Duncan Hardie - Eastern Ontario Field Editor

I would have posted this week ago but I just returned to steamy Ontario from beautiful British Columbia where I had the opportunity to float the St. Mary River. Born in the Purcell Mountains, the St Mary River is a classic free stone stream which flows gently for some 50 miles before joining the Kootenay River.  This is one of the finest dry fly fisheries in North America. With Wild West slope Cutthroats and Cutbows from 12-18 inches it’s not uncommon to have a 50 fish day! My host was Kelly Laatsch the owner of St. Mary Angler Fly Shop. Kelly provides professional guide service on many of the trout rivers in the region as well as a full service fly shop. If you are heading west check out Kelly’s website at www.STMARYANGLER.com for trip information. I hope to write more about the area in the future so stay tuned.

Well the dog days of summer are truly upon us here in Eastern Ontario. The trout fishing is now in full summer mode especially in the trout lakes in the Calabogie and Land O’ lakes regions. I haven’t had a chance to fish these areas yet but hope to get out this coming weekend. From what I have heard, the trout fishing in many lakes is tough given the latest heat wave so the trout are down deep. In some lakes the thermocline is around 22 feet with temperatures hovering around 58F so sinking tip lines are a must. Mrs. Simpson, Yellow Hamills,   are working down deep and humpies on the surface in the very early morning. Some of these lakes are spring fed so trout stay active all summer long. I have a couple of reports of several good catches of 12-14 inch rainbows from several lakes in the Calabogie area. Check with the MNR to see what lakes have been stocked in the area or check my spring report for full details on stocking for the Bancroft and Kemptville districts.

Up the valley, the bass are in full swing. Action has been on and off depending on the weather at White, Constant, Calabogie, Taylor and Muskrat Lakes. Surface poppers and the standard Woolly Bugger in black and brown are taking fish. I prefer to fish a dragon fly imitation or a big purple/yellow and red Dahlburg Diver when fishing locally around the Ottawa area especially in the Rideau River between HogsBack Falls down stream to the Montreal Street bridge. Access is easy along this entire stretch off the bike path on the south side of the river.

 I hope to get up to the Mazinaw Lake area this week and will report on the bass fishing next time around. I suspect that if we have stable weather conditions over the next few weeks the fishing should be good. Several lakes in the area including Big Gull, Kashwakamak, Crotch, Skootamatta and Mississagagon. These lakes should be fishing well for bass and walleye.  This is also excellent pike water so be sure to have a few large red, yellow and white streamers handy. The usual suspects include a variety of poppers for evening time and during the slower parts of the day deep running woolly buggers in white, and a variety of minnow imitations. I prefer a variety of flies that imitate bait fish including the marabou muddler minnow, sculpin, matuka and my own silver minnow imitation. Most minnow streamer patterns should produce. Remember, many of these lakes are full of spottail shiner and several species of dace, and minnow species so you need ties that cover these species as they are the prime food source( including crayfish)  for the smallmouth bass that inhabit these lakes.

Picking up on the conservation front the Ottawa Flyfishers (OFS) are active around the local area. OFS has adopted Green’s Creek under the City Stream Watch Adopt-a-Stream program. Work will be ongoing during the month of July. If you are interested in getting involved contact Bill graham at bill.graham@rogers.com.
Looking ahead, if you are keen to learn more about flyfishing and entomology(bugs) OFS will be holding a workshop on Saturday, September 18,2010 at the mouth of the Jock River in the south end of Ottawa. Working with the Rideau Valley Conservation Authority (RVCA) experts, participants will spend the morning sampling, classifying and identifying the various benthic macro invertebrates in the river. For further info contact Julia Sutton at citystreamwatch@rvca.ca So be sure to put this on your calendar.

The Fisheries Management Council for Zone 18 continues to be active. Two workshops have been held this summer to consider a number of fisheries issues including the development of a walleye management strategy for eastern Ontario. I will report on the result of the workshop in my mid summer update.

I am off fishing and I hope you are to!!!

Till next Time