Bronte runs last, and then runs again
Bronte is the last salmon river of the Ontario season. Fish push in through late September and the run holds into November, weeks after the eastern creeks have gone quiet. It's also a good spring steelhead creek, December through April. If your season is ending everywhere else, drive west.
Two seasons, at opposite ends of the year
Most rivers here give you one window. Bronte gives you two, at opposite ends of the year: salmon from late September into November, then steelhead from December through April. That's more than half the year on one creek.
Why the salmon run late
Lake Ontario does not cool evenly. The eastern basin is deeper and colder and turns over first, which is why the Ganaraska and Bowmanville see fish from mid-August. The western end, where Bronte sits, is shallower and warmer and holds its summer temperature weeks longer. Salmon wait offshore until the lake lets them in.
So come two to three weeks later than you would to the eastern creeks, and three to four weeks later than the calendar suggests. Anglers who fish Bronte on a Ganaraska schedule arrive to an empty creek and conclude the run is poor.
Bronte fishes best between 2 and 10 m³/s. It's a small creek, so in autumn the usual problem is low, clear water, not high water. Low and clear with salmon in it means spooky fish and long leaders. Flow also decides whether a couple of the crossings are safe, so check it before you plan a route.
See today's flow, water temperature and staging →The run, week by week
| Window | What's happening | Where to fish |
|---|---|---|
| Late Aug – mid-Sept | Fish stage off the harbour | Bronte Harbour and pier |
| Late Sept – Oct | Fish push into the creek; peak | Lower creek and the Provincial Park reach |
| Nov | Late Chinook, Coho, first steelhead | Below Hwy 407 (headwaters now closed) |
| Dec – Apr | Steelhead, and the odd lake-run brown | Below Lakeshore Rd W, the year-round reach |
Below Lakeshore Road West, including Bronte Harbour: open all year. This is the only reach with no closing date.
Lakeshore Road West up to Highway 407, including Bronte Creek Provincial Park: extended season, fourth Saturday in April to December 31.
Above Highway 407, in the Niagara Escarpment headwaters: the zone-wide season applies, fourth Saturday in April to September 30. It closes October 1, right when Bronte’s run gets going. Up there it's a spring and summer brook trout fishery.
Confirm the current rules in the Ontario fishing regulations for Zone 16 before you fish.
What it's like
Bronte runs through something close to a mini-ravine, and it's a lovely place to spend a morning. The lower and middle creek isn't heavily wooded. You're down in the valley with the banks rising on either side, not under a canopy. It changes once you reach Bronte Creek Provincial Park and the conservation land, which is pretty in its own way.
You can wade most of it, which isn't true of every river on this list. A couple of spots should only be crossed when flow is really low, so check the gauge before you plan a crossing instead of working it out mid-river.
It's also a better spring steelhead creek than its reputation suggests, and I've seen lake-run brown trout in here as well. If you only fish Bronte for late salmon, you're missing most of its year.
Where to fish it
Bronte Harbour and the pier. Where fish stage from late August, and open all year. Spoons and spinners at dawn and dusk before they commit to the creek.
The lower creek, below Lakeshore Road West. Year-round water, and your only option once the calendar turns.
Bronte Creek Provincial Park. The main in-river reach through October and November. The park is 684 hectares, about the size of Central Park, so there's plenty of creek to spread out along.
Lions Valley Park and Lowville Park. Further up and quieter. Good for a walk.
Spring steelhead
The steelhead season runs roughly December through April and I think it's underrated here. Below Lakeshore Road West the water is open all year, which covers the whole of it. Lake-run brown trout turn up too, often when you are not expecting them.
Spring is also when the wading advice matters most. High dirty water after snowmelt is when the fish move and when the crossings get unsafe. The short above was filmed in those conditions.
Twelve Mile Creek
Bronte was not always called Bronte. On the early maps it was Twelve Mile Creek, being twelve miles from what was then reckoned the head of Lake Ontario. The same counting gave Oakville its Sixteen Mile Creek. The Mississaugas knew it as ishkwessin, “that which lies at the end”.
The village at the mouth was founded in 1834 and named for Horatio Nelson, who held the title Duke of Bronte. The word itself is Greek: bronté, thunder.
It became a working harbour fast. By the 1850s Bronte was exporting wheat, building schooners (the 172-ton Peerless was launched here in 1853) and running a commercial fishery and a stonehooking trade, with the population up around 550. Then the Grand Trunk Railway arrived in 1856 and bypassed the village entirely. The harbour trade collapsed and the population fell to roughly 220. Bronte stayed a fishing village, on a much smaller scale, into the 1950s.
The harbour was also an entry point on the Underground Railroad, and some of those who arrived settled at Bronte and built homes on both banks of the creek.
Common questions
When do salmon run in Bronte Creek?
Later than anywhere else on this side of the lake. Fish stage off the harbour from late August, push in through late September, and the run holds into November.
Can you fish Bronte Creek in November?
Below Lakeshore Road West, yes. That reach is open all year. Between Lakeshore and Highway 407, including the Provincial Park, the season runs to December 31. Above the 407, trout season closed on September 30.
Why does Bronte Creek run so late?
The western end of Lake Ontario is shallower and warmer, and cools last. Salmon stage offshore until the lake lets them in.
Are there steelhead in Bronte Creek?
Yes. Bronte is a good spring steelhead creek, running roughly December through April, and lake-run brown trout turn up as well. Below Lakeshore Road West is open all year, which covers the whole steelhead season.
Read next
Timing for every Ontario river is in the river-by-river salmon run guide. If you want the early end of the season instead, the Ganaraska and Bowmanville Creek run first. For the drift, three float fishing tips, and once the salmon are done, where steelhead hold in a river.