Lake Simcoe is a four-season fishing hotspot
Lake Simcoe | Central Counties
When it comes to great Ontario four-season fishing destinations, Lake Simcoe exceeds expectations. Despite being one of the most intensively fished inland lakes, its fish are large and plentiful in every season.
With an area of roughly 720 square kilometres, it’s Ontario’s fourth-largest lake, and it offers something for every type of angler, from the chance to catch trophy-sized fish to panfish by the bucket and everything in between.
Powerful lake trout and hefty whitefish can be found in Simcoe’s cool depths. The shallow, weedy areas play host to aggressive, well-fed largemouth bass and northern pike. Some of Canada’s largest smallmouth bass roam Lake Simcoe’s mid-depths. And then there are the lake’s beloved (and delicious) yellow perch, which are found almost anywhere.
Quality fishing for a mix of gamefish is common in less populated and remote regions of Northern Ontario. However, Lake Simcoe is only 50 kilometres north of the Greater Toronto Area in southern Ontario and is easily accessible by highways. Barrie and Orillia sit on the shores of Simcoe with more residential communities nearby.
Discover the fish species you can target in Lake Superior by season, along with tips on locations and tactics and a list of local fishing guides, outfitters and ice-hut rentals. When planning your fishing trip, check out the local fishing regulations for species limits and seasons, which can vary from year to year.
Winter ice fishing season
Lake Simcoe comes alive in winter. Once the lake’s surface freezes, thousands of anglers take to the ice for ice fishing from mid-January to mid-March. More people ice fish on this lake than anywhere else on the continent.
Ice fishing on Lake Simcoe can be an exciting and interactive activity, with ice fishing competitions held throughout the season. The famous Lake Simcoe Championship Ice Fishing Derby boasts a first-place prize of $10,000.
Popular ice fishing species include:
Yellow perch
Simcoe is famous for its jumbo yellow perch, which are excellent to eat, relatively easy to catch and found throughout the lake, including within a walkable few hundred metres from shore.
Yellow perch are typically found in the shallow to mid-depth areas of the lake. Cook’s Bay, a large, relatively shallow area extending down from the lake’s southwestern corner, is considered one of Simcoe’s best perch-fishing spots. However, perch are found all around the lake’s shore, including Port Bolster, Beaverton, Orillia and the back of Kempenfelt Bay, along Barrie’s waterfront.
Ice fishing for perch requires basic equipment: a rod and reel and a few hooks, weights, lures or a little bucket of bait. Live minnows are the most popular bait, but perch also love small jigs, spoons and jigging raps.
Northern pike
For extra excitement, northern pike are found in the same locations as perch and are well known for snacking on perch baits. Feeling a 10-pound pike on the line when you’re expecting a one-pound perch is a memorable thrill.
Lake trout and whitefish
More adventurous Lake Simcoe anglers looking for bigger fish can travel to deeper water (usually via snow machine or ATV) to fish for beautiful lake trout and hefty whitefish. Early in the ice season, trout and whitefish can be found around humps and shoals as shallow as 20 feet, but they move deeper as the weeks go by, out to water as deep as 100 feet. Action remains good until the trout season closes in mid-March.
Minnows are also popular for trout and whitefish, but often lures can be more effective. Some of the most popular lake trout lures include swimbaits, tube jigs, jigging spoons and lipless crankbaits. Whitefish will hit most of the same lures, though they favour them a little smaller. Hot spots include the deeper water at the mouth of Cooks Bay, around Simcoe’s westernmost islands, and Kempenfelt Bay, which is one of the few trout areas that can be reached by foot.
Spring fishing season
Typically, the ice leaves the lake by mid-April, and the spring fishing season begins.
Popular species to target in spring include:
Black crappie
Black crappies are one of Simcoe’s most prized and elusive fish. This mid-sized and delicious panfish is plentiful in the lake, but often difficult to locate. However, in early spring crappies move close to shore, primarily in the lake’s southern sections, around marinas, piers and in tributaries such as the Holland, Black and Maskinoge Rivers.
Often measuring between 10 and 14 inches, these “slab” crappies can be caught using light spinning tackle and many of the same lures and baits used for winter perch.
Yellow perch
While slightly less predictable than in winter, perch fishing is also good in spring, with the fish found close to the same general areas. It can take some searching, but when you do locate a school, the action is fast and furious.
Both perch and crappie can also be caught from shore this time of year. Popular spots include docks and marinas, plus Atherly Narrows, near Orillia at the lake’s northern inflow.
Lake trout and northern pike
Mid-May is when the open-water season begins for both lake trout and northern pike.
Cook’s Bay is the most popular spot for spring pike, although they can be found in most of the lake’s shallow areas where aquatic weeds are starting to emerge.
Trolling spoons, large spinners or crankbaits are typically the best way to find and land pike. There are some large fish in the 20-pound range, but mid-sized pike in the five- to 12-pound range are more common and offer excellent sport.
Whitefish
Late-spring fishing for whitefish is good, though fewer anglers target them this time of year. They can be found in deep water throughout Lake Simcoe’s western half, around submerged points and humps.
The most popular tactic is deep-water trolling with spoons, though vertical jigging can also be effective.
Summer fishing season
The summer fishing season opens in late June with anglers targeting bass, trout and whitefish.
Smallmouth bass
It’s an exciting time for the many anglers who love these aggressive, hard-fighting fish. In the last two decades, Lake Simcoe has become one of Canada’s premier destinations for giant smallmouth bass.
Since the late 1990s, the lake has been colonized by the round goby, a small invasive baitfish. While invasive species are always a concern, Simcoe’s smallmouth bass have grown fat on the bottom-dwelling gobies. Generally, five-pound bass are rare in Ontario, but they’re routine on Lake Simcoe, thanks to both the gobies and a strong catch-and-release ethic among anglers. Smallmouths up to eight pounds are caught regularly, and many believe the lake will soon produce a new Canadian record.
Lake Simcoe’s large smallmouth tend to be found in relatively deep water, typically 15 to 30 feet depths around islands, rocky shorelines, drop-offs and points all around the lake.
Artificial lures are by far the most popular and effective bait, especially crankbaits and goby-imitating soft plastics.
Largemouth bass
As anglers turn their attention toward Lake Simcoe’s enormous smallmouth bass, it’s easy to overlook the lake’s excellent fishing for their cousin, the largemouth bass.
While they don’t reach record-book size, Simcoe’s largemouth are still plentiful, well-fed and often easier to catch than the smallmouth. Warm, shallow Cook’s Bay (including the mouth of the Holland River) is again the focus, but largemouth bass inhabit most of the lake’s shallow weedy areas.
Most classic bass lures work well, but you can never go wrong with soft-plastic worms, spinnerbaits and weedless topwater frogs.
Lake trout, whitefish and perch
Fishing for lake trout and whitefish remains good all summer, in part because fewer anglers target them this time of year. Anglers who like venturing further from shore to fish in deeper water can catch trout using the same tactics and locations as in spring.
By late summer, perch are dispersed throughout the lake. If you find a school of them while fishing for smallmouth, they almost always bite enthusiastically.
Fall fishing season
After the Labour Day holiday on the first Monday of September, the number of anglers on Lake Simcoe drops sharply, even though the lake offers some of its best fishing in the fall season. Fish for:
Bass and pike
Autumn is prime time for the lake’s largest bass and pike. These fish are feeding heavily in anticipation of winter.
Smallmouth bass can be found in similar locations as in summer, and similar tactics continue to pay off. On windy or overcast days, check shallow, rocky shoals and flats (expert anglers predict the next record smallmouth bass could be caught on a cold and cloudy day in late October or November on Simcoe).
In the fall, largemouth bass tend to move to deeper water that’s close to their summer locations, and they remain quite aggressive well into October. Again, a wide variety of lures are effective, but anglers tend to use larger, flashier ones than in summer.
Big northern pike can often be found nearby and are particularly drawn to weeds that remain green and healthy since these areas will hold more prey. Many approaches will work, but it’s hard to beat trolling with large spoons and crankbaits.
Perch
Yellow perch fishing is very good in fall as they start to congregate in larger schools and move toward the shallower areas where they’ll spend the winter.
As in spring, use light spinning tackle with jigs and soft-plastics, and small, flashy lures such as spoons or spinners.
Fishing guides, outfitters and ice hut rentals
Seasonal and year-round fishing outfitters and guides operate on Lake Simcoe.
In the winter, ice fishing hut rentals are available. Generally, operators supply a cozy heated hut with carved out fishing holes, tackle, bait and transportation to and from the hut. Some also supply a propane stove and outhouse facilities and can sell fishing licences. In addition, a few also offer heated log cabins along the shoreline with live bait and tackle, rods and padded benches for fishing.
Cook’s Bay Marina, Innisfil
Hut rentals and transportation to the ice, with breakfast and lunch available for purchase.
Fish Simcoe Hardwater Outfitters, Churchill
Rental huts of various sizes, including a 12-person overnight hut, in prime perch and pike fishing locations.
Floyd Hales Ice Huts, Beaverton
Forty modern fish huts, suitable for four to six anglers and transportation to the huts via classic Bombardier snow buses.
Goy Fishing, Gilford
Distinctive, blue-coloured day huts and one overnight hut in prime Cook’s Bay fishing location, and bait is included.
Lucky’s Sons Ice Huts, Lefroy
Hut rentals in both shallow-water for perch and pike and deep-water for trout and whitefish, along with bait.
Tim Hales Fish Huts, Beaverton
Fishing for perch, trout and whitefish, huts have padded benches, back rests, interior lights and a 12-volt power system with USB ports.
Fish City Tours, Various locations
Well-known local guide Taro Murata offers charter fishing for up to four anglers, for perch, bass, pike and walleye.
Fish Crazy Guide Services, Various locations
Four-season guided fishing on Lake Simcoe. All tackle provided, including rods, reels and bait for open-water fishing, and portable huts and sonars for ice fishing.
Happy Go Fish Hut Rentals & Guide Service, Various locations
Year-round guided fishing, with rental huts for perch, trout and whitefish in winter, and bass and trout charters in summer.
SR Fishing, Orillia
Four-season fishing with professional guide and tournament angler Steve Rowbotham, with charters for bass, pike, trout and whitefish.
Accommodations
Several lakeside cottages, inns and cabins located along Lake Simcoe’s shoreline welcome anglers year-round.
The Briars Resort & Spa
Victorian-style lakeside resort, offering guest rooms, suites and a housekeeping cottage, with access to indoor and outdoor recreational facilities.
Location: 55 Hedge Road, Jacksons Point
Casey's Port Bolster Inn
Located 200 metres from the lake, with six rooms and an eight-person cottage, plus a restaurant, tackle shop and ice-fishing huts.
Location: 81 Clovelly Cove, Port Bolster
Lakeside Inn Orillia
Lakefront location near Atherly Narrows, just minutes from Orillia’s waterfront downtown with a private dock for guests.
Location: 86 Creighton Street South, Orillia
Peninsula Resort
Lakefront suites and waterfront cottages, with a sandy beach, an onsite boat launch and a 250-metre boardwalk for fishing.
Location: 8QQH+RV Pefferlaw, Georgina
Best Western Plus Orillia Hotel
Just steps away from Lake Simcoe at Athlerly Narrows, this hotel features an onsite restaurant, complimentary breakfast and access to a range of outdoor activities.
Location: 440 Couchiching Point Road, Orillia
No matter what time of year, Lake Simcoe’s fish are always biting. From family fishing close to shore to chasing big trout, pike and bass on the lake, this four-season lake in Ontario has it all.
Last updated: June 4, 2025