Dog-Cranberry Lake Fishing Guide: Species, Structure & Where Bass Live

A shallow, weedy Rideau-system lake with two faces: a warm vegetated shallow basin and deeper, cooler rocky basins around islands and main-lake points.

Largemouth 75% · Smallmouth 25%

  • Shallow vegetated basin — weeds, submerged wood — Largemouth bass and northern pike in the vegetation, submerged logs and stumps. Topwater, weedless soft plastics, spinnerbaits.
  • Deeper rocky basins — island contours & points — Smallmouth bass on the rock transitions and, seasonally, stocked splake holding deep and cool. Drop-shot and tubes for smallies; jigged spoons / trolled baits for splake.

Water

Tea-stained through the season. This is a shallow, marshy, heavily vegetated lake — only about 7% of it is deeper than 10 m — so the water carries a tannic stain that deepens in the weedy shallow basin and after rain; the deeper rocky basins run a touch clearer. Rarely gin-clear, so lean on darker, higher-contrast colours and baits with vibration.

No walleye here — that is other Rideau lakes. Bass season opens the third Saturday of June.

Overview