Montreal fishing spots

Montreal fishing spots

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Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Brown trout in the Lachine Rapids - first attempt

I finally decided to try fishing the Lachine Rapids for trout. After polling my subscribers, I got a mixed bag of tips. Most suggestions were to use spinners and spoons, also had some for rapala countdowns, jigs and live bait. We headed to the Parc des rapides in Ville Lasalle (Montreal), the water is extremely high and unfortunately very stained. As trout are more of a clear water fish, our chances were slim at best. We tried various techniques for about 3 hours, I had one bite off a live worm from a jig, although I don’t know if it was a trout. We decided to call it a day early, and checked on another couple spots just to find the water rose considerably since last week. I will probably need waders to access some of my local shore fishing my hot spots this spring.

I hope to give trout fishing around Montreal another shot once the water clears up a bit, possibly next week. The MRNF allows a bag limit of 5 trout per license, and the trout are the cleanest fish in the river when it comes to pollutants. Even the biggest ones have the lowest eating advisory.

After doing some more research, it turns out that the ministry stocks sterile brown and rainbow trout into the St Lawrence River, as they are afraid of the possiblity that they might migrate and compete for food with the salmon in Gaspesie if they were allowed to spawn. They are stocked simply to promote some trout fishing locally.

As most of these fish can't reproduce, catch and release doesn't make much sense. I've never eaten a brown trout, cant wait to try...

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

does salmon run through the Parc des rapides as well?

Freshwater Phil said...

Some salmon are caught in the rapids every once in a while, typically in the spring. However, they are extremely rare.

Anonymous said...

I havent seen anyone here in montreal float fish with a centrepin and float rod setup, this is more of a popular setup in ontario rivers. Do you Float fish for trout Freshwater Phil? also when is a good time in the year for trout to run at the parc des rapides?

Freshwater Phil said...

I don't fish for trout much, certainly not in Montreal. I know a few people that fish centerpins with floats, they all fish NY state. As far as I've heard, spring is the best time to catch trout in the Lachine rapids.