Come on Folks. We need more info here!

Calling all Canadians!!!!

We need all your info here. Where do you live? What have you caught in your area? What areas are good for collecting what types of fish?? What are you keeping etc etc.


The more people that post this type of info the easier it will be for all of us to find what we are looking for. In Canada we have a short collecting season so the easier it is the better right!!!

I have walked through many of the local streams & rivers over the years while fishing & looking for crays. Never actually tried to catch any local fish though.

I have seen many Darters & shiners. Not sure what types though. I intend to go out collecting as soon as the weather permits temperature wise

What time of year seems to be the best for collecting in the Southern Ontario region???

Calling all Canadians!!!!

We need all your info here. Where do you live?

I suggest you start by updating your profile to include your location information. You don't have to put your street address in there, but maybe your city, county, postal code, or better yet, your watershed. What part of Ontario are you in?

I don't think there are very many Canadians on here yet, but I'm glad to see that more are joining.

I also am very interested in learning about Canadian watersheds. You don't have anything like NatureServe fish by watershed, do you? Are there online watershed delineations and range maps somewhere?

I'm also interested to know, if it's possible for us to collect on your side of the border, or you on ours? It's surely possible to get into the water; I know many people who head north to sport fish in Ontario and Manitoba. But is it permissible to bring anything back? Does anybody have any information about this, or know where it can be found?

It would be great to have a cross-border collecting trip someday, and get our US and Canada people together! It might also be interesting to have a convention north of the border someday.

Since you're asking for collecting information to be shared publicly, I will point out a thing or two. People may share information on a public forum such as this about where they find common species. But if they find uncommon/endangered species, they are unlikely to share that information publicly. Not only will they not tell you publicly where to find endangered species, but they will not even say "look for pumpkinseeds here" if they know rare species can be found in the same stream. I hope you can understand why. If you stick around a while and build relationships with people, though, they might tell you stuff privately that they should not share publicly. And they might take you on a collecting trip and show you. So stick around, learn, share, but don't expect somebody to respond with a list of collecting sites in southern Ontario. That's not likely to happen. But maybe there is somebody in southern Ontario who will take you collecting. Good luck. And maybe one (or both) of us (and others) may cross that border someday.

Thanks for the advice. I have fixed my profile already. As far as the watersheds go I honestly don't have any idea.

I know a few people than come from south of the border to collect different species of crays but couldn't tell you the legalities about taking them back across the border.

Basically I'm looking for info on what areas the different types of legal non endangered fish can be collected. Since there is such a large number of fish available in Ontario knowing the general areas to look would save some time.

I am interested mainly in darters & maybe some Sunfish for a 110gallon tank I am setting up in the living room. I would also like to try my hand at raising some native plants if that is possible.

Hi!
I'm in the montreal area so that means i have relatively good access to many natives. As for aquarium species, i have caught pumpkinseeds, bluegills, central muminnows, shiners of all kinds, darters (not exactly sure which species), black bullheads, yellow perch, killifish (again not sure which species), ninespine stickelbacks, dace (different species, mostly blacknose) and there are a few others hwich i have seen but been uable to identify in the st. lawrence river.
As for legality, well i have been told that the keeping of any native species is illegal in quebec, but trying to find confirmation of this was impossible. I have seen confirmation that keeping native herps is illegal but nothing on fish.
As for crayfish, well, the use of live baits is prohibitted here in quebec, with the exception of worms, so i wonder if they fall under that category? I have seen local crays in pets tores here a bunch of times so who really knows? I have also seen a few pet stores sell pumpkinseeds (at 20$ a pop too!) so i don't know if any of these laws are really enforced.
If you are looking for sunfish species, the only one i would suggest is pumpkinseeds since that's all i've kept up till now . they are agressive but not to the point where they have killed another of their kind...yet.
Hope this helps!
Don

I live close to the rideau river and fish that I have collected there include: tessellated darters, banded killies, rock bass, bluegill and pseed sunnies. and my fave: mottled sculpins. There is also a ton of crayfish mostly O. viralis I think.

I don't necessarily bring them home, often just catch observe and release. It is very interesting to me to see what species are hanging around at different times of the year and there also seems to be quite a bit of variation from year to year.

My 4 yr old son serves as good cover so the neighbours don't think I'm a complete crackpot poking about in the river all the time.

I live close to the rideau river and fish that I have collected there include: tessellated darters, banded killies, rock bass, bluegill and pseed sunnies. and my fave: mottled sculpins. There is also a ton of crayfish mostly O. viralis I think.

I don't necessarily bring them home, often just catch observe and release. It is very interesting to me to see what species are hanging around at different times of the year and there also seems to be quite a bit of variation from year to year.

My 4 yr old son serves as good cover so the neighbours don't think I'm a complete crackpot poking about in the river all the time.

You live in Ottawa? Awesome, so do I. I don't live around the area you appear to however. I'm in an area in the former city of Nepean and I know of a park that has a mid-sized pond with several native species that a friend and I visited several years ago and I have been trying to see if other parks in my neighbourhood have any ponds, creeks, etc that also contain fish.

Awesome this is what this thread was intended for. Making local contacts around your area that you can learn from.

You live in Ottawa? Awesome, so do I. I don't live around the area you appear to however. I'm in an area in the former city of Nepean and I know of a park that has a mid-sized pond with several native species that a friend and I visited several years ago and I have been trying to see if other parks in my neighbourhood have any ponds, creeks, etc that also contain fish.

I am in Ottawa, near the riverside hospital. Are you on http://ovas.ca? If not you should check out the site. Great community!

Okay, I'm officially jealous. There are more Canadians on this site than Oregonians.

I guess we're all to busy hugging trees to get to the fish!

I live near Edmonton, so I have lots of access to the Aspen Parkland waterbodies. If any of you are in the area, try the Pembina river about half way between Edson and Edmonton. Great for Juvenile Suckers, Juvenile Walleye, Flathead Chub (one of my favorite minnows), Trout-Perch, and in retrospect I am sure there were Iowa Darters in there too.

Unfortunately, my province doesn't have near the diversity in (small) fishes as you have down east. But the Rockies are home to some species that you won't see there, like the Mountain Whitefish and Bull Trout. These fish are better known for their sportfishing qualities, but the juveniles can be stunning.

We can't keep native fishes in Alberta, but I very much enjoy bringing my Photo Tank with me (which is just an Eclipse System 6) and I can watch how the fish would act in an aquarium.

Glad to see there are more Canadians here already!
Taylor

Hi all,
I wonder if there are enough of us here to organize a fishing trip! (with nets not rods )
Don

I am in Ottawa, near the riverside hospital. Are you on http://ovas.ca? If not you should check out the site. Great community!

Hey, I live in Ottawa too. We should go fish sometime, when I don't have school, of course.

Do any of you guys know about shipping and receiving across the border to Canada?? It would be nice to know in case you wanted somthing you were unable to get to have it shipped to you.

For me, when I order something I just have it sent to the nearest purolator or fedex in the U.S and drive down and pick it up.
Don

well, Im new on the forum, I plan on getting a pumpkinseed or two from Six Mile Lake, past fishing experiences show me that theres some good catchin size pumpkinseed (tons of 1"-2" pumpkinseed right at the shoreline). So, how have your guys' fish faired since the last post?

my bullhead, the one i got last summer, is still alive, though he's got flukes. anyone have any advice towards catching pickerel in ottawa? I never get anything beyond sunfish, catfish, bass, and trout; keeping a pickerel would be cool, alotta ppl on this forum seem to do it. thanks.

theres no pickerel in ontario. michigan or nova scotia would be your best bet for collecting them (unless your referring to walleye) for proximity to ottawa

bugger. don't walleye get much bigger than picks? wish we had a native dealer in ontario.

yea i know , ill be ordering my natives from Sachs Systems Aquaculture (www.aquaculturestore.com) most likely (since he's the only one i know who will ship to canada, but hes in florida). And sorry to hear about your bullhead Mutobe, hopefully you can get another native fish quickly. Walleye can get longer than bass (can get into the 30" range), so unless you have a pond big enough it wouldnt be a good idea. The only native dealers in s. ontario are the people who run aquacultures that stock ponds, although you can buy individual fish from them, but they dont have selection, its basically bass, trout, walleye or maybe crappie