Fishing The Beatty Saugeen River In Ontario
The Beatty Saugeen River is a smaller yet remarkable tributary of the Saugeen River, offering excellent fishing opportunities for anglers targeting steelhead, brown trout, rainbow trout, and brook trout.
Fishing The Beatty Saugeen Brown Trout
I get asked all the time if there are brown trout in the Beatty Saugeen. The truth is there are huge brown trout.
Most brown trout are caught below the pond and damn just up upstream from Hwy 6.
The river spans about 40 feet in length, with an average width of around 15 feet in its middle sections.
It flows into the South Saugeen River near Hanover and eventually joins the main Saugeen River shortly afterward.
This river boasts strong insect hatches, providing plenty of feeding opportunities for fish, but anglers may find it challenging to navigate due to wood debris and log jams.
At one point during my exploration of the Beatty River, it completely disappeared under the ground and roots of the trees.
I’d never seen anything like this before and suspect that areas like this hold some monster size brown trout.
After exploring a few hundred feet upriver, I found where it reopened. Above and below this stretch was some great trout water.
While some sections of the river are slow and flat, resembling frog water, other areas feature lively riffles that are ideal for fly fishing.
Steelhead Fishing The Beatty River
If you know the Saugeen River, you know it’s famous for its runs of big steelhead which some years can be in excess of 40,000 steelhead.
The Beatty Saugeen River is one of the most vital tributaries of the Saugeen River, particularly for steelhead rainbow trout. This river provides some of the best spawning habitat in the entire watershed.
With excellent invertebrate populations and dense forest cover, the Beatty offers ideal conditions for aquatic life. Its cold water and abundant gravel beds create perfect spawning grounds for steelhead.
Additionally, the river serves as a release site for Ontario Steelheaders’ adult steelhead transfers from Denny’s Dam, further supporting the trout population.
Well, I have caught steelhead in the Beatty River, however, not very many.
The reason is that the river opens to fishing so late in the season (June 1st – but check the regulations), and then it closes to angling before most fall steelhead enter. I’ll discuss this a bit more below.
The few steelhead I do catch are holdovers that don’t drop back to Lake Huron after the spring runs.
These hold-over steelheads can be a blast to catch if you can find them.
I fish them like I fish Browns and Rainbows. They will take nymphs, streamers, and even dry flies.
This is one of the few rivers where I’ll catch summer steelhead in Ontario. Check out my Best Flies For Steelhead.
Make sure you check out my page on the Best Rivers In Ontario for more great rivers to fish, and to get info on other rivers where I catch summer steelhead.
One thing you will notice is that there are plenty of 4 to 7-inch baby steelhead around that are willing to bite just about anything you drift past them. For this reason, I use only barbless hooks and I try to avoid using bait.
Beatty Saugeen Fishing For Brook Trout
Just about every tributary of the Saugeen has brook trout in its upper sections, and the Beatty is no exception.
Mixed in with the browns and rainbows in the lower sections, and there are plenty up the river in the small sections above Highway 6.
Accessing the Beatty Saugeen can be difficult as most of the surrounding land is privately owned. It’s also heavily wooded and really hard to walk the banks.
However, the guided trips I offer include access to select spots, and private campsites may offer opportunities to reach good fishing areas. You could try contacting River Place Campground to see about getting day passes to fish their section of the river.
It’s important to note that this river has special regulations. Typically, fishing isn’t permitted until June 1st each year.
Be sure to check the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources (OMNR) fishing regulations before planning your trip to ensure compliance.
The lower Beatty Saugeen has a lot of slow water but it also has some of the biggest brown trout in the system.
Because of all the private land, I access much of the lower river by boat. You can get a canoe or pontoon boat through most of it, however, be prepared to portage of log jams.
This wraps up this article on fishing the Beatty Saugeen.
Catch and release, and have fun!
