Fishing Rideau River help

[bamboozler]

Hello all,

I have recently started kayak fishing on the Rideau River from the Strandherd bridge to the end of Long Island. Problem is that I have not been able to locate any largemouth or any other fish of any size. I've caught a few smallmouth but they are tiny. Friend of mine got into a smallish musky near Nichol's Island, which was awesome!

I'm quite used to fishing on the Big Rideau (in a boat), where i've been reasonably consistent into getting into decent fish.

I've tossed everything In these waters...Senkos, tubes, frogs into lili pads, spinnerbaits, drop shot minnows and cranks...no success!

Anybody have any tips on how to fish this part of the river? Thanks in advance.

[seahawk]

You could try to go to the branch heading to the small dam right to the lock (not the lock) where no boat traffic and I've caught walleye and 3 lb + SB in that stretch. There is a bit current at the far end and very shallow and SB fishing is good there too.

[Todd B.]

I picked up a number of feisty 13" SM today, wading the back channel at Long Island. There are 3-4lb fish out there you just have to find them and present something that they'll take. Contrary to popular belief that big baits are needed to catch big fish, you'd be surprised at how a big fish that turned its nose up at a big meal will pound a tiny tiny bait (#10 hook) subsequently presented to it.

With respect to LM, they are few and far between downstream of the the dams in Manotick, with the only exception being Dows Lake. This stretch of the Rideau is predominantly SM water, with big musky and walleye to make things interesting.

[Ramblinman]

I have had success at times running a White - yellow buzz bait at the bottom of the Manotic lock dam. Sometimes good action in the morning and evening. Hope this helps. Be prepared Muskie like yellow too!!

[ipjrobson]

Most of my Largemouth fish have been caught in Dows lake and in parts of the Rideau canal.

Most of my success has been with wacky rigged stick baits or texas rigged ones

hope that helps

[CNs]

roh,

you should be tossing tubes to the weedlines

[burns]

I think you might be better off putting in farther up the Rideau, kars is only 15 minutes away from barrhaven. To my understanding the water levels stay the same all year in that stretch of the river. In the fall the stretch running along barrhaven is lowered to half the water level. I'm not sure if that is what effects the fishing in that area but I've always had better luck with numbers and size fishing up river. Any luck I've had in the area you are fishing was using tubes along weed edges.

[tmacinc]

There's lots of large smallies in that stretch. I've had multiple days where I've caught 4 - 5, 18.5" fish there this summer. Always using small baits fished slowly. There's a lot of fishing pressure so the key is to be different.