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

• Overview

  Within Saguenay/Lac-Saint-Jean, Quebec, you have Lac Chevreuil. The water sits 778 metres up. At roughly 6 hectares, the whole thing is within casting reach of a single walk. It is high ground by Quebec standards. The closest town, Saint-Fulgence, is 47 km distant. For a city, Saguenay is 59 km off. Rules here are straightforward: one set of provincial rules.

• Where to Fish on Lac Chevreuil

  Without a survey to go on, judge depth from how the bank falls away. On a natural lake the weed line and the shelf beyond it do the work. A natural lake fishes on cover, and cover here means weed and timber. County-wide records name northern pike, Atlantic salmon, lake whitefish and fallfish. Several of these carry legal protection or closed seasons; the rulebook comes before the rod. Lac Chevreuil repays a walk before the first cast.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Expect July to average close to 15°C, with January the cold end at about -19°C. Open water is the exception rather than the rule here. Hard water holds through the cold months, breaking up near mid May. On the long-run averages the water opens up around mid May and starts locking again about early November. The middle of summer slows a little, with dawn and dusk carrying it. The season on Lac Chevreuil rarely departs from it.

• Tackle & Baits

  There is no clear statement anywhere on who can fish it. No built facilities appear in mapping around this water. Pike mean a wire trace, no exceptions; big spoons and jerkbaits do the searching. Check locally before you travel, because a wasted drive is a long one. Access can change hands, so last year's answer may not hold. Lac du Tamis sits 1.4 km off and takes the overflow. Where Lac Chevreuil is concerned, a local answer beats a written one.