Ontario river fishing guides

First-hand notes from Ontario rivers: when the fish are in, where they hold, and what has worked for me. They're written alongside the conditions tool, so the advice lines up with the water.

• Late September – April

  When do steelhead run in Ontario?

  They follow the salmon in, a little earlier at the east end of the lake. Fall, winter and spring timing, and which water stays open on each river.

• Late October – ice-up

  Late fall and winter steelhead in Ontario

  Which rivers stay open after September 30, where steelhead sit once the water gets cold, and the float setup and baits that still get bites.

• Peak October – November

  Bronte runs last, and then runs again

  The last salmon river of the Ontario season, and a good spring steelhead creek. You get a window at each end of the year.

• Year round

  The Credit is three rivers in one

  Wild trout above, salmon below, and two dams that explain why. Plus the volunteers who carry fish up the hill by hand.

• Peak September – October

  Salmon and steelhead on the Humber

  Toronto’s closest salmon river. Old Mill is packed in the fall, quiet in winter, full of redhorse in spring, and open all year below Eglinton.

• Peak September – October

  When do salmon run in Bowmanville Creek?

  A small creek with a big run. The fish ladder is there because volunteers once carried 15,000 salmon over the dam by hand.

• Peak September – October

  When do salmon run in Port Hope?

  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 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 sets off 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 come down to where you're standing. How to read pools, runs and seams. Part one of three.