Lac Marcel Fishing near Saint-Félicien, Quebec

• Overview

  Saguenay/Lac-Saint-Jean in Quebec is where Lac Marcel sits. It stands 523 metres above sea level. It covers about 3 hectares, so this is small water you can walk round in under an hour. It is a small entry by Saguenay/Lac-Saint-Jean standards. The town to know is Saint-Félicien, 34 km out. Further out sit Normandin (34 km) and Albanel (42 km). This one is safely inside the county line.

• Where to Fish on Lac Marcel

  No chart reached our records; the first cast is your sounding. A natural lake fishes on cover, and cover here means weed and timber. Still water like this holds fish on the edges rather than out in the open. Survey and observation records for Saguenay/Lac-Saint-Jean include northern pike, Atlantic salmon, lake whitefish and fallfish. Protected fish appear in the records for this area, so treat the list as information, not an invitation. Fish Lac Marcel where the bottom changes rather than where it looks deep.

• Seasonal Patterns

  The range across the year is -18°C to 16°C. Cold dominates the year and the fishing works around it. Look for the thaw near early May; the fishing lifts straight after. On average, early May opens the water and mid November closes it again. The shoulder weeks of the open season are the productive ones. That shapes the year on Lac Marcel.

• Tackle & Baits

  Access is not recorded for this water. No made access is recorded, so a short walk in is the likely arrangement. Pike mean a wire trace, no exceptions; big spoons and jerkbaits do the searching. Rules differ from one water to the next round here. Some stretches are reserved and marked as such on the ground. Should this one be busy, Lac Charles is 1.7 km off. Rules at Lac Marcel are worth checking on the day.