What Methods And Gear Is Best For Fishing Ontario Rivers
If you want to know how to catch more fish when fishing Ontario rivers then this is the only page you need. As the top river guide in Ontario I will share the methods and gear that myself and other top river guides use.
What Species Can You Catch In Ontario Rivers?
When fishing in Ontario rivers you could catch large salmon up to 40 pounds, steelhead in the fall and spring up to 20 pounds, brown trout, and brook trout are available all summer, as well as bass, pike, musky, and carp.
Best Methods For Fishing Ontario Rivers
I’m on the river sometimes 40 or 50 days straight and sometimes over 250 days a year. During my time on the water I have seen many anglers fishing and not catching any fish. The simple truth is that if they new what they were doing they would catch far more fish.
The best methods for river fishing for trout, steelhead, and salmon in a river are float fishing, fly fishing, and spin fishing.
Float Fishing
Float fishing is simply drifting a float with a bait under it down the river with the current.
It sounds easy, but many anglers do it poorly simply because they use the wrong floats and the wrong gear.
They also don’t fish very well. It takes more than just throwing your float and bait in the water and watching it go.
Doing it poorly means others around you will catch 10 times more fish.
And when I say 10 times more fish I’m not exaggerating because I have seen many times when one client catches 10 steelhead doing it the right way, while his buddy catches only one because he is fishing it poorly.
Float fishing can be done with spinning reels or Centerpin reels.
If you want to know how I do it and how I teach my clients and what gear I recommend check my page on Float Fishing In Ontario.
Fly Fishing Ontario Rivers
Fly fishing is a great way to fish Ontario rivers. I teach and guide anglers using fly rods for trout, steelhead, salmon, bass, pike, musky and even carp.
Some of my guides even fish for Gar Pike with a fly rod.
At times fly fishing can be the most effective method. Fly fishing excels for trout in shallow fast rivers when the trout are in spots that are only 1 to 3 feet deep.
Fly fishing is also great when trout are feeding on small bugs on the surface.
If you get set up properly and you learn how to fly fish well you will catch a lot of trout. Check out my page on fly fishing methods and gear for fishing Ontario rivers.
Spin Fishing Ontario Rivers
Most river guides in Ontario only offer guided trips and lessons with fly rods. But myself and my guides, we love to teach clients how to spin fish in rivers.
When spin fishing I use 3 methods. I will float fish as I mentioned above, I will use a method called bottom bouncing which is the best method in low shallow spots and when fishing for trout, steelhead and salmon in pocket water and I also recommend casting lures.
Casting lures is great for all river species except for Carp, however I have done well with jigs for Carp.
Bass, pike and musky will hit a well presented lure.
I have also done very well fishing for trout, steelhead and salmon with lures.
Check out my page on Lure Fishing Rivers for my advice and gear recommendations.
