Fishing at Lac de la Martre, Saguenay/Lac-Saint-Jean, Quebec

• Overview

  Set in Saguenay/Lac-Saint-Jean, Lac de la Martre is a Quebec water. Elevation runs to 796 metres. About 2 hectares of surface, which puts the far bank inside easy sight. It is one of the smaller waters we list in Saguenay/Lac-Saint-Jean. Some 36 km away sits Saint-Fulgence, the nearest settlement. The big place round here is Saguenay, 49 km distant. The nearest boundary is well away, so one set of rules covers the water.

• Where to Fish on Lac de la Martre

  Depth is unmeasured here, so let the shoreline guide you. Weed, then depth: that is the order to fish a water of this kind. The shallow end warms first and pulls fish in ahead of the rest. 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. Read Lac de la Martre before you fish it and the day goes better.

• Seasonal Patterns

  On the long-term average, July reads 15°C and January reads -18°C. A short, intense season is the rule this far north. Hard cover is dependable here; it goes around mid May. The water is typically free of ice between mid May and early November. Look to early summer and the first cool weeks of autumn. Lac de la Martre fishes to that pattern most years.

• Tackle & Baits

  Public sources are silent on who controls the bank. No built facilities appear in mapping around this water. Pike mean a wire trace, no exceptions; big spoons and jerkbaits do the searching. Rules for this water may differ from the county norm. Where parking is tight, arriving early solves most problems. Lac du Belier sits 0.3 km off and takes the overflow. What applies at Lac de la Martre may have changed since it was mapped.