Fishing Hot Spots

Species Bass, Crappie Season Fall: October Location: Borders Minnesota and Ontario Surface area: 890 square kilometres Hottest spot: Northwest Bay In 2012, ranked #36 in all-time hot spots In 2000, we picked northwestern Ontario’s Rainy Lake as Canada’s hottest spot for trophy smallmouth, and it remained high on our annual ranking for the following few years.

Species Catfish Season Spring: Mid-May to mid-June Coordinates 50°23€² 7€³N, 96°48€²39€³W Location: Flows through Red River Valley, Minnesota, and North Dakota; empties into Lake Winnipeg Length: 885 kilometres Hottest spot: Current scours just downstream of the Selkirk dam Best for channel catfish American anglers wet their pants talking about the channel cat fishing in the mighty Mississippi. I can’t imagine...

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...

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 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 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 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 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 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 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...