Fishing Lac Mercure in Lanaudière, Quebec

• Overview

  Out in Lanaudière, Quebec, sits Lac Mercure. Elevation runs to 460 metres. It covers about 3 hectares, so this is small water you can walk round in under an hour. Our Lanaudière list holds plenty of bigger water. Nearest place of any size is Manawan, 58 km away. Saint-Michel-des-Saints is 61 km away, with La Tuque at 69 km. One jurisdiction covers this water end to end.

• Where to Fish on Lac Mercure

  Our records hold no depth for this water. Where the bottom changes texture, fish gather; find that line. 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. The county figures include rivers and lakes alike. Fish Lac Mercure where the bottom changes rather than where it looks deep.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Averages move between -16°C in January and 17°C in July. Everything is compressed into the middle of the year. Ice-out usually falls in early May, and the weeks after it fish hardest. Expect the water usable from around early May until roughly mid November. The middle of summer slows a little, with dawn and dusk carrying it. Lac Mercure fishes to that pattern most years.

• 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 bass here, soft plastics worked slow along cover and a spinnerbait for searching do most of the work. Some banks are open only from a marked point. Rules for boats are stricter than rules for the bank in many places. Lac Heart, 0.8 km away, makes the obvious fallback. Treat access at Lac Mercure as something to verify.