Try casting dark-coloured tube jigs, shallow diving crankbaits, or even shiny spinners and the results will vary from numbers of 38-centimetre (15-inch) bass to the occasional trophy smallmouth of 50 centimetres (20 inches) or more. When the water is calm, cast a top water popper over a rocky shoal to elicit strikes from thick smallmouth.
Narrow your focus on areas of dense weed growth for largemouth bass, which are not as widespread as smallmouth. The broad shallows of Cache Bay support the aquatic vegetation that largemouth love to hide in, as do areas of Callander Bay, South Bay and West Bay.
Draw largemouth from dense vegetation with weedless top water and subsurface lures, but “bucketmouth” bass also take crank baits and jigs and soft plastic in more open waters off points and shoreline edges.
Northern pike
These insatiable predators are found throughout the lake. In spring, northern pike patrol the shallows along North, Cache and Northwest Bays and wait in ambush at the base of drop-offs in the West Arm, French River and South Bay once the water temperatures rise through summer.
These aggressive fish will hit many presentations, including traditional flashy spoons like the red and white Dardevle, soft plastic jerk baits or virtually any live bait and jig combination.
In fact, their eagerness to bite has led to new regulations. Anglers may not keep fish longer than 86 centimetres and can only keep one greater than 61 centimetres. This is designed to protect large mature pike for a continuation of Nipissing’s robust pike fishery. Sport Licence holders can keep up to four northern pike, or two per Conservation Licence, but catch-and-release of these hard-hitting game fish is unlimited and keeps anglers entertained from spring to fall.
Muskie
Like their toothy northern pike cousins, muskie are found throughout Lake Nipissing.
The lake’s west end has a reputation for big muskies. However, hotspots change with the season, weather and whim. These top predators go wherever they want, corralling baitfish along shoreline shallows, the edges of deeper shoals in the middle of the lake, or even lurking within the weed beds. Not only do they eat big baitfish, like herring, but it’s also not uncommon for anglers to have the walleye they’ve hooked attacked by an opportunistic muskie.
Although the muskie season opens on the third Saturday in June, the best fishing starts in August through to the close of the season at the end of November.
Cast big glide baits or troll crank baits up to 30 centimetres (12 inches) long to boat fish that average 100 to 127 centimetres (40 to 50 inches). Hard-core muskie anglers describe Nipissing as world-class, with a healthy population of young fish and the ever-present chance of connecting with a 100-centimetre (50-plus-inch) monster.
Fishing lodges
Get a complete list of accommodation options on Lake Nipissing, including hotels, motels, lodges, resorts, campgrounds, cabins and outfitters.
Notable fishing lodges include:
Sunbeam Bungalows
This family-run business began in the 1930s. Blending past traditions with modern improvements, the resort has kept its appeal as a family and fishing vacation destination.
Sunbeam Bungalows offers cottages along a private sand beach in Callander Bay. A private boat launch and marina with docking facilities cater to anglers who can bring their own boat or rent one from the fleet of five-metre (16-foot) aluminum boats with 25 horsepower outboard motors.
Memquisit Lodge
Built in the 1920s, the main lodge features photographs of guests and their catches displayed on the restored wooden plank walls of this historic building that can seat up to 50 guests. Memquisit Lodge has twelve housekeeping cabins and five American plan cabins built on top of the sloping smooth rocks of Nipissing’s West Bay.
Choose from a fleet of Geisler 5.5-metre (18-foot) cedar strip boats or 5-metre (16-foot) aluminum boats equipped with 20 horsepower motors and fish finders to explore the islands, inlets, bays and narrows of West Bay.
Bear Creek Cottages
Step out of your kitchen-equipped lakefront cabin and onto a natural sand beach.
Sheltered docking facilities, boat and motor rentals and available guide service help guests connect with the game fish of their choice in Nipissing’s South Bay. In winter, Bear Creek Cottages offer ice fishing with daily transportation to heated day huts, or you can spend the night in their heated ice cabins.
Rob’s Five Star Fishing
Celebrating over 35 years in the ice fishing business, Rob’s Five Star Fishing offers four- and six-person insulated ice fishing bungalows equipped with LED lights, cooking facilities, bunk beds and washrooms.
There are holes inside and outside the bungalows to fish the productive waters of Callander Bay. Transportation to and from the ice bungalows is included and your first dozen minnows are on the house.
Last updated: February 3, 2025