Fishing at Lac Champlain, Mauricie, Quebec

• Overview

  You will find Lac Champlain in Mauricie, Quebec. Everything around it is spruce and muskeg. It measures about 15 hectares, which is a comfortable size for bank fishing. About 2.3 km of bank, so nothing stays unexplored for long. The nearest place of any size is Manawan, 49 km away. For a city, Trois-Rivières is 200 km off. The nearest edge is a long way off, so local rules apply throughout.

• Where to Fish on Lac Champlain

  There is no published depth for this one, so start shallow and work out. Weed, then depth: that is the order to fish a water of this kind. Still water like this holds fish on the edges rather than out in the open. Across Mauricie, recorded fish include northern pike, brook trout, walleye and yellow perch. Records at county level tell you what is around, not what is stocked here. Work Lac Champlain in sections rather than trying to cover it.

• Seasonal Patterns

  The warmest month averages 16°C, the coldest about -16°C. Winter runs most of the calendar, and everything worth doing happens in the gap. Look for the thaw near early May; the fishing lifts straight after. Open water usually runs from early May until about mid November. Early summer and early autumn carry the open-water season. It holds true on Lac Champlain more years than not.

• Tackle & Baits

  Who may fish here is not settled in anything we hold. This is a natural basin, not a dammed one. There is no recorded infrastructure here; expect to find your own way in. For the bass here, soft plastics worked slow along cover and a spinnerbait for searching do most of the work. Sort the permit out before you load the car. Signs go up and come down, so check on the day. Lac Line, 0.8 km away, makes the obvious fallback. Where Lac Champlain is concerned, a local answer beats a written one.