Quebec Musky Trip

By David Graham: Oct 11, 2025

I've been talking for years with my friend Jimmy Lacerte of Quebec about coming up to finally chase muskies. As angler driven by the pursuit of large freshwater fish, i've suffered from some level of wanderlust in recent years that have really had me forgetting about the incredible fish we have on the home continent.

North America's musky is so iconic, the king of the esox. A fish so notorious for its difficulty that it is known as the 'fish of 10,000 casts' - a testament to the unavoidable hard work in catching them. For years i've seen Jimmy consistently pull giant muskies around the famed St. Lawrence system of Quebec, but i've always found ways to eat up any time I could take to go chase them.

Jimmy Lacerte with a monster Quebec musky

Last month I finally set aside a long weekend to fly from Miami to Montreal and link up with Jimmy. We had a short window under ideal moon phase to give it a shot... Jimmy optimistically saying we could likely knock a fish out on the first night I landed. This kind of of assurance always makes me nervous. Maybe its the superstitious side of me as an angler but i've done this long enough to know there are NO guarantees.

I landed in Montreal around mid-day and was picked up by Jimmy in his work van that double's as a mobile transport means for fishing gear, and we headed straight to the water. Our first stop was a chain of connected channels running parallel to the main St. Lawrence with no real access to powered vessels - but this is where we had an edge.

Jimmy, infamous at this point for his use of an inflatable boat, simply rolled out the the inflatable - powered up an aerator - and we assembled our boat at the bank! I love this style of grunge fishing, its just so much more appealing than having vast superior technological advantages over the fish - though there is a time and place for that as well.

We spent a few hours working the whole length of a segment of canal making countless casts with large double bladed spinners. Ultimately we ended up trolling the lures up and down the canal. We trolled all the way to the end of the canal and back and it was directly infront of our takeout point that I hooked up on my first ever musky! No monster, no trophy class fish, but on a morning where I woke up in sunny Southwest Florida, there I was in a jacket and beanie hooked up to my first musky in Quebec!

my first musky!

Elated to have gotten the job done so quickly, I did feel some guilt over having caught the fish trolling rather than casting. I understand from my time on the outside looking in, the musky community really lends credit to fish caught casting.

That night we moved over to another area we would try fishing in the morning - and stowed away in a quiet off the beaten path corner to sleep overnight in the van. In the morning we put in at another location where once again there was limited access to powered vessels. With no local ramps near by and sections of shallow rocky shoals between our fishing grounds and the nearest boat access, we were fishing primo territory.

We unloaded the rolled up boat, strapped it to a hand dolly and hiked it down to the river. This meant multiple trips walking to and from the parked van to retrieve batteries, rods, the trolling motor, and any other gear. At the spot we fished we saw a ton of life. Its a very beautiful area full of life. Tons of suckers, smallmouth bass, walleyes and pike could be seen swimming around in the clear waters.

we passed the time catching plenty of smallmouth bass

I must've made hundreds of casts until evening. I had one occasion that a very large musky came in on my lure following it a short distance before disappearing off. This was a trophy class fish... Jimmy reassured me that after sundown we would likely see this fish again. We decided to take out and walk to a nearby restaurant to have a meal - allowing the fish in this area to settle before going back after dark.

After sunset we made our way back up to the area where I had seen the fish earlier in the day. I had one monster blowup near boatside early in the session. Maybe two or three casts later again I got hammered, and I was tied up to a solid fish. The musky came to net and had basically made my trip for me. While it was a quality fish somewhere in the range of 45-48 inches (we didnt measure), it wasn't that coveted fish over 50 inches so many musky anglers obsess over each season.

Shockingly, on my very next cast after releasing the fish something exploded on my lure out in the darkness. The fish immediately felt different and in short order I knew I had the one I had come to Quebec for. I had put off chasing muskies for years in part because I always knew I wanted to fish for them with Jimmy in this particular river system. Jimmy got the fish into the net where the trophy class musky measured out at almost 53 inches!

What a special species this is. I see why so many anglers dedicate countless hours each season and every year for that chance encounter with a true monster. The mystique of this very special species is warranted, and I am humbled by the nature of the pursuit!