Lac O'Brien Fishing Guide, Outaouais, Quebec

• Overview

  Lac O'Brien stands in Outaouais, Quebec. The surface lies 137 metres up. Small at around 2 hectares: two anglers spread out cover most of it. It is a small entry by Outaouais standards. 13 km away sits Shawville, the nearest town. Then Arnprior, 19 km, and Constance Bay, 21 km. Others close at hand: Lac Cooney sits 1.2 km out, Lac Gibbons lies 1.4 km on, Lac a Stanton sits 3.1 km out, Lac Ireland lies 4.1 km on and Lac Moffat sits 5.2 km out. It sits well inside the county, so one set of rules covers it.

• Where to Fish on Lac O'Brien

  No depth figure has reached our records, which makes a plummet useful. A natural lake fishes on cover, and cover here means weed and timber. The shallow end warms first and pulls fish in ahead of the rest. Open biodiversity records for Outaouais list pumpkinseed, yellow perch and smallmouth bass. Read it as a county summary, not a water-by-water list. At Lac O'Brien the first feature you find is worth twenty minutes.

• Seasonal Patterns

  July runs about 19°C on average, January about -13°C. A full turn of seasons, with the strongest sport on either side of summer. The freeze runs deep into the year, with break-up near late April. The open-water window runs from around late April to about early December in an average year. The strong weeks are the first after break-up and the last before the freeze. It holds true on Lac O'Brien more years than not.

• Tackle & Baits

  Access is not recorded for this water. There is no mapped parking or launch close by, which usually means walking in. 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. Check whether bait restrictions apply before you buy any. Lac Cooney sits 1.2 km off and takes the overflow. Rules at Lac O'Brien are worth checking on the day.