Fishing Lac Chantourne in Saguenay/Lac-Saint-Jean, Quebec

• Overview

  Lac Chantourne sits within Saguenay/Lac-Saint-Jean in Quebec. Height above sea level is 451 metres. It runs to roughly 24 hectares — big enough to hold fish away from the bank, small enough to learn. The full circuit measures close to 3.7 km on foot. The nearest town is Leblanc, 73 km away. For a city, Saguenay is 223 km off. The nearest edge is a long way off, so local rules apply throughout.

• Where to Fish on Lac Chantourne

  Depth is unmeasured here, so let the shoreline guide you. The shallow end warms first and pulls fish in ahead of the rest. The productive water is a rod length or two out, not a hundred. Survey and observation records for Saguenay/Lac-Saint-Jean include northern pike, Atlantic salmon, lake whitefish and fallfish. Some of the species recorded here are protected or tightly regulated, so check what may be targeted before you fish. The near bank of Lac Chantourne is often the one people ignore.

• Seasonal Patterns

  The seasonal spread runs -18°C to 16°C. Winter owns most of the year at this latitude. Hard water holds through the cold months, breaking up near early May. The season between ice runs from about early May to mid November. The weeks after the thaw and the ones before the freeze are the strongest. The season on Lac Chantourne rarely departs from it.

• Tackle & Baits

  Access status is simply unknown for this water. It formed naturally, so levels move with rainfall rather than with a gate. Access is unmapped, which usually means a farm track and a walk. Pike mean a wire trace, no exceptions; big spoons and jerkbaits do the searching. Some banks are open only from a marked point. Access can change hands, so last year's answer may not hold. For a change of water, Lac Turquoise is 0.6 km distant. Treat access at Lac Chantourne as something to verify.