Lac des Loups in Lanaudière: How and When to Fish It

• Overview

  The Lanaudière entry here is Lac des Loups, in Quebec. It sits in rolling bush. With some 24 hectares of water, there is room for a boat but no need of one. The edge runs 2.3 km or so, easy to work in an afternoon. Head to Saint-Michel-des-Saints, 35 km away, for anything you forgot. It is 129 km to Trois-Rivières, the nearest city. Rules here are straightforward: one set of provincial rules.

• Where to Fish on Lac des Loups

  Our records carry no depth, so judge it from the bank. 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. Records held for Lanaudière cover pumpkinseed, smallmouth bass and yellow perch. It is the county picture; the agency list is water-specific. Lac des Loups gives up its fish to patience rather than distance.

• Seasonal Patterns

  July is the warm end of the year here, averaging about 17°C, while January sits near -16°C. Expect a real winter and a strong spring after it. Winter fishing happens on the ice here, with open water back around early May. Ice clears near early May and comes back about late November in a typical year. The middle of summer slows a little, with dawn and dusk carrying it. It holds true on Lac des Loups more years than not.

• Tackle & Baits

  There is no clear statement anywhere on who can fish it. Records list it as a natural water body rather than an impoundment. No car park, ramp or path is recorded within easy reach of the shore. For the bass here, soft plastics worked slow along cover and a spinnerbait for searching do most of the work. Look for a notice board at the entrance. Where tickets apply, they are sold in the nearest town rather than on the bank. Should this one be busy, Lac Monette is 2.3 km off. None of that is settled for Lac des Loups in what we hold.