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

• Overview

  You will find Lac Ruth in Saguenay/Lac-Saint-Jean, Quebec. The country round it is taiga from end to end. At 4 hectares it is the sort of place you fish for an evening rather than a day. On size it sits at the modest end of our Saguenay/Lac-Saint-Jean list. Leblanc is the closest town at 73 km. Normandin follows at 88 km, then Albanel at 94 km. It sits well inside its county, with no border complications.

• Where to Fish on Lac Ruth

  There is no recorded depth, so work from what you can see. Look for the band where the shallows give up and the bottom falls away. Read the surface for the wind lane, then fish the edge of it. Records held for Saguenay/Lac-Saint-Jean cover northern pike, Atlantic salmon and lake whitefish. Several of these carry legal protection or closed seasons; the rulebook comes before the rod. On Lac Ruth a short move beats a long cast.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Average temperature peaks around 16°C in July and bottoms out near -18°C in January. This is a two-season water: locked, then wide open. Break-up comes around early May, and the run that follows is short and strong. Expect the water usable from around early May until roughly mid November. The weeks after the thaw and the ones before the freeze are the strongest. Lac Ruth runs to that rhythm year in and year out.

• Tackle & Baits

  The rules here are undocumented as far as public sources go. Nothing is mapped in the way of a ramp or car park within a short radius. For the pike, wire up and throw larger lures along the weed edges. Where the road in crosses private land, ask first. Access can change hands, so last year's answer may not hold. Lac Moyneau sits 1.6 km off and takes the overflow. What applies at Lac Ruth may have changed since it was mapped.