Lac Rat in Outaouais: How and When to Fish It

• Overview

  Lac Rat is set in Outaouais, Quebec. Everything around it is pine and birch. It measures about 10 hectares, which is a comfortable size for bank fishing. The bank runs about 1.2 km all the way round, so one visit can cover most of it. Head to Saint-Boniface, 47 km away, for anything you forgot. Gatineau is the closest city, 132 km away. No border sits close enough to matter.

• Where to Fish on Lac Rat

  We hold no survey for this water; read the slope of the shoreline instead. Bays and points beat straight shoreline every time on water like this. The productive water is a rod length or two out, not a hundred. Across Outaouais, recorded fish include pumpkinseed, yellow perch, smallmouth bass, rainbow smelt and Iowa darter. What holds for the county may not hold for this water. Fish Lac Rat to its features, not to its size.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Temperature averages peak at 18°C in July and bottom out at -15°C in January. Four clear seasons, with a proper winter at one end. The freeze runs deep into the year, with break-up near late April. In an average year the thaw lands around late April and the freeze near late November. From the thaw to midsummer the fishing improves week by week. That is the shape of the year on Lac Rat.

• Tackle & Baits

  Public sources are silent on who controls the bank. Records list it as a natural water body rather than an impoundment. Nothing is mapped in the way of a ramp or car park within a short radius. For the bass here, soft plastics worked slow along cover and a spinnerbait for searching do most of the work. Rules differ from one water to the next round here. Some ground is open by custom rather than by right, so tread carefully. Failing this one, try Lac Cameronian, 1.6 km away. Check the position at Lac Rat before loading the car.