Fishing at Grand lac Maurice, Saguenay/Lac-Saint-Jean, Quebec

• Overview

  Quebec holds Grand lac Maurice, in Saguenay/Lac-Saint-Jean. The water sits 616 metres up. With some 71 hectares of water, there is room for a boat but no need of one. The margin runs to about 6.3 km in total. On our Saguenay/Lac-Saint-Jean list it sits near the top for size. Nearest place of any size is Saint-Honoré, 76 km away. It is 88 km to Saguenay, the nearest city. The nearest boundary is a fair way off.

• Where to Fish on Grand lac Maurice

  Depth is not on record here, which means reading the ground instead. Weed, then depth: that is the order to fish a water of this kind. On a natural lake the weed line and the shelf beyond it do the work. Saguenay/Lac-Saint-Jean records list northern pike, Atlantic salmon and lake whitefish among the fish reported. Some of the species recorded here are protected or tightly regulated, so check what may be targeted before you fish. Grand lac Maurice gives up its fish to patience rather than distance.

• Seasonal Patterns

  The warm month here averages 16°C; the cold one sits at -19°C. Winter runs most of the calendar, and everything worth doing happens in the gap. After mid May the shallows warm and the fish move up. The water is typically free of ice between mid May and early November. Look to early summer and the first cool weeks of autumn. Anyone fishing Grand lac Maurice regularly works to that calendar.

• Tackle & Baits

  Whether the bank is open is not something our records settle. This is a natural basin, not a dammed one. Pike mean a wire trace, no exceptions; big spoons and jerkbaits do the searching. Parking space is the usual limit rather than the bank itself. Some ground is open by custom rather than by right, so tread carefully. If the gate is shut, Lac Marguerite at 1.3 km is the nearest alternative. Where Grand lac Maurice is concerned, a local answer beats a written one.