Lac du Pin Rouge in Lanaudière: How and When to Fish It

• Overview

  The Lanaudière end of Quebec holds Lac du Pin Rouge. The bank is 397 metres above sea level. It runs to roughly 19 hectares — big enough to hold fish away from the bank, small enough to learn. With about 2.6 km of edge, you can try several depths in one session. The nearest town is Chertsey, 19 km away. The big place round here is Saint-Louis-de-Terrebonne, 61 km distant. The nearest boundary is a fair way off.

• Where to Fish on Lac du Pin Rouge

  Depth is not on record here, which means reading the ground instead. The productive water is a rod length or two out, not a hundred. The shallow end warms first and pulls fish in ahead of the rest. Across Lanaudière, recorded fish include pumpkinseed, smallmouth bass and yellow perch. County records show the wider picture rather than this one place. On Lac du Pin Rouge the quiet end is the one worth the extra effort.

• Seasonal Patterns

  The range across the year is -14°C to 18°C. A solid cap is the normal state through winter. Hard cover is dependable here; it goes around late April. The open-water window runs from around late April to about late November in an average year. Spring is short and heavy here; autumn is longer and steadier. Plan around that when you fish Lac du Pin Rouge.

• Tackle & Baits

  Ownership and access are not documented in what we hold. It formed naturally, so levels move with rainfall rather than with a gate. Nothing is mapped in the way of a ramp or car park within a short radius. Bass water: a Texas-rigged worm near cover, a spinnerbait when you need to cover ground. Where a permit is needed, the nearest town usually sells it. Keep proof of licence with you rather than in the car. Lac aux Pics, 0.5 km away, makes the obvious fallback. For Lac du Pin Rouge in particular, ask before you travel.