Fishing at Lac des Ardoises, Saguenay/Lac-Saint-Jean, Quebec

• Overview

  Lac des Ardoises is set in Saguenay/Lac-Saint-Jean, Quebec. The setting is taiga. 144 km away sits Pont Rouge, the nearest town. Sainte-Jeanne-d'Arc follows at 146 km, then Labrecque at 146 km. Within easy reach: Lac du Lievre a shade over 1.1 km, Lac du Contre-Jour sits 1.5 km out, Lac Flamboyant a shade over 3.8 km, Lac de la Taniere sits 4 km out and Lac du Potamot a shade over 4.2 km. The nearest boundary is well away, so one set of rules covers the water.

• Where to Fish on Lac des Ardoises

  Depth went unrecorded, which puts the reading back on you. The productive water is a rod length or two out, not a hundred. Weed, then depth: that is the order to fish a water of this kind. Survey and observation records for Saguenay/Lac-Saint-Jean include northern pike, Atlantic salmon, lake whitefish and fallfish. Several of these carry legal protection or closed seasons; the rulebook comes before the rod. On Lac des Ardoises the quiet end is the one worth the extra effort.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Climate normals give 15°C for July and -19°C for January. Ice holds for a long stretch, so the open weeks matter more here than further south. Hard cover is dependable here; it goes around early May. Averages suggest open water from about early May through to roughly mid November. Reckon on open water from spring through to late autumn, with May and June the strongest. On Lac des Ardoises that shapes the whole year.

• Tackle & Baits

  Nothing in our records says who may fish here. Nothing formal is recorded here: no ramp, no car park, no marked path. For the pike, wire up and throw larger lures along the weed edges. Some banks are open only from a marked point. Some ground is open by custom rather than by right, so tread carefully. The nearest alternative is Lac du Lievre, 1.1 km out. What applies at Lac des Ardoises may have changed since it was mapped.