Freshwater Fishing.
Kempenfelt Bay holds Lake Simcoe's deepest cold-water habitat — 41.5 metres at maximum — and supports year-round lake trout and whitefish. Unlike most Lake Simcoe trout grounds, Kempenfelt is one of the few areas reachable on foot from shore, which makes the bay a primary winter ice-fishing destination as well as an open-water summer trout fishery.
The brief.
The bay sits in Ontario Fisheries Management Zone 16. Lake trout season is open January 1 to March 15 and from the second Saturday in May to September 30; daily limit is 2 lake trout on a Sport licence and 1 on a Conservation licence.
Ice fishing on Kempenfelt typically opens once safe ice forms in January and runs through March 15; shore access for walk-on ice fishing is unusual on Lake Simcoe and is part of why the bay is well-known. In open water, lake trout and whitefish concentrate over the bay's deep central trough; the north and south sides of the bay both hold fish, and Big Bay Point in adjacent Innisfil holds the same species at the bay's mouth.
Minnows, swimbaits, tube jigs, and jigging spoons are the standard tackle for Lake Simcoe lake trout.
2. places.
- 01
Kempenfelt Bay (deep central trough)
41.5 m maximum depth; lake trout and whitefish year-round; walk-in winter ice access from Barrie shoreline.
- 02
Lake Simcoe (FMZ 16, open water beyond bay mouth)
Open-lake lake trout and whitefish fishing in the broader Lake Simcoe waters that extend out from Kempenfelt.
Today's read.
Cold but firm — winter-ready conditions · light winds · clean air.