Lac des Pins in Mauricie: How and When to Fish It

• Overview

  You will find Lac des Pins in Mauricie, Quebec. The bank is 420 metres above sea level. At about 11 hectares, a day is enough to walk the shoreline properly. Bank access stretches around 1.7 km in total. You are 54 km from La Tuque. Saguenay sits 114 km out, and it is the nearest city worth the name. The nearest edge is a long way off, so local rules apply throughout.

• Where to Fish on Lac des Pins

  No chart reached our records; the first cast is your sounding. Read the surface for the wind lane, then fish the edge of it. Look for the band where the shallows give up and the bottom falls away. Records held for Mauricie cover northern pike, brook trout, walleye and yellow perch. What holds for the county may not hold for this water. Fish Lac des Pins where the bottom changes rather than where it looks deep.

• Seasonal Patterns

  On the long-term average, July reads 17°C and January reads -16°C. Open water is the exception rather than the rule here. Count the season from break-up, usually early May. Break-up sits around early May on average, with the water closing again about mid November. The weeks after the thaw and the ones before the freeze are the strongest. Plan any trip to Lac des Pins around it.

• Tackle & Baits

  Public data does not answer the access question here. Records list it as a natural water body rather than an impoundment. The map shows no ramp or car park nearby, so this is a walk-in water. For the bass here, soft plastics worked slow along cover and a spinnerbait for searching do most of the work. Provincial rules still apply whatever the bank status. Some ground is open by custom rather than by right, so tread carefully. Lac Feuillu at 0.5 km is the sensible second choice. For Lac des Pins in particular, ask before you travel.