Fishing Lac Hamel in Laurentides, Quebec

• Overview

  Set in Laurentides, Lac Hamel is a Quebec water. The surface lies 259 metres up. At about 63 hectares, a day is enough to walk the shoreline properly. Roughly 4.5 km of bank means you can walk to a fresh area when one goes quiet. It is among the larger waters listed here for Laurentides. Ferme-Neuve lies 27 km from the water. Further out sit Mont-Laurier (44 km) and Rivière-Rouge (63 km). It sits well inside the county, so one set of rules covers it.

• Where to Fish on Lac Hamel

  No figure exists for depth, so let the water show you. The shallow end warms first and pulls fish in ahead of the rest. The productive water is a rod length or two out, not a hundred. Fish documented in Laurentides include pumpkinseed, smallmouth bass, yellow perch, brook trout and rock bass. Those are county-wide records, so not every one of them will be in this water. Anyone new to Lac Hamel should walk it once before setting up.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Average temperature peaks around 18°C in July and bottoms out near -15°C in January. Winter shuts things down for a spell, then spring reopens them fast. Count on hard cover from midwinter, and open water from late April. Average temperatures cross freezing around late April in spring and again near late November in autumn. Fish feed hardest at the start and the close of the open season. It holds true on Lac Hamel more years than not.

• Tackle & Baits

  Whether you may fish here is not something records settle. No dam controls it, and the level follows the season. Mapping shows a jetty some 1.2 km off. A small crankbait along the drop and a worm in the thick stuff cover the bass. Check whether a boat is allowed before you tow one. Fishing rules and camping rules are set separately here. Should this one be busy, Lac L'Allier is 1.2 km off. For Lac Hamel, the notice at the access point is the final word.