fishing @ Carleton U. today

[Todd B.]

Two of us are going to give the Carleton U. stretch of the Rideau a shot this afternoon if anyone else cares to tag along.

Cheers,
Todd

[Urbanfisherman]

Something BIG was surfacing there yesterday. I only saw fins and tails but they were big. Good luck!

Also, do you know how to get to the other side? Where the weeds are? It has a lot more room for backcast.

UF

[Todd B.]

Urban,

Either a big carp or muskie. As for getting to spots, it's all wadable, though the safest place to wade across in my opinion it at the top of the rapids where it's flat. Just watch yourself on the angled slabs in the quiet water, they are like ice.

As for backcasts, if it's tight it's time to use a roll cast.

Cheers,
Todd

[Urbanfisherman]

So? Any luck? I'm still new to fly fishing but I catch everything with a white streamer or a black Wooly Bugger... anything else work? BTW: All I caught was rock bass that day I saw the big one surfacing. And my Roll Cast can only get a bit further than half the river.

UF

[Todd B.]

Well we were actually looking for pike and muskie, but only managed one small pike. Lots of rock bass though, especially on a small black panfish popper. We also had a big 19" OOS SM hit the popper as well.

As for flies we've been throwing big streamers, clousers and bunny leeches for the pike, eyes and muskie. P-Quads have been really good for rock bass this season. It will probably be effective for SM as well, though I've been avoiding my traditional SM waters till the season opens. When it does I'll probably use my SM goto fly an olive beadhead woollybugger.

With respect to the Carleton U. stretch, given the low water conditions, you'd probably have better catches on other parts of the Rideau. If you're fishing with a 3 or 4wt rod and like the 6" SM you can always find them up in the rapids above the train bridge, otherwise you'll be prospecting a lot of water to find the few big fish that are in there.

Cheers,
Todd

[adam h]

You have to fish up river more!! Not at the falls but by the heron bridge. Me and my cousin have caught alotta walleye and muskie fly fishing up there. Also you should try for the red fin suckers there is literally hundreds of them in the pools up there!

[DaveH]

adam how do you get up there??

Do you walk/wade from Carleton or from Hog's back?? Or is there parking somewhere that is closer??

[Todd B.]

Dave,

You just park at Hogs Back, take the lower trail, then walk in on the well worn path at the culvert. Unfortunately all the rain has raised the water level to pretty much unfishable conditions from Hogs Back downstream. I don't know what the conditions are like between Blacks and Long Island.

Todd

[adam h]

I Live near there so I bike What I do when I go with my dad is park at the pic nic area and walk down. There is 2 massive pools I fish when the waters low and they produce well.