Fishing at Lac Duhesme, Nord-du-Québec, Quebec

• Overview

  Lac Duhesme is set in Nord-du-Québec, Quebec. The bank gives way to boreal forest. This is big water, about 10.41 sq km, and in a wind it behaves like a small sea. The bank runs about 71 km in total, split between open shore and sheltered corners. Size puts it in the front rank of our Nord-du-Québec list. Some 333 km away sits Godefroy, the nearest settlement. Fermont is 339 km and Labrador City 345 km. No county line comes close, which keeps the paperwork simple.

• Where to Fish on Lac Duhesme

  Depth remains unrecorded, so treat the first session as a survey. Look for the band where the shallows give up and the bottom falls away. The productive water is a rod length or two out, not a hundred. Open biodiversity records for Nord-du-Québec list Arctic charr, brook trout, lake trout and lake whitefish. These are county-wide records, so not all of them will be in this water. Treat Lac Duhesme as a water to read rather than to cover.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Long-run averages give July about 14°C and January about -24°C. The ice season is long here and the open one short. Winter fishing happens on the ice here, with open water back around late May. Climate figures give an open season running late May to early November. Reckon on open water from spring through to late autumn, with May and June the strongest. It sets the rhythm of the year at Lac Duhesme.

• Tackle & Baits

  Whether the bank is open is not something our records settle. This is a natural basin, not a dammed one. There is no mapped parking or launch nearby, which keeps numbers down. Light line and small metal for the trout; a fly rod earns its place on calm evenings. Check locally before you travel, because a wasted drive is a long one. Rules for boats are stricter than rules for the bank in many places. Lac Dalmas, 13 km away, makes the obvious fallback. None of that is settled for Lac Duhesme in what we hold.