Lac aux Hirondelles in Saguenay/Lac-Saint-Jean: How and When to Fish It

• Overview

  Lac aux Hirondelles lies in Saguenay/Lac-Saint-Jean, in Quebec. The setting is boreal forest. Surface area runs to roughly 4.09 sq km, so plan for one area rather than the whole. Shoreline length is close to 16 km, and each section fishes a little differently. Size puts it in the front rank of our Saguenay/Lac-Saint-Jean list. You are 170 km from Forestville. Labrecque lies 171 km off, Saint-Honoré another 172 km. No county line comes close, which keeps the paperwork simple.

• Where to Fish on Lac aux Hirondelles

  No depth figure has reached our records, which makes a plummet useful. The productive water is a rod length or two out, not a hundred. Weed, then depth: that is the order to fish a water of this kind. Reported across Saguenay/Lac-Saint-Jean: northern pike, Atlantic salmon, lake whitefish and fallfish. Protected fish appear in the records for this area, so treat the list as information, not an invitation. The shape of Lac aux Hirondelles decides where the fish sit.

• Seasonal Patterns

  July runs about 15°C on average, January about -20°C. The freeze holds for the better part of the year. Once it clears, about mid May, the fishing comes on quickly. Going by climate averages, expect open water from about mid May until roughly early November. The open run goes from the thaw to the freeze, and April through October covers most of it. Plan any trip to Lac aux Hirondelles around it.

• Tackle & Baits

  Ownership and access are not documented in what we hold. This is a natural basin, not a dammed one. Nothing in the way of made access shows up nearby: no ramp, no car park, no path. Pike mean a wire trace, no exceptions; big spoons and jerkbaits do the searching. Rules differ from one water to the next round here. Where parking is tight, arriving early solves most problems. If the gate is shut, Lac de l'Anse at 1.3 km is the nearest alternative. Ask locally about Lac aux Hirondelles if anything is unclear.