During mid-July, my partner Eric and I, with our boat in tow, headed to Sudbury for a fishing adventure. It had been a few years since I had fished in the Sudbury area, with my last outing taking place on Ramsey Lake during a kayak fishing tournament for bass. I had a great experience and looked forward to exploring some new bodies of water in the area. During our recent trip, we had a fantastic experience out on Panache Lake getting into one of my favourite bites for smallmouth, and we caught many beautiful fish, including a few different species. Thank you to Sudbury Tourism and Northeastern Ontario for partnering with me on this adventure.
Panache Lake is located southwest of the city of Sudbury and north of Killarney Provincial Park. It is a gorgeous body of water with many islands and bays, and is home to a variety of fish species, including smallmouth and largemouth bass, lake trout, northern pike, pumpkinseed, bluegill, walleye, and more. We launched at Panache Bay Marina, located on the north side of the lake.
We spent 3 nights at Fairbank Lake Cottages, which is located about 45 kilometres northwest of Sudbury on the shores of Fairbank Lake. They offer various accommodation options, including cottages, a main lodge, as well as an apartment suite. All accommodations overlook scenic Fairbank Lake, which has a variety of fish species including smallmouth bass, northern pike, walleye, lake trout, panfish, and more. We stayed in Cottage One, a cozy and quaint accommodation with 2 bedrooms, a kitchen, a living room area, and a full bathroom. A large dock stretches along the shoreline in front of the cottages, and included in front of our cottage was a fire pit and chairs. Guests have access to recreational kayaks, canoes, and paddleboards. We encountered a storm during our second day here, however, but in the evening the conditions were perfect to hop in the kayaks for a couple of hours and explore the bay in front of the resort. We got into a few smallmouth bass along shore using a Ned rig. For those bringing a boat along, there is a boat launch right next to the resort.
Although we brought some groceries along to prepare meals at the cottage, we also enjoyed checking out some local restaurants. We visited Buzzy Brown’s Brasserie one evening, as well as ordered takeout pizza from Tony V’s Pizza & Restaurant. Both were yummy options!
As mentioned, our adventure began with launching our boat at Panache Bay Marina. Although we didn’t need assistance with launching, there were friendly staff on hand offering a helping hand to guests. Eric picked up a little smallmouth bass on a Ned rig right off the hop around the docks. We then made our way out of the bay and began exploring the lake in hopes of getting into some bass as well as checking off other species found here. We cruised up to a basin with plans to look for some main lake points and make our way shallow. We had barely dropped the trolling motor when we started seeing bass chase bait on the surface over the basin not far from us. This is always an exciting sight to me! We made our way closer to where we were seeing activity and got into a bunch of smallmouth bass high in the water column using soft plastic minnows rigged on light jigheads (such as the Z-Man Graph Shadz). I love catching offshore suspended smallies, and we got into a bunch of them this way! The wind eventually picked up a bit, so we made our way to shallower waters where we picked up more smallmouth on Ned rigs and ChatterBaits.
Using a Ned rig with a Z-Man Ticklerz, Eric began getting into some beautiful pumpkinseeds and bluegills which were sitting on outside weedlines in around 8-10 feet of water. These fish were stunning and quality in size! I switched gears to my Ned rig as well and joined Eric in catching some of these gorgeous fish.
In addition to the bass and panfish, I also picked up a bonus lake trout. We had so much fun exploring Panache Lake, and hope to be back in the Sudbury area again soon!
Catch all the action from this fishing adventure in the full video!
