Lac du Zinc in Outaouais: How and When to Fish It

• Overview

  Look for Lac du Zinc in Outaouais, Quebec. It stands 304 metres above sea level. At 5 hectares it is the sort of place you fish for an evening rather than a day. Nearest town is Deep River, 58 km off. Beyond it, Chalk River at 63 km and Petawawa at 70 km. It sits well inside the county, so one set of rules covers it. Trees shelter part of the bank when the wind gets up.

• Where to Fish on Lac du Zinc

  Depth is unmeasured here, so let the shoreline guide you. Look for the band where the shallows give up and the bottom falls away. This is a lake, so the margins and the first drop matter most. Fish documented in Outaouais include pumpkinseed, yellow perch, smallmouth bass, rainbow smelt and Iowa darter. These are county-wide records, so not all of them will be in this water. Work Lac du Zinc in sections rather than trying to cover it.

• Seasonal Patterns

  July runs about 18°C on average, January about -15°C. The middle months are generous; the ends are demanding. Ice fishing carries the winter, and the water opens about late April. The open-water window runs from around late April to about late November in an average year. Look to early summer and the first cool weeks of autumn. Keep it in mind when planning a trip to Lac du Zinc.

• Tackle & Baits

  Whether you may fish here is not something records settle. We find no slipway, car park or made path within a short radius, so treat access as rough. Bass water: a Texas-rigged worm near cover, a spinnerbait when you need to cover ground. Gates get locked out of season on water like this. Where the way in crosses private ground, ask first. Lac Saint-Hilaire, 2.3 km away, makes the obvious fallback. Signs at Lac du Zinc carry more weight than any list.