Lac des Carifel Fishing near Barraute, Quebec

• Overview

  Out in Abitibi-Témiscamingue, Quebec, sits Lac des Carifel. The setting is spruce and muskeg. With some 23 hectares of water, there is room for a boat but no need of one. Bank access stretches around 2.3 km in total. Barraute sits 3.7 km from the bank. Further out sit Senneterre (30 km) and Amos (37 km). Rules here are straightforward: one set of provincial rules.

• Where to Fish on Lac des Carifel

  We hold no depth figure for this one. 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. Survey and observation records for Abitibi-Témiscamingue include northern pike, yellow perch and walleye. Take it as the county picture rather than a promise for this water. Take Lac des Carifel a stretch at a time.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Expect July to average close to 17°C, with January the cold end at about -17°C. This far north the hard season runs and runs. Hard water holds through the cold months, breaking up near early May. The open-water window runs from around early May to about mid November in an average year. Look to early summer and the first cool weeks of autumn. The season on Lac des Carifel follows the weather closely.

• Tackle & Baits

  We hold no note on access for this one. Records list it as a natural water body rather than an impoundment. Nothing in the way of made access shows up nearby: no ramp, no car park, no path. A wire trace and a big bright lure handle the pike; deep water asks for a heavier spoon. Parking is often the real limit rather than the bank itself. Where the way in crosses private ground, ask first. Lac Audet sits 3 km off and takes the overflow. Where Lac des Carifel is concerned, a local answer beats a written one.