Lac Pilon Fishing near Saint-Michel-des-Saints, Quebec

• Overview

  Lac Pilon lies within the bounds of Lanaudière, Quebec. The ground around here is taiga. It covers about 2 hectares, so this is small water you can walk round in under an hour. It is a small entry by Lanaudière standards. Nearest place of any size is Saint-Michel-des-Saints, 49 km away. Then Manawan, 60 km, and La Tuque, 76 km. One jurisdiction covers this water end to end.

• Where to Fish on Lac Pilon

  The records we hold are silent on depth, so plan to find it yourself. On a natural lake the weed line and the shelf beyond it do the work. The productive water is a rod length or two out, not a hundred. Lanaudière records list pumpkinseed, smallmouth bass, yellow perch, rock bass and brook trout among the fish reported. Those are county-wide records, so not every one of them will be in this water. The shape of Lac Pilon decides where the fish sit.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Typical July readings run about 17°C; by January the average is down near -16°C. Open water is the exception rather than the rule here. Hard cover is dependable here; it goes around early May. Average temperatures cross freezing around early May in spring and again near mid November in autumn. The strong weeks are the first after break-up and the last before the freeze. It holds true on Lac Pilon more years than not.

• Tackle & Baits

  Nothing in our records says who may fish here. Public data shows nothing built here, so treat the whole approach as informal. Bass water: a Texas-rigged worm near cover, a spinnerbait when you need to cover ground. A landowner's word beats anything printed elsewhere. Where the way in crosses private ground, ask first. Should this one be busy, Lac de la Fleche is 1 km off. Nothing here settles the position at Lac Pilon for certain.