Fish-Hawk.Net

My buddy and I are in intense negotiations about a river for a five-or-six-day canoe trip. We both want some whitewater. I want brook trout on the fly. We would leave Ottawa on or about 14 July. We have been looking at somewhere in Quebec.

More particularly, we have been looking at the Rupert River from Highway 109 to Waskaganish on James Bay. (I have read a fair bit about the hydro project -- that is not my focus for posting this question). However, that seems like a long way to go for a whitewater river with good brook trout fishing. Also, the water is apparently huge, with many long portages around rapids more akin to large waterfalls.

Does anyone have any ideas about a whitewater canoe river with very good brook trout fishing within about eight hours' drive of Ottawa?

Good evening Ken,

I will ask around for a good large brook trout location.There are many outfitters, but La Reserve Beauchene is the only local one that comes to mind locally for large trout.

Ps- I have your sixe 18-20 griffith's gnats in a containter behind the cash at Green Drake. Just ask Cam or I for them.

Mike

Nipigon River? It's more than 8 hours from Ottawa but the brookies are pretty big.

"The Dumoine River runs approximately 90 km (60 miles) from the mouth of Lac Dumoine to the Ottawa River. With 39 sets of rapids dropping some 500 ft., the Dumoine offers both beauty and excitement. Compared with its neighbours, the Coulonge and the Noire, this river has the greater rapids classifications, as it drops quicker, and more campsites per kilometre. It also has the greater flow of traffic as canoeists flock from both near and far to take its challenge. Canoeists can fly-in to a number of starting points from the Rapides des Joachims airbase and finish up at either Driftwood Provincial Park or Pine Valley Campground. Be extra careful crossing the Ottawa in windy weather."

Look no more .. . D-mo .. "there's specs in them thar hills."

It is now 12:30 p.m. Tuesday 15 July. The acquaintance (downgraded from "buddy") with whom I was to go on a brook-trout-fishing-whitewater-canoe trip starting either last Friday or at least yesterday are still sitting with maps spread out on his his dining room table.

Thanks for the suggestions to date. The Nipigon probably did not have enough whitewater for him (but we have left it too late, anyway). We nixed the Rupert on the grounds that the only portion we could get to in the short period we had was well downriver from the area written up as a brookie paradise.

The topos for the Dumoine are actually spread out on the table. We actually paddled it about 14 years ago. Since, we have gone down the Pet about 10 times. Now, however, I am trying to maximize my brookie chances. That seems to suggest Moore Creek, Ferris Creek, or some others.

My question right now is: Does Moore Creek (or Ruisseau Moore) have enough water to be navigable in a whitewater canoe?

I have spoken to a fellow who does shuttles in the area and the answer to my question posted above is no: He says that Moore Creek does not have enough water to paddle a canoe down.

Within an hour or so of my last post on this thread, my dear, dear friend -- as close as a brother, really -- suddenly had a change of heart and suggested that we drive down to the Adirondacks, where we could do a day hike or two and I could show him how to fly fish. Unless he changes his mind, we leave tomorrow morning.

As an aside, last Thursday, I fished the Salmon River at three places near lower Flat Rock Road. The water temperature was between 67F and 68.5F. The level was good. I tried for about the first time to keep an accurate count of the catch, which ended up at 41. I mention this mostly to suggest that, unlike what I have believed in past years, there seems to be fish to be caught there in early to mid-July.

If by dear friend and I end up on the West Branch of the Au Sable, I will not feel daunted by my previous record: One small rainbow for three attempts at the river. I hope that he will catch a few fish on the Salmon before we proceed farther south.

Even if our big expedition has fallen through for us this year, I still think that that we would all benefit from a list of rivers within, let us say, a ten hour drive of Ottawa (in any direction) where people could paddle for between five and 15 days and experience good whitewater canoeing and good brook trout fishing. Between my fine friend's postings at myccr.com and my various searches elsewhere on the web, I have been surprised not to have made a fairly lengthy list of such rivers.

Except to make vague references to the upper Rupert or the upper Mistanissi (without any real idea of put-ins or take-outs, I cannot provide much information.

Any further suggestions would be appreciated for years to come.

Manfred

PM sent about Ausable River.