Of all the hardships that anglers associate with opening day of the trout season — high water, lethargic trout, snow, crowds — one item that does not normally make the list is being able to walk from your house to the Bowmanville Creek. Yet the many creeks in Clarington have earned a distinction as being the closest legitimate trout streams to Toronto.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Canadian and U.S. agencies stocked more than 8 million fish into Lake Ontario. Because of this aggressive stocking program, during the spring and fall, fish run up our streams offering shore bound anglers a chance at catching the trout or salmon of a lifetime.
Prior to the destruction of the Vanstone Dam, fish had no way of getting past it to get to the pebbly spawning grounds up stream. This created a pool that held thousands of fish. The Ministry of Natural Resources used us to capture these fish and lift them above the dam. Nowadays, a fish ladder helps to maintain fish stocks.
Comments are often made by our town folk, that they cheer for the fish. And it is truly amazing that the fish can make it past the hundreds of hooks that are cast into the water on opening day of fishing.
