Bronson bridge
Bronson bridge
Over the years I have spent a lot of time fishing over at the Bronson Bridge and have never really caught much much except for last year when i got a nice 38inch muskie. I was wondering if others have had more luck then I and what else people have reeled in? The only reason why I go there is that its a 4 minute drive from my house and its a good little escape
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lapointeric
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- Joined: Mon Apr 27, 2009 4:23 pm
Article that was in the citizen last year:
4-foot-long lunkers lurk in our canal
Up to 60 muskies enjoy city section of the Rideau
By Joanne Laucius , The Ottawa Citizen
March 3, 2009
OTTAWA-As far as freshwater fish go, the muskellunge is a tiger — a voracious top-of-the-food-chain predator that ambushes its prey, either swallowing it whole or cutting and tearing it with one lethal bite.
And some of these leviathans —some over four feet long — live in the Rideau Canal. In the winter, their metabolic rate drops and their digestion slows down. When the ice goes out, they spawn in flooded areas.
The eggs, about the size of a pencil eraser, adhere to vegetation and hatch before the water recedes. When the canal is drained in the fall, the muskies head back to Dow’s Lake.
Muskies usually eat other fish, but they they have been known to eat snakes, small mammals and the occasional duckling, says fish ecologist Steven Cooke, who estimates there are 50 to 60 muskies between Hartwell Locks and downtown Ottawa.
“They’re not afraid of anything. They need to eat frequently. And large meals.â€
When Cooke arrived at Carleton University four years ago, he started casting around for a local fish population for a research project. Then he heard about the muskies in the canal, right beside the university.
Bluegills, yes, and bass. Carp, certainly. But muskies?
“I wasn’t surprised. There tend to be animals in places you don’t expect. It’s one of the few urban muskie fisheries in the world,†said Cooke, a self-described “fish nerd†whose work has taken him from studying chinook and sockeye salmon around dams in B.C. to the Bahamas in search of barracuda.
Cooke and his students radio-tagged 10 muskies caught in the canal, a procedure that included sedating the fish in an anaesthetic bath, then surgically implanting a thumb-sized transmitter, which has an antenna that protrudes out of the side of the fish.
In the summer, the students can bike or Rollerblade to “find†the fish as they range around the canal. In the winter, the trackers can get virtually on top of a radio-tagged fish.
Of the 10 muskies tagged almost three years ago, eight are still being tracked. One died over the winter, and another was lost to the project after it managed to swim up the locks to Mooney’s Bay.
“What’s neat about muskies is the people who fish for them,†said Cooke. “It’s very specialized. You can’t just go to Canadian Tire and get a container of worms and fish for muskie.â€
To fishing buffs, the presence of muskie in the canal is also no surprise. Eastern Ontario is muskie central and the region has more per-capita muskie clubs than anywhere else.
The thrill of muskies, “the fish of 10,000 casts,†is all in the catching and not in the eating — they’re released as soon as they are caught.
Hedrik Wachelka, chairman of the Ottawa chapter of Muskies Canada, caught his first canal muskie by a fluke in 1964 at the age of 13 while fishing with a worm as bait. The muskie was 29 inches long. Wachelka was hooked.
“For a little boy, it was mammoth.â€
He has since caught a muskie 531⁄2 inches long on the Ottawa River near Arnprior. The provincial record was a 58-inch fish caught in Georgian Bay.
“I think the big thrill is the size,†said Wachelka, a retired public servant who says only about six people regularly fish for muskies in the canal. It take a lot of patience — experienced canal fishermen report it takes on average seven or eight hours to catch a muskie.
It was the Ottawa chapter of Muskies Canada that provided $3,000 in funding to allow students to track these fierce predators.
While doing a census of winter-killed fish at Dow’s Lake, Cooke and Wachelka found a 51-inch muskie.
Muskies, like sharks and other predators, are important in the structuring of food webs. And just because they’re top of the food chain doesn’t mean they’re indestructible, says Cooke.
In the Kawarthas, for example, some conservationists fear that the northern pike, a cousin of the muskie, has taken a bite out of the muskie population. Pike hatch earlier and eat young muskies.
Cooke has never heard of anyone getting their toes nibbled by a muskie while dabbling off a dock.
As for catching sight of one of the canal monsters, you just have to know where and how to look. Cooke walks home along the canal and in the warmer months will often see one just below the surface, sunning itself.
The radio-tracking project is wrapping up soon. Cooke says the lifespan of the batteries in the transmitters is almost up.
Wachelka believes knowing more about the canal’s muskies will help to protect them. “These are wild animals. It’s a bit of wilderness right in the middle of the city,†he says.
“They’re susceptible to what man throws at them — polluted water or invasive species or what’s done to the water levels.â€
© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen
E
4-foot-long lunkers lurk in our canal
Up to 60 muskies enjoy city section of the Rideau
By Joanne Laucius , The Ottawa Citizen
March 3, 2009
OTTAWA-As far as freshwater fish go, the muskellunge is a tiger — a voracious top-of-the-food-chain predator that ambushes its prey, either swallowing it whole or cutting and tearing it with one lethal bite.
And some of these leviathans —some over four feet long — live in the Rideau Canal. In the winter, their metabolic rate drops and their digestion slows down. When the ice goes out, they spawn in flooded areas.
The eggs, about the size of a pencil eraser, adhere to vegetation and hatch before the water recedes. When the canal is drained in the fall, the muskies head back to Dow’s Lake.
Muskies usually eat other fish, but they they have been known to eat snakes, small mammals and the occasional duckling, says fish ecologist Steven Cooke, who estimates there are 50 to 60 muskies between Hartwell Locks and downtown Ottawa.
“They’re not afraid of anything. They need to eat frequently. And large meals.â€
When Cooke arrived at Carleton University four years ago, he started casting around for a local fish population for a research project. Then he heard about the muskies in the canal, right beside the university.
Bluegills, yes, and bass. Carp, certainly. But muskies?
“I wasn’t surprised. There tend to be animals in places you don’t expect. It’s one of the few urban muskie fisheries in the world,†said Cooke, a self-described “fish nerd†whose work has taken him from studying chinook and sockeye salmon around dams in B.C. to the Bahamas in search of barracuda.
Cooke and his students radio-tagged 10 muskies caught in the canal, a procedure that included sedating the fish in an anaesthetic bath, then surgically implanting a thumb-sized transmitter, which has an antenna that protrudes out of the side of the fish.
In the summer, the students can bike or Rollerblade to “find†the fish as they range around the canal. In the winter, the trackers can get virtually on top of a radio-tagged fish.
Of the 10 muskies tagged almost three years ago, eight are still being tracked. One died over the winter, and another was lost to the project after it managed to swim up the locks to Mooney’s Bay.
“What’s neat about muskies is the people who fish for them,†said Cooke. “It’s very specialized. You can’t just go to Canadian Tire and get a container of worms and fish for muskie.â€
To fishing buffs, the presence of muskie in the canal is also no surprise. Eastern Ontario is muskie central and the region has more per-capita muskie clubs than anywhere else.
The thrill of muskies, “the fish of 10,000 casts,†is all in the catching and not in the eating — they’re released as soon as they are caught.
Hedrik Wachelka, chairman of the Ottawa chapter of Muskies Canada, caught his first canal muskie by a fluke in 1964 at the age of 13 while fishing with a worm as bait. The muskie was 29 inches long. Wachelka was hooked.
“For a little boy, it was mammoth.â€
He has since caught a muskie 531⁄2 inches long on the Ottawa River near Arnprior. The provincial record was a 58-inch fish caught in Georgian Bay.
“I think the big thrill is the size,†said Wachelka, a retired public servant who says only about six people regularly fish for muskies in the canal. It take a lot of patience — experienced canal fishermen report it takes on average seven or eight hours to catch a muskie.
It was the Ottawa chapter of Muskies Canada that provided $3,000 in funding to allow students to track these fierce predators.
While doing a census of winter-killed fish at Dow’s Lake, Cooke and Wachelka found a 51-inch muskie.
Muskies, like sharks and other predators, are important in the structuring of food webs. And just because they’re top of the food chain doesn’t mean they’re indestructible, says Cooke.
In the Kawarthas, for example, some conservationists fear that the northern pike, a cousin of the muskie, has taken a bite out of the muskie population. Pike hatch earlier and eat young muskies.
Cooke has never heard of anyone getting their toes nibbled by a muskie while dabbling off a dock.
As for catching sight of one of the canal monsters, you just have to know where and how to look. Cooke walks home along the canal and in the warmer months will often see one just below the surface, sunning itself.
The radio-tracking project is wrapping up soon. Cooke says the lifespan of the batteries in the transmitters is almost up.
Wachelka believes knowing more about the canal’s muskies will help to protect them. “These are wild animals. It’s a bit of wilderness right in the middle of the city,†he says.
“They’re susceptible to what man throws at them — polluted water or invasive species or what’s done to the water levels.â€
© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen
E
