Fishing Lac Guerard in Lanaudière, Quebec

• Overview

  Lac Guerard is a Lanaudière water, in Quebec. It lies 394 metres above sea level. With some 13 hectares of water, there is room for a boat but no need of one. Shoreline comes to about 1.6 km, small enough to learn in a day. Saint-Michel-des-Saints sits 12 km from the bank. Saint-Louis-de-Terrebonne sits 106 km out, and it is the nearest city worth the name. The nearest boundary is a fair way off.

• Where to Fish on Lac Guerard

  Without a survey to go on, judge depth from how the bank falls away. Read the surface for the wind lane, then fish the edge of it. Bays and points beat straight shoreline every time on water like this. Records held for Lanaudière cover pumpkinseed, smallmouth bass, yellow perch, rock bass and brook trout. These are county-wide records, so not all of them will be in this water. Treat Lac Guerard as a water to read rather than to cover.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Averages here run 17°C at the top of summer and -15°C at the bottom of winter. Winter closes the water for a while, and the reopening is worth catching. Hard cover is dependable here; it goes around late April. Break-up sits around late April on average, with the water closing again about late November. The open run goes from the thaw to the freeze, and April through October covers most of it. On Lac Guerard the same rules apply, with local timing.

• Tackle & Baits

  The paperwork position is blank for this one. It formed naturally, so levels move with rainfall rather than with a gate. Nothing is listed nearby for parking or launching a boat. Largemouth respond to soft plastics tight to cover; go weedless where the growth is heavy. Sort the permit out before you load the car. Access can change hands, so last year's answer may not hold. For a change of water, Lac Tremblay is 1.2 km distant. The position on Lac Guerard is worth confirming on the day.