Fishing Lac de la Bartavelle in Saguenay/Lac-Saint-Jean, Quebec

• Overview

  Lac de la Bartavelle is one of the Saguenay/Lac-Saint-Jean waters in Quebec. The bank gives way to boreal forest. It covers about 5 hectares, so this is small water you can walk round in under an hour. 29 km away sits Pont Rouge, the nearest town. After that come Sainte-Jeanne-d'Arc at 30 km and Dolbeau-Mistassini at 37 km. The nearest edge is a long way off, so local rules apply throughout.

• Where to Fish on Lac de la Bartavelle

  Depth is unknown to us, and the shoreline is the better guide. Weed, then depth: that is the order to fish a water of this kind. Look for the band where the shallows give up and the bottom falls away. Records held for Saguenay/Lac-Saint-Jean cover northern pike, Atlantic salmon, lake whitefish and fallfish. Several of these carry legal protection or closed seasons; the rulebook comes before the rod. At Lac de la Bartavelle the water rewards a slow, careful approach.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Expect July to average close to 17°C, with January the cold end at about -19°C. Ice holds for a long stretch, so the open weeks matter more here than further south. The lid usually goes in early May, which opens the strongest weeks of the year. Ice usually gives way near early May, and forms again about mid November. The strongest runs come at either end of the open season. The season on Lac de la Bartavelle rarely departs from it.

• Tackle & Baits

  Who may fish here is not settled in anything we hold. Formal access is not mapped, so the last stretch is likely on foot. Pike mean a wire trace, no exceptions; big spoons and jerkbaits do the searching. Take the rules with you rather than trusting memory. Barbless rules turn up on managed water more often than not. For a change of water, Lac Damase is 0.7 km distant. What applies at Lac de la Bartavelle may have changed since it was mapped.