Urban Fishing Adventures

I decided to fit in a quick urban fishing trip with my friend George Clark on a tributary of Lake Superior that runs right through the city of Thunder Bay. George and I had my Lund Pro Guide in the water before 7am and our first walleye in the boat about 2 minutes later, a respectable 17" fish! Now unlike a number of my typical walleye trips in northwestern Ontario, we didn't keep one fish today. The reason? Well, today we were fishing an urban river that offers fantastic fishing opportunities for a variety of fish species, in particular walleye. In my neck of the woods, we're lucky enough to have a pile of lakes that can handle fishing pressure and the associated harvest from anglers looking to enjoy a meal of fresh fish. My personal opinion on urban fisheries is to practice catch and release on them to help maintain sustainable fisheries. With today's gas prices it sure is nice to spend about $10 return trip for 3 or 4 hours of fishing (and that includes the boat gas)! The key to catching fish today was covering water with a variety of deep diving crank baits like Storm Thundersticks, Rapala Deep Husky Jerks and Berkley Frenzy Minnows. We troll these baits around 2mph on nice long, soft steelhead-style casting rods with compact line counter reels. We generally spool up with no-stretch line and a 4' leader of 12-15lb test mono or fluoro. On today's outing, brighter colours like clown outdid the more natural-coloured baits. Take advantage of your urban fisheries when you have a few hours to spare! Practice catch and release or selective harvest and you'll have a fishery to enjoy for years!