Lac de la Dame Fishing near Manawan, Quebec

• Overview

  Lac de la Dame is a Lanaudière water, in Quebec. It sits in boreal forest. At about 32 hectares, a day is enough to walk the shoreline properly. Few waters listed in Lanaudière are bigger. Start from Manawan, 33 km down the road. Then Saint-Michel-des-Saints, 41 km, and Saint-Donat-de-Montcalm, 81 km. Within a short drive: Lac Sabert roughly 2 km, Lac Philippe lies 2 km on, Lac Gregoire roughly 2.1 km, Lac D'Elvert lies 2.5 km on and Lac Paul-Emile roughly 2.9 km. The nearest boundary is a fair way off.

• Where to Fish on Lac de la Dame

  Without a survey to go on, judge depth from how the bank falls away. Look for the band where the shallows give up and the bottom falls away. Weed, then depth: that is the order to fish a water of this kind. Records held for Lanaudière cover pumpkinseed, smallmouth bass and yellow perch. These are county-wide records, so not all of them will be in this water. Lac de la Dame responds to conditions more than to tactics.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Expect July to average close to 17°C, with January the cold end at about -16°C. The ice season is long here and the open one short. The freeze runs deep into the year, with break-up near early May. The open-water window runs from around early May to about mid November in an average year. September and October fish steadily right up to the freeze. It sets the rhythm of the year at Lac de la Dame.

• Tackle & Baits

  Nothing in our records says who may fish here. No built facilities appear in mapping around this water. Bass water: a Texas-rigged worm near cover, a spinnerbait when you need to cover ground. Look for a notice board at the entrance. Some stretches are reserved and marked as such on the ground. Should this one be busy, Lac Sabert is 2 km off. Treat Lac de la Dame as unsettled until someone local tells you otherwise.