Lac Jean-Paul Fishing near Godefroy, Quebec

• Overview

  Look for Lac Jean-Paul in Côte-Nord, Quebec. Land around it is taiga. It covers about 4 hectares, so this is small water you can walk round in under an hour. It is a small entry by Côte-Nord standards. Some 189 km away sits Godefroy, the nearest settlement. Hauterive is 217 km away, with Chute-aux-Outardes at 218 km. It lies deep inside the county rather than near an edge.

• Where to Fish on Lac Jean-Paul

  Without a survey to go on, judge depth from how the bank falls away. The productive water is a rod length or two out, not a hundred. The shallow end warms first and pulls fish in ahead of the rest. County-wide records name logperch. These are county-wide records, so not all of them will be in this water. On Lac Jean-Paul the first feature you find is usually worth a session.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Temperature averages peak at 15°C in July and bottom out at -21°C in January. The freeze holds for the better part of the year. The lid usually sets by midwinter and gives way around mid May. Ice clears near mid May and comes back about early November in a typical year. Fish feed hardest at the start and the close of the open season. Plan any trip to Lac Jean-Paul around it.

• Tackle & Baits

  Access is not recorded for this water. We find no slipway, car park or made path within a short radius, so treat access as rough. For the perch, a small jig tipped with worm, dropped along the edges, is hard to beat. Where a permit is needed, the nearest town usually sells it. A polite question at the farm gate opens more banks than anything else. If the gate is shut, Lac Perdu at 3.6 km is the nearest alternative. What applies at Lac Jean-Paul may have changed since it was mapped.