Ontario river fishing guides

First-hand notes from Ontario rivers — when the fish are in, where they hold, and what has actually worked. Written alongside the conditions tool, so the advice matches the water.

• Peak October – November

  Bronte runs last, and then runs again

  The last salmon river of the Ontario season, and a good spring steelhead creek. Two windows at opposite ends of the year.

• Year round

  The Credit is three rivers in one

  Wild trout above, salmon below, and two dams that explain the whole thing — plus the volunteers who carry fish up the hill by hand.

• Peak September – October

  When do salmon run in Bowmanville Creek?

  A small creek with a big run — and a fish ladder that exists because volunteers once carried 15,000 salmon over the dam by hand.

• Peak September – October

  When do salmon run in the Ganaraska?

  Ontario’s earliest salmon river — and one of the few where the best water is closed for six weeks of the run. Timing, closures and what a morning at Port Hope is really like.

• Peak September – October

  When do salmon run in Ontario rivers?

  Chinook stage off the harbour mouths from late August, then push upriver on the first sustained rain. What triggers a run and which rivers turn on first.

• Peak September – October

  Three float fishing tips for salmon

  Where to start the drift, how long a leader to run under the float, and why holding the float back gets the bait seen first.

• Open late April – September 30

  Euro nymphing the Upper Credit for rainbows

  Four fish from eight hook-ups at the Forks of the Credit, and the fly change that turned the morning around.

• Peak spring & late autumn

  Where steelhead actually hold in a river

  Most blank days are a location problem, not a gear problem. Reading pools, runs and seams — part one of three.