Evening on the Rideau

[Todd B.]

Well I hooked up with Beachburger yesterday after work for an evening of fishing on the Rideau. Well when I finally get on the water I find Beachburger breaking in his new 5wt with a hefty fish. Seems he had foul hooked a large fish. Since neither of us got a good look at it, my guess (given the time/location) was that he had hooked a good sized red horse sucker.

We managed to pull a number of SM out of the deeper pools, though no pigs yet but chunky none the less. By the time we had moved to a section of flats a BWO hatch was in full force, resulting in lots of rises. Switching to a #16 BWO emerger, then subsequently to a #12 klinkhammer resulted in non-stop fallfish action.

Revisiting one of the deeper holes before calling it an evening paid off with two eyes, the larger being at least 17".

[ganman]

Question...I notice most of the time you guys fish the Rideau and not the Ottawa. Is it because the Rideau is easier? I can imagine the Ottawa a bit overwhelming.

[beachburger]

I prefer to fish the Rideau on weeknights simply because there are some pretty good spots that are only a 10 min drive from my work or house and the sun is pretty much gone shortly after 7:00. If the sun was up longer, I would probably give the Ottawa equal time. Next year.....

The few spots on the Ottawa that I have waded (Britannia, Champlain) were not bad at all but since the water was low at the time it is hard for me to say how tough it really is compared to the Rideau. However, I find some parts of the Rideau to be a challenging wade and my wading staff has saved me more than a few hundred soakers.

[Todd B.]

As with Beachburger, the Rideau is closer than having to drive down to the Ottawa R. This season I'd say that the fishing has been equal on both rivers, though at the moment the Ottawa is extremely low (~ 2' below normal summer levels). On the weekends if I have the time, the Mississippi can be an even better spot to fish.