Lac Pilous Fishing Guide, Côte-Nord, Quebec

• Overview

  You will find Lac Pilous in Côte-Nord, Quebec. Height above sea level is 442 metres. It covers about 5 hectares, so this is small water you can walk round in under an hour. On size it sits at the modest end of our Côte-Nord list. Forestville at 71 km is the nearest place to stop. Saguenay sits 139 km out, and it is the nearest city worth the name. The nearest boundary is a fair way off.

• Where to Fish on Lac Pilous

  Depth is not on record here, which means reading the ground instead. A soft bed grows weed late into autumn, which keeps fish shallow. Look for the band where the shallows give up and the bottom falls away. Across Côte-Nord, recorded fish include logperch. Those are county-wide records, so not every one of them will be in this water. On Lac Pilous the quiet end is the one worth the extra effort.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Expect July to average close to 16°C, with January the cold end at about -18°C. The freeze holds for the better part of the year. Count the season from break-up, usually early May. Averages place the thaw at early May and the freeze at mid November. Fishing peaks soon after break-up and again before the cold returns. Lac Pilous runs to that rhythm year in and year out.

• Tackle & Baits

  Who may fish here is not settled in anything we hold. We find no slipway, car park or made path within a short radius, so treat access as rough. Perch take small lures and worms fished near the bottom close to structure. A phone call first saves an afternoon. Fishing rules and camping rules are set separately here. Lac Rudy, 0.3 km away, makes the obvious fallback. Confirm access to Lac Pilous locally before you travel.