The 401 - Southern Ontario

So this summer Alexis and I decided to plan a lifelisting trip into southern Ontario to track down a few species we had yet to catch. As road trips in southern Ontario tend to go, we essentially planned a road trip down the 401. I didn't take many scenery photos (there isn't much to see), but here's some of the fish we caught!

The first stop was in Guelph where we met up with fellow lifelister Ken to try for some new darter species in a local river. The water was cold and clear, and micros were everywhere. We easily caught Rainbow and Blackbanded Darters, and then spent some time focusing on the more picky Greenside Darters. Eventually we caught all our target lifers :)

Blackbanded Darter

Greenside Darter

Rainbow Darter

Alexis also caught his lifer Fantail Darter, River Chub, and Mottled Sculpin. A productive spot, to say the least!

Next, we hit up a couple random spots and added two more new species, the Western Blacknose Dace and the Striped Shiner. Both were pretty quick to catch once we located them.

Western Blacknose Dace

Striped Shiner

We continued picking our way west as night fell, and settled into some night fishing near the spot we planned on fishing in the morning. There weren't really any lifers available for me, but Alexis managed his first Yellow Bullhead and a cool Stonecat!

The next morning, we made short work of getting ready for the day so we could start fishing as soon as possible. The first target of the day was the White Crappie, a neme-fish of mine. Alexis ended up catching two in short order, but I struggled to catch anything that wasn't a sunfish. I worked my way around the spot and finally, right before we had to leave, I caught my Crappie!

White Crappie

From there, we pretty much zipped as far west as we could without crossing borders, to fish for some rarer species out around Windsor. Quickly, we caught some non-lifer, but always beautiful Lepomids.

Green Sunfish

Northern Sunfish

Tiring with the sunfish bait-stealers, we changed focus to our real target: the Spotted Sucker. It didn't take long before we spotted 3-4 of them rooting around in the weeds. They seemed to zone in on a particular clump of weeds, before losing interest and moving on. Despite our best efforts, making an adequate presentation was difficult and they seemed completely uninterested in our baits. After following them around for a good while, Alexis finally had one up close and feeding! He presented a small redworm perfectly, and the fish took the bait! A very difficult and rewarding lifer for him.

After he released the fish, I noticed it was acting a lot less finicky than the other individuals. It was a bit cheesed, but I was able to present my bait to it quite easily and re-catch his same fish for my lifer!

Spotted Sucker

Both thrilled with our catches, we moved on to our next target in the area: the Orangespotted Sunfish. Unfortunately, this species, and most of our other targets for the day, were not to be. We spent the day bouncing between spots with muddy water an generally catching nothing of interest. In the evening, Alexis spent some more time targeting catfish and caught his lifer Black Bullhead.

We slept on the shores of Lake Erie and woke up early for our third and final day. We met up with another lifelister, Kevin, who is an Ontario fishing specialist. We only had one target: the Grass Pickerel! A species I had failed to catch many times before finally catching it's close cousin the Redfin Pickerel.

We hopped spots along a stream we knew was supposed to be full of the Pickerel, but saw little. Finally, at a particularly nice-looking spot, I hooked up on the Esox using a small panfish jig. Of course, the fish popped off on the bank and flopped back into the water before I could get my hands on it. However, we kept fishing the same stretch of water and eventually Alexis had some luck with a spinner and got his lifer. I continued with the jig and caught one shortly after as well!

Grass Pickerel

Kevin wasn't so lucky, and we soon had to leave to make it back to Montreal at a reasonable hour. We said our goodbyes and wished him best of luck. Turns out, he caught his later that very same day.

That pretty much sums up our short jaunt into southern Ontario, with only a quick stop in Gananoque left on the way home. We were looking for invasive Tubenose Gobies, but could only find tiny juveniles that we dipnetted. No hook & line lifer, yet!

Tubenose Goby