Old Lake CottageSmallmouth Bass fishing near London, ON
1,462 documented waters within 300 km, 25 of them with smallmouth bass as the primary species.
Where they are biting today
- Stirling Creek78
- Grand River77
- Spencer Creek77
- Thames River (rivière Thames)77
- Teeswater River76
- Saugeen River (Denny's Dam, Southampton)76
- Long Point Bay (Port Rowan)76
- Miller Creek76
- Hickory Creek76
- West Humber River76
Fishing smallmouth bass around London
Finding smallmouth bass around London does not have to be guesswork. This page tracks 1462 documented waters in the surrounding area where smallmouth bass are documented, then re-ranks them every day as conditions shift. Below is the local picture: which waters stand out right now, and how anglers actually fish for the species here.
There is a spread worth reading in today's leaders. Stirling Creek sets the pace at 78 (about 331 km from London), while Grand River sits at 77 (about 114 km from London). Spencer Creek holds third at 77. Those gaps are real information: the same smallmouth bass conditions rarely land evenly across different depths, sizes and shorelines.
Smallmouth relate strongly to hard structure - rock, gravel, and boulder shorelines, rather than the heavy vegetation largemouth favor - and pound-for-pound are widely considered among the hardest-fighting freshwater fish, with acrobatic jumps that test light tackle. Ontario smallmouth concentrate on the rock-and-rubble structure Canadian Shield lakes are known for - rocky points, islands, offshore humps and boulder reefs, often in strikingly clear water. Local anglers lean on tube jigs and 3-4 inch soft plastics in crayfish colours worked slowly along rocky bottom, switching to jerkbaits and pause-heavy topwater lures around low light. Bass season in most southern Ontario zones opens the third Saturday in June and runs into late fall, with exact dates and any catch-and-release windows varying by Fisheries Management Zone.
These scores are not season-long ratings. They are rebuilt every morning from fresh weather and water-temperature data, most recently for September 14, 2026, so the best smallmouth bass water near London this week may not be the best one next week.