Quebec ’ s Great Lake
MISTASSINI HUGE AND AN ASTOUNDING FISHERY
LAKE MISTASSINI in northern Quebec is twice the size of Lake Champlain , which petitioned unsuccessfully to be the recognized as the sixth Great Lake . Mistassini deserves special status . Its name means “ big rock ” and refers to the large granite stone that was the ancestral meeting place of the Cree on the lake – and still is .
It ’ s an enormous body of water stretching in a
MARK STIFFEL
long , gentle northeast-to-southwest curve for 161 kilometres . It ’ s 19 kilometres across , with depths as far down as 180 metres , a nine-hour drive straight north on paved roads from Montreal . Divided by a chain of islands , it straddles the 51st parallel . Its southern end is publicly accessible via Quebec ’ s SEPAQ ( Société des établissements de plein air du Québec ) organization . The northern half is the exclusive territory of the Cree nation , which operates two fishing camps there .
Osprey , on the main lake , opens earlier and is situated to take advantage of the spring speckled trout fishery . The second camp , Louis Joliette , is on the Rupert , a fabled trout river which drains Mistassini north into James Bay . It ’ s open mid-July through Labour Day as the speckled trout move off the shoals of the main lake . Rupert River is the destination for mixed species in summer .
Big water produces big fish and Mistassini is no exception . The lake offers a chance at a real trophy ; speckled trout caught there average one kilogram , with two- to three-kilo fish caught weekly . The record for the lodge stands at four kilograms-plus ( 8.9 pounds ) and recently an 8.5-pound speck was taken on a fly at the Rupert camp . Lake trout average two kilos with four-kilo-plus fish common and potential for much more : the lake record stands at 26 kilos ( 58 pounds ).
However , northern pike are the apex predators in these waters , averaging four- to eight-kilos , with much larger ( 15 kilos !) fish a definite possibility . The lake record for pike stands at 137 centimetres , pushing an estimated 18 kilos . As for walleye , the camp record stands at 5.9 kilos , but you can expect anything from one- to three-kilos as the standard .
The fishery is quintessentially northern Canada : granite outcrops , rocky shoreline , big water . The spring speckled trout fishery focuses on lake shoals . With hundreds of kilometres of island shoals and shoreline outcroppings , it ’ s a run-and-gun fishery . Our Cree guide , pulling into mid-lake island shoals ,
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