Ice Fishing in Quebec: Season, Rules, Safety and Cost

Summary

• There's no single opening date. Each zone sets its winter period: December 20 to March 31 in most southern zones, and from December 1 into April further north. After that, your species' season on your lake is what decides.
• Your regular fishing licence covers it — there's no separate ice-fishing licence. The annual licence expires March 31.
• 5 lines in most zones, 10 in zones 7 and 8, only 2 on a few lakes — always under your constant watch.
• Ice first. The Lifesaving Society calls for at least 10 cm of new, clear ice for one person; the Red Cross says 15 cm to walk alone and 20 cm for a group. Measure in several spots.
• The price: half of the per-person packages advertised in our directory cost between $80 and $95 — mostly a day on the ice.
• You don't need an outfitter to ice fish, but it's the easiest way to start: holes drilled, a heated hut, and ice someone knows.

Ice fishing is fishing without a boat: a hut, a few holes, a spread of tip-ups, and no waiting for May. But winter runs on its own rules — more lines, different dates, different exceptions — and they change from one zone to the next. This guide gives you what the regulations actually set, how to judge the ice, and what a day on it really costs.

When does ice fishing season start in Quebec?

There's no province-wide opening date for ice fishing. What the regulations set, zone by zone, is a winter period during which you're allowed several lines, whether the water is iced over or not. According to the zone pages on Québec.ca, it falls into four windows:

One catch: that period doesn't open every lake. Each species keeps its own fishing season, which can differ from one body of water to another inside the same zone — and plenty of lakes have exceptions. A few examples from the regulation changes in force since April 1, 2026:

• In parts of the St. Lawrence in zones 7 and 8 (including Lac Saint-Pierre and Lac des Deux Montagnes), all fishing is closed March 16 to 31, and walleye is closed November 1 to December 19.
• The yellow perch moratorium on Lac Saint-Pierre and the river between the Laviolette bridge and Saint-Pierre-les-Becquets is extended to 2027.
• In part of zone 23 South, winter lake trout fishing is now closed.

Before you go, open the periods, limits and exceptions for your zone and look up your lake. Not sure which zone it's in? Find your fishing zone by address or postal code.

What are the rules for ice fishing?

Your licence

Your regular sport-fishing licence covers fishing through the ice — there's no separate ice-fishing licence. Two details matter in winter:

• The annual licence runs April 1 to March 31. If you fish in April in a northern zone, you need the new year's licence.
• Non-residents can buy 1-, 3- and 7-day licences, handy for a weekend on the ice.

How many lines

In summer it's one line at a time. In winter, depending on the zone, you get 5 or 10 lines, and you have to keep them under constant watch:

• 5 lines in most zones.
• 10 lines in zones 7 and 8 — except Lac Aylmer and the western part of Lac Saint-François, where it's 5. On the Sainte-Anne River (zone 27, at Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pérade), 10 lines are allowed from December 26 to March 31.
• Only 2 lines on Lakes Clarice and Raven (zone 13) and Lac Témiscamingue (zone 25).

If you fish with kids who are using your licence, the group total is what counts: all the lines together can't exceed what one licence allows (Québec.ca).

Baitfish

Dead baitfish are allowed in winter in some zones and banned in others — zone 10, for example, allows them from December 20 to March 31 (except in the Papineau-Labelle wildlife reserve), while zones 15 and 26 ban them. Your zone's rule is on its Québec.ca page.

Species and limits

There's no list of "ice-fishing species": what you can catch and keep is whatever is in season on your lake, with the same catch and length limits that apply in your zone the rest of the year.

How thick does the ice need to be?

There's no magic number, and the agencies don't all give the same one:

Go with the more cautious number, and keep these rules:

• Colour matters. New, clear ice is the strongest. White or grey ice that has frozen and thawed several times is weaker and needs more thickness; grey ice means there's water in it.
• Measure in several spots with an auger or drill and a tape measure. Current, depth, wind, snow and thaws all weaken ice, and thickness changes from one end of a lake to the other.
• Stay off wet, cracked or thawing ice.
• Never go out alone.
• Snowmobile or ATV: stick to club-maintained trails. If a trail across a lake is closed, stay on land. The rules and trail permit are in our guide to Quebec snowmobiling.

If you go through, the Lifesaving Society teaches 1-10-1: 1 minute to get your breathing under control, 10 minutes to get out while you still have the strength (head back the way you came, put your arms on the ice, kick your legs up level and pull yourself out, then roll away from the hole), and up to about 1 hour before hypothermia may knock you unconscious.

What does ice fishing at an outfitter cost?

Here's what outfitters published on Pourvoo advertise as the starting price of their ice-fishing packages, as of October 28, 2026. As with the cost of a guided hunt, packages aren't all sold on the same basis, so we don't blend them:

Per person is mostly a day on the ice: lake access, drilled holes and tip-ups, sometimes a heated hut. Half of these packages cost between $80 and $95. Packages sold per night, per group or as a flat price aren't in the table: too few of them, or too different from one place to the next, to give an honest figure.

A starting price doesn't tell the whole story: ask what's included before you compare two outfitters. And don't mix up the "fishing right" many packages list with your licence: the fishing right is access to the outfitter's water, not your sport-fishing licence.

Methodology. Extracted from data/outfitters.enriched.json on October 28, 2026 by scripts/package-price-stats.mjs --ice (pnpm run package-price-stats:ice). Fishing-type packages whose name identifies them as ice fishing, with an explicit starting price and price basis, from outfitters actually published on the site. Minimum threshold: 10 packages per cell — lower than the hunting article's 20, because the ice-fishing market is small; that's why we give the 25th-to-75th percentile range rather than a bare median. Prices extracted from operator websites enter our data as "needs review": most of these still are, and only 4 are verified — too few for a cross-check.

Do you need an outfitter to go ice fishing?

No. With your licence, you can fish through the ice on free public land ("territoire libre") wherever your species is in season. On an exclusive-rights outfitter's territory, though, access goes through the outfitter.

What tips a lot of people toward an outfitter, especially the first time:

• They know their ice. It's their water, and they have eyes on it all winter.
• The heavy lifting is done. Holes are often pre-drilled, tip-ups set, the hut heated.
• You can travel light. No need to buy an auger, a shelter and a sled just to try it.
• You can stay over and do two or three days on the ice without a drive home each night.

What to bring ice fishing

First check what your outfitter supplies — plenty of packages include the holes and tip-ups. For the rest:

Safety

• Ice picks around your neck
• A personal flotation device (PFD) or a float suit
• A rope to help someone out
• Your phone in a waterproof bag, kept warm
• Ice cleats for your boots

Fishing

• Your licence (on your phone or printed) and government photo ID
• An auger and a tape measure, if the holes aren't drilled
• Tip-ups and a short ice rod
• An ice scoop to keep the holes clear
• Your bait, following your zone's baitfish rule

Comfort

• Layers: a base layer, fleece, a windproof shell
• Warm winter boots and a spare pair of mitts
• Hand warmers, a thermos and food
• A sled to haul it all

FAQ

Related: How to start fishing in Quebec | Quebec fishing licence | Quebec hunting and fishing seasons by species