A great fishing holiday

Most of the inland lakes I fish contain stocked trout: coastal cutthroats in Helen Lake, Blackwater rainbow trout in Irrigation Lake and eastern brook trout in Klinger Lake. Often this is because there is no spawning stream available for fish to be able to reproduce their ilk. As far as I know, none of these “foreign” species have been stocked where they directly compete with or replace native salmonids.

Not all stocked fish are harmless. European carp, Asian grass carp, snakeheads and other species have done or are doing untold damage to native fisheries. Smallmouth bass in Nova Scotia pose a serious threat to Atlantic salmon. In 2022, Chief George Ginnish, North Shore Micmac District Council Chair, released a statement: “A delay [in eradicating smallmouth bass] could guarantee the establishment of smallmouth bass outside the project area, where they would consume and compete with trout and salmon and change the ecosystem forever.”

Bass in Thunder Bay

Feeling a little homesick for bass fishing in the Midwest, I travelled to Thunder Bay primarily for smallmouth bass fishing. Smallmouth bass are native to the St. Lawrence system and the Great Lakes (with the possible exception of Lake Superior). They have been introduced, perhaps as early as 1873, into many of northern Ontario inland lakes and are so much at home that they are considered native by many people. (Northern Ontario residents sometimes scorn them, complaining that they compete with the most important food fish: walleyes.)

It was going to be a catch-and-release fishing trip. My daughter Rachel and I spent the first few days of our trip at Kashabowie River Resort on Shebandowan Lake and caught lots of smallmouths. We spent most of our last day catching a zillion bass on Black Bay with Gord Ellis – magazine writer, broadcaster, editor and Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame member.

Trout in the Nipigon

In between, Gord took us to the famous Nipigon River, home to the world record eastern brook trout. I had dreamt of this.

Gord took us to one of the upper reaches of the river. We approached one of the large dams on the system and fished shallow-running lures in the current on a bay. We did not fish with hand-crafted split bamboo rods and artistic creations of fur, feathers and synthetics tied by fishers or fly-tyers of fame. We weren’t good enough with fly rods for that. We anchored or drifted and cast in what I call the heavy water: the deep, dark, swift, powerful and – I thought – mysterious waters of the river.

I managed to catch three native brook trout. One was big enough for a photo and bragging rights. It was perhaps three pounds, nowhere close to Gord’s ten-pound personal best. In spite of the several dams and other human interference with the river’s relatively short course from Nipigon Lake to Lake Superior, the native strains of trout survive and flourish. Some stay strictly in the river, while some are able to go down to Lake Superior where they may be called coasters.

Blessed

Upon reflection, it may actually be that I was most awestruck and impressed by water. Water, water everywhere: “the sea and all that in them is” says the old version of the Bible. I thank the Creator for allowing us to live a life on a land that is so blessed by springs, rills, rivers and lakes. May we care for them as the treasure that they are.