Lac Howe, Quebec: Fishing Spots and Seasons

• Overview

  This water sits in Mauricie, Quebec. What surrounds it is rolling bush. At 2.46 sq km this is proper open water rather than a pond. Some 11 km of bank gives room to move when the wind turns. Size puts it in the front rank of our Mauricie list. Saint-Tite sits 54 km from the bank. Trois-Rivières sits 84 km out, and it is the nearest city worth the name. The nearest boundary is well away, so one set of rules covers the water.

• Where to Fish on Lac Howe

  No published figure covers depth, so learn it as you fish. Read the surface for the wind lane, then fish the edge of it. A natural lake fishes on cover, and cover here means weed and timber. Open biodiversity records for Mauricie list northern pike, brook trout, walleye, yellow perch and white sucker. It is the county picture; the agency list is water-specific. Fish Lac Howe where the bottom changes rather than where it looks deep.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Climate normals give 18°C for July and -15°C for January. Spring and autumn carry the fishing; summer and winter test it. Ice is part of the season here, ending near late April. Break-up near late April, freeze-up near late November: that is the shape of an average year. The strong weeks are the first after break-up and the last before the freeze. Lac Howe fishes to that pattern most years.

• Tackle & Baits

  Access status is simply unknown for this water. No dam controls it, and the level follows the season. Public data records a pier about 960 m out. For the bass here, soft plastics worked slow along cover and a spinnerbait for searching do most of the work. Where access is informal, keep it that way by behaving. Barbless rules turn up on managed water more often than not. For a change of water, Lac de la Savoyane is 2 km distant. Treat Lac Howe as unsettled until someone local tells you otherwise.