Lac Vert Fishing, NE of Saint-Raphaël, Quebec

• Overview

  The Outaouais entry here is Lac Vert, in Quebec. Land around it is pine and birch. The water covers some 27 hectares, so pick a bank rather than trying to cover it all. The whole outline is near 3.4 km, and most of it is walkable. It is low-lying compared with other Quebec water we list. Saint-Raphaël is the closest town at 25 km. After that come Maniwaki at 40 km and Wakefield at 48 km. No boundary runs near, so the local rules hold throughout.

• Where to Fish on Lac Vert

  The records we hold are silent on depth, so plan to find it yourself. The productive water is a rod length or two out, not a hundred. A soft bed grows weed late into autumn, which keeps fish shallow. Public occurrence data for Outaouais names pumpkinseed, yellow perch, smallmouth bass and rainbow smelt. It is the county picture; the agency list is water-specific. Take Lac Vert a stretch at a time.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Between January at about -13°C and July at about 19°C, the water has a wide range to work through. Hard water is a season in its own right here. Count on hard cover from midwinter, and open water from late April. Break-up near late April, freeze-up near late November: that is the shape of an average year. Right after break-up, and again as the nights sharpen, is when to go. At Lac Vert the season follows that pattern closely.

• Tackle & Baits

  Who may fish here is not settled in anything we hold. This is a natural basin, not a dammed one. We find no slipway, car park or made path within a short radius, so treat access as rough. A small crankbait along the drop and a worm in the thick stuff cover the bass. Check locally before you travel, because a wasted drive is a long one. Some stretches are reserved and marked as such on the ground. Lac aux Cerises, 1.2 km away, makes the obvious fallback. Where Lac Vert is concerned, a local answer beats a written one.