Fishing Lac Rabouin in Saguenay/Lac-Saint-Jean, Quebec

• Overview

  Set in Saguenay/Lac-Saint-Jean, Quebec, this is Lac Rabouin. The water sits 515 metres up. It covers about 6 hectares, so this is small water you can walk round in under an hour. Compared with other Quebec water on our list, it sits high. Normandin is the closest town at 42 km. The big place round here is Saguenay, 147 km distant. The county line is nowhere near, so one local authority covers the water.

• Where to Fish on Lac Rabouin

  Depth here is unknown, so count the lead down before committing. Still water like this holds fish on the edges rather than out in the open. Weed, then depth: that is the order to fish a water of this kind. Survey and observation records for Saguenay/Lac-Saint-Jean include northern pike, Atlantic salmon and lake whitefish. Protected fish appear in the records for this area, so treat the list as information, not an invitation. Lac Rabouin responds to conditions more than to tactics.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Averages here run 16°C at the top of summer and -18°C at the bottom of winter. The season is measured in weeks rather than months. Count the season from break-up, usually early May. Ice clears near early May and comes back about mid November in a typical year. Just after the ice goes and just before it returns, the fishing lifts. Time your trip to Lac Rabouin by conditions rather than dates.

• Tackle & Baits

  We hold no note on access for this one. Nothing is listed nearby for parking or launching a boat. Pike mean a wire trace, no exceptions; big spoons and jerkbaits do the searching. Check locally before you travel, because a wasted drive is a long one. Rules for boats are stricter than rules for the bank in many places. Lac Besson sits 0.4 km off and takes the overflow. Check the position at Lac Rabouin before loading the car.