Species
Trout
Season
February to October
Coordinates
47°13€²47€³N, 52°47€²27€³W
Location: Newfoundland
Hottest spot: Near the pond outlet
Best for sea-run brown trout
When talk turns to large sea-run brown trout, exotic destinations such as Tierra del Fuego and Sweden’s River Mörrum typically arise. But Newfoundland? You bet. Just ask the anglers who haunt the Witless Bay area, about 30...
Species
Arctic grayling
Season
Summer: late June
Location: Yukon
Hottest spot: The mid-river island above the first rapids
Best for numbers of Arctic grayling
No word of a lie: In the span of less than a half-hour, I watched fly fisherman John Horsey pull 50 Arctic grayling from one small pool on the Yukon’s Wolf River. Of...
Species
Char
Season
Summer: July and August
Coordinates
66°36€²N 113°18€²W / 66.6°N 113.30°W
Location: Nunavut
Hottest spot: The deep water just upstream of Third Island
In 2011, Best for world-record Arctic char
No one knows for sure why the mighty Tree produces such giant char. It could be the fish gorge on the Arctic Ocean’s abundant forage before entering...
Species
Perch, Pike, Sturgeon, Walleye/Pickerel
Season
Fall: Late September until freeze-up
Location: A resevoir of Saskatchewan, near NipawinHottest spot: White RockCoordinates: 53° 31′ 0″ N, 103° 44′ 35″ W
In 2012, ranked #8 in all-time hot spots
Formed in 1963 with the damming of the Saskatchewan River, Tobin quickly gained fame as a hot spot for...
Species
Carp
Season
Spring
Coordinates
44°20€²2€³N, 75°59€²41€³W
Location: An archipelago of islands in Ontario
Hottest spot: Gananoque to Rockport, Ontario
Best for carp
While gliding through the shallows, you cast delicately into a large school of 10-, 20- and even 30-pound fish. One of the giants lazily sucks up your bait, feels the hook and, if you’re lucky...
Species
Salmon, Steelhead
Season
Fall: latter half of September
Location: Port Alberni on Vancouver Island, British Columbia
Hottest spot: Bucket Run
In 2012, ranked #40 in all-time hot spots
Vancouver Island's Stamp River doesn't have the biggest salmon or the most salmon, but starting in mid-September, it may well have the most big ones. And it's...
Species
Trout
Season
Summer: late July
Location: Central Alberta, north of Calgary
Hottest spot: Six pools downstream of Ram Falls
Best for westslope cutthroat trout
I knew I wanted to move to Alberta the first time I saw the South Ram River. As a kid from Winnipeg spending the summer of 1968 visiting relatives in Calgary...
Species
Bass, Carp, Muskellunge, Perch, Pike, Sturgeon, Trout, Walleye/Pickerel
Season
Fall: October and November
Location: Travels through Ontario and Quebec
Length: 1,197 kilometresHottest spot: Windmill Point
In 2012, ranked #7 in all-time hot spots
Draining the world’s largest system of freshwater lakes, the St. Lawrence is a giant, productive river, with some seriously big bass, carp, walleye...
Species
Bass
Season
Fall: September to November
Coordinates
45°16€²0 N, 66 4€²0
Location: New Brunswick
Length: 673 kilometres
Hottest spot: Reversing Falls
Best for large striped bass
Thank goodness striped bass are wanderers. Up the east coast of the U.S. they travel before entering Canadian waters and eventually hanging a left into the Saint John River—this country’s hands-down striper hot...