Fishing Lac Gaudreault in Saguenay/Lac-Saint-Jean, Quebec

• Overview

  You will find Lac Gaudreault in Saguenay/Lac-Saint-Jean, Quebec. It sits in taiga country. Small at around 2 hectares: two anglers spread out cover most of it. On size it sits at the modest end of our Saguenay/Lac-Saint-Jean list. Some 38 km away sits Pont Rouge, the nearest settlement. Sainte-Jeanne-d'Arc is 39 km away, with Sainte-Monique at 42 km. The county line is nowhere near, so one local authority covers the water.

• Where to Fish on Lac Gaudreault

  We hold no depth figure for this one. The productive water is a rod length or two out, not a hundred. A soft bed grows weed late into autumn, which keeps fish shallow. Saguenay/Lac-Saint-Jean records list northern pike, Atlantic salmon and lake whitefish among the fish reported. Protected fish appear in the records for this area, so treat the list as information, not an invitation. Lac Gaudreault repays a walk before the first cast.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Averages here run 17°C at the top of summer and -19°C at the bottom of winter. Open water is the exception rather than the rule here. The lid usually sets by midwinter and gives way around early May. Climate averages put the opening at about early May and the closing near mid November. Look to early summer and the first cool weeks of autumn. Lac Gaudreault runs to that rhythm year in and year out.

• Tackle & Baits

  Nothing on record says whether the bank is open or closed. Nothing is mapped in the way of a ramp or car park within a short radius. Pike mean a wire trace, no exceptions; big spoons and jerkbaits do the searching. Parking space is the usual limit rather than the bank itself. Check whether bait restrictions apply before you buy any. For a change of water, Petit lac des Epinettes Noires is 0.6 km distant. Where Lac Gaudreault is concerned, a local answer beats a written one.