Lac Bernard Fishing near Mont-Tremblant, Quebec

• Overview

  Laurentides, Quebec, is where Lac Bernard sits. This is lake country bush ground. At 2 hectares it is the sort of place you fish for an evening rather than a day. It is a small entry by Laurentides standards. You are 12 km from Mont-Tremblant. Labelle is 19 km and Saint-Donat-de-Montcalm 20 km. More in the same country: Lac Racine 0.9 km off, Lac de la Fourche a touch under 1.6 km, Lac Bagsly 1.7 km off, Lac Boivin a touch under 1.9 km and Premier Lac 2.2 km off. The nearest boundary is a fair way off.

• Where to Fish on Lac Bernard

  No depth figure has reached our records, which makes a plummet useful. Where the bottom changes texture, fish gather; find that line. Look for the band where the shallows give up and the bottom falls away. Across Laurentides, recorded fish include pumpkinseed, smallmouth bass, yellow perch and brook trout. Take it as the county picture rather than a promise for this water. On Lac Bernard that means starting tight and working out.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Average temperature peaks around 17°C in July and bottoms out near -14°C in January. Winter shuts things down for a spell, then spring reopens them fast. Expect a solid lid for months and a thaw around late April. In an average year the thaw lands around late April and the freeze near late November. The open run goes from the thaw to the freeze, and April through October covers most of it. Plan around that when you fish Lac Bernard.

• Tackle & Baits

  The access position is unclear from public sources. Expect a 960 m walk in from where the car goes. Bass water: a Texas-rigged worm near cover, a spinnerbait when you need to cover ground. Where a permit is needed, the nearest town usually sells it. Rules for boats are stricter than rules for the bank in many places. Lac Racine at 0.9 km is the sensible second choice. What applies at Lac Bernard may have changed since it was mapped.