Fishing conditions around Montreal

With the kids off school and the great weather we've been having, I headed out for a day of fishing with my 3 oldest sons, ages 5, 7 and 12. We didn't plan on any particular type of fishing or spot, we agreed to "see what happens when we get there", as I had a good hunch that the water conditions might be less than favourable.

We started out at the Milles Roches section of the Long Sault park, I tried carping while the kids fished for perch unsuccessfully for about 1 hour. The water was extremely clear as usual, still some ice drifting out in the middle, the shorelines are completely fluid. With their shortened attention span, I was forced to leave the spot and make my way around the rest of the park. I hit my next spot, where the water was about 1 foot higher than normal for this time of the year, water was more stained. I tried carping unsuccessfully again, while they had some success and caught 3 perch after about 3 hours. When the action stopped, they wanted to head back closer to home to the Bay of Vaudreuil / Outaouais River.

After a 45 minutes drive, we arrived at my perch hot spot for this time of the year, the water was unfortunately ectremely high, and moving faster than I have ever seen it. The shallow shorelines are swirling whirlpools, so we didn't even bother trying there, as the perch are usually in about 1 foot of water this time of the year.

We moved down to the Pointe des Cascades Pier, the water is also pretty high and very stained. The rocky side is high enough to be fished from the car, the deeper walled side is up to about 5 feet from the top of the pier. Nothing hit our offerings for about 1 hour, so we moved closer to town.

Next stop was the Ile Perrot pier, we were shocked to see it closed of with red "danger" stickers as it is covered in water. So much for that idea.

I figured I would take a look at the Lachine Rapids again to see if the water had cleared up, driving by Dorval I decided to exit to see what I can find on Lakeshore blvd. I got off right at some type of yacht club, I belive it's at the Baie des Valois park right on Lac St Louis. The kids got some practice castng for a good 1/2 hour, when I finally casted, I hooked into a decent fish. My eldest son that had been skunked all dauy really wanted to bring it in, unfortunately he lost it just as I handed him the rod. My guess is a probably sucker or possibly a big bulhead. The spot looks like it might be condusive to carping, I'll have to give it a shot when the water warms up.

We hit the road again, finally made it back to the Parc des rapides in Ville Lasalle. I didn't plan to fish as it was getting late and I had the smaller kids with me. The water is unfortunately still stained, might have cleared up a touch over the past week. We watched a couple fishermen try unsuccessfully, then called it a day and headed home.

Hope to make it out again this week, I'll keep ya'll posted.