millhaven creek browns

[mike11]

hey all,
in the past i have fished the mouth of the millhaven creek for browns, but this was many years ago. if memory serves me right i believe it was around this time of year? can anyone confirm or deny this?
much appreciated, cheers

[wayde34]

Just like you, I went many years ago. My father would bring us there once a year and we would always do good with browns and even the odd Steelhead. I'm not a 100% sure the exact date we would go, but I would love to find out. Hopefully someone could help you out on here, cause I'd love to go back and give it a try

[EagleEyesFlash]

Those Loyalist Browns were a hoot in the 80's and 90's, use to do an annual trip there every Easter long weekend.
Also fished it while working in K-town. Figure there's not as many fish as there use to be, as not as many are stocked
and think little natural reproduction. There's still a small ran of steelhead that use the creek. Last fished there 5 years ago
and did see a pod of browns busting up bait near the surface, but didn't hook-up and let's just say I fish for spring browns now
further away around Sandbanks. There's still browns there, but hard to find like everywhere else in the east end of Lake O.
Here's an old pic. from those days.



Will probably be kayak fishing Athol again this Sunday ...

Brent

[EagleEyesFlash]

Seen Superdad with recent brown pics. near the smoke stacks ( not this year yet .) bit more west. So worth a try from shore ? Use to be good at outflow too.
Steve Hamilton knows browns but fishes much more west . My internet fav. brownie fisherman is UT_Falcon from the last
recent years for that area. Tough figuring out where they are these days. Trannyman1 and gang just released another bunch of fingerlings in Athol,
but figure scatter pretty wide. Its a big lake. North shore, east lake O browns tough to figure out for consistency . More Atlantics being caught last few years, try
figuring em out for consistency ! Figure have a bit of a pattern for them.

[Trophyhunter]

in the eighties there was a warm water discharge from Millhaven Fibers plant since they tore it down and developed the area to the north there isn't much flow anymore , with all the rain we are getting it may bring a few in same with Millhaven creek , blue little cleo's used to work good from shore

[mike11]

thanks for the replies! might take a drive up there next weekend, and nice pic eagle eyes! did you have a cpl wobbly pops before your second response?

[scarkner]

My dad lives about 5 minutes away from there!

Do you just fish near the bridge by the ferry (right where the creek discharges) or did people fish at other spots further up in the creek? I might bring my canoe and try my luck!

[Trophyhunter]

You can only go a short ways up Millhaven creek , we always fished the outflow of the creek beside the ferry

[snapper]

You can also reach further up the creek if you park by the leigon and walk along the fence line to reach the creek

[mike11]

Hey guys, thanks so much for all the replies! But does anyone know when to fish there? Lol
Thanks

[Trophyhunter]

Now

[Out4trout]

I have been there (years ago) and found shore access quite restrictive compared to other creeks a bit further.
Skarkner, your canoe idea is a good one, a good way to avoid shore access issues.

[ut_falcon]

Back in the late 80s ealry 90s they started stocking the kingston area with up to 160 000 browns per year, to give you an idea the MNR stocks 165 000 total in all of lake ontario now. The angler surveys said the return to the fishery was too low (1 fish caught per 1000 stocked) so they relocated the stocking effort to the west end of the lake. They kept stocking around 15-20k browns per year in millhaven until 2 years ago when the MNR decided to basically relocate the millhaven browns to sandbanks in Athol bay to create an improved destination fishery (41k fish per year). The napanee rod and gun club took over the stocking efforts for the kingston area and now stock 20k fall fingerlings around bath and amherst island. Rainbow were stocked at millhaven until a few years ago when the MNR discontined stocking as a precaution, they were concerned the trout would smolt out down the st. Lawerence and were spawning in atlantic salmon rivers in Quebec. I tried to convince the MNR to improve the local trout fishing but wasnt sucessful. fishing is tough there these days but there are still some fish around, from the boat or kayak sandbanks will produce better for browns. We were successful in increasing the number stocked in Athol bay and hopefully the fishing really takes off there in the next couple years.

[smitty55]

Back in the late 80s ealry 90s they started stocking the kingston area with up to 160 000 browns per year, to give you an idea the MNR stocks 165 000 total in all of lake ontario now. The angler surveys said the return to the fishery was too low (1 fish caught per 1000 stocked) so they relocated the stocking effort to the west end of the lake. They kept stocking around 15-20k browns per year in millhaven until 2 years ago when the MNR decided to basically relocate the millhaven browns to sandbanks in Athol bay to create an improved destination fishery (41k fish per year). The napanee rod and gun club took over the stocking efforts for the kingston area and now stock 20k fall fingerlings around bath and amherst island. Rainbow were stocked at millhaven until a few years ago when the MNR discontined stocking as a precaution, they were concerned the trout would smolt out down the st. Lawerence and were spawning in atlantic salmon rivers in Quebec. I tried to convince the MNR to improve the local trout fishing but wasnt sucessful. fishing is tough there these days but there are still some fish around, from the boat or kayak sandbanks will produce better for browns. We were successful in increasing the number stocked in Athol bay and hopefully the fishing really takes off there in the next couple years.

Some very good info there. Tks Andy, nice to see the MNR chime in.

Cheers

[scarkner]

You can also reach further up the creek if you park by the leigon and walk along the fence line to reach the creek

I know this thread is a few years old, but FYI - The private propery behind the legion has put up big No Trespassing signs and cleared the whole area from their house to the creek. They are very agressive. So at this point all of the area around Millhaven Creek is private and you simply can't shore fish in areas where the fish migrate (apparently, they can't get all the way to Doyle Rd.).