Fishing at Lac Puyjalon, Côte-Nord, Quebec

• Overview

  The Côte-Nord end of Quebec holds Lac Puyjalon. It sits 29 km in from the sea. At 13.10 sq km you are fishing a fraction of it whatever you do. At about 55 km of edge, most people fish a single area and learn it well. On our Côte-Nord list it sits near the top for size. Havre-Saint-Pierre is the closest town at 34 km. The big place round here is Sydney, 542 km distant. There is no boundary nearby to worry about.

• Where to Fish on Lac Puyjalon

  Depth went unrecorded, which puts the reading back on you. Read the surface for the wind lane, then fish the edge of it. Weed, then depth: that is the order to fish a water of this kind. Open biodiversity records for Côte-Nord list logperch. These are county-wide records, so not all of them will be in this water. Read Lac Puyjalon for ten minutes before the first cast goes out.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Averages here run 15°C at the top of summer and -15°C at the bottom of winter. The window is narrow, and fish feed hard while it lasts. Ice fishing carries the winter, and the water opens about mid May. Averages suggest open water from about mid May through to roughly mid November. Fishing peaks soon after break-up and again before the cold returns. Time your trip to Lac Puyjalon by conditions rather than dates.

• Tackle & Baits

  Whether the bank is open is not something our records settle. This is a natural basin, not a dammed one. There is no recorded infrastructure here; expect to find your own way in. For the perch, a small jig tipped with worm, dropped along the edges, is hard to beat. Gates get locked out of season on water like this. Where the way in crosses private ground, ask first. Lac George sits 4.3 km off and takes the overflow. Nothing on Lac Puyjalon should be assumed from this page alone.