The Rideau River takes its name from a “curtain of water,” the waterfall where it drains into the Ottawa River in the nation’s capital. “The Rideau’s got bass, pike, pickerel and musky,” says staff at Canadian Tire in Kempville. “Your best bait is pretty much spinners and plastic.” The river has a sandy bottom with very few rocky structures along a stretch known as Long Reach, from Burritt’s Rapids to Manotick, they say. This section is the longest stretch of the river that does not have a lock on it. Angler’s Atlas member Alex Nutt has fished the Rideau River extensively, and offers this report: Rideau Muskies 101 Muskies for many are the prized sportfish of the Rideau River. Difficult to catch, they also put up impressive fights and are known to snap off many walleye and bass angler during the summer months. If you plan on targeting Muskie this year make sure you have the proper tools first and foremost. Muskie can reach sizes longer than 50” in the Rideau so you will want a sturdy heavy-action musky rod equipped with a baitcasting reel, capable of holding 80-100 braided line. You will also need long forceps for unhooking Muskie as they have very sharp teeth, and bolt cutters for cutting the hooks on deeply hooked fish or for when the barb has hooked into a sensitive area such as the eyes. Other crucial investments are large basket style nets that are rubber coated to protect the fish’s slime and a bump board for quickly measuring a length of your catch. Finding Muskie is always challenging, however on the Rideau river we are blessed with a very large population of them, and there are certain techniques you can use to improve your odds. In the spring I will generally never use lures over 8”, as they are recovering from the spawn and want the easiest meals they can get. As the season progresses into summer I start using larger lures and retrieving them at higher speeds. In fall I will use my biggest lures and sometimes slow down my retrieve. Fall is when the biggest and fattest Muskie are caught in the Rideau, due to the fact that they gorge themselves prior to winter, when they hardly feed at all. If I had only one lure to use all season on the Rideau I would use the jig-a-beast 8” swim jig from ERC. You can burn this lure in quickly, and even if you are fishing from shore you can get following fish to commit without doing a figure 8 by dropping it down into the rocks or bottom and twitching it to get the tail moving. Other great producers on the Rideau are Suicks outside of large weedbeds with current, and later in the year Bulldawgs and other large rubber bait near drop-offs to shallow bays produce well. Always be on the lookout for deep pockets near shallow structure and current. Muskie like a good variety of habitat in their range. If a prime spot looks like it has all these ingredients, it probably holds Muskie. Don’t be discouraged if you don’t catch one in several attempts, you can always return to promising locations during peak moonphases, or just as the sun is setting to get the ones with lockjaw to commit. Some areas to try: Mooney’s Bay, Hogsback Falls, Manotick, the Jock River Mouth. Good Luck and tight Lines RIVER ACCESS Part of the Rideau Canal in certain sections, the river connects several lakes in the area. A fee is charged for use of the lock system. To reach the Rideau River, travel south from Ottawa on Highway 416. There is a boat launch at Curry Park, on Kemptville Creek. This creek runs into the Rideau River. There is no fee to launch there. Rideau River Provincial Park also has a good boat launch. There is a fee to gain entrance into the park, and it may not be suitable for larger boats. The Reeve Craig launch is free. Reportedly this is a popular launch, though it is not paved. Kars Public Wharf and Kars Recreation Area both have no fee for their services, though the parking at the recreation area is closer to the launch. There are several more free launches, as well as several paid marina services.

Hello everyone! We are now three months in to our project and we have tagged just over 1,000 fish! We have been thrilled by the number of people who have been reaching out to us to let us know that they have caught one of our tagged fish, or to learn more about the project. We really appreciate all of you taking the time to contact us. It is anglers like yourselves who are helping to make this project a success! Now that it is the end of July, we wanted to give you all some quick facts about our project so far. Total number of fish tagged: Over 1,000! Number of different species tagged: 9! These include black crappie, bluegill, brown bullhead, largemouth bass, northern pike, pumpkinseed, rock bass, smallmouth bass, and yellow perch Waterbodies that we have tagged fish in so far: 7! These include Big Rideau Lake, Clear Lake, Indian Lake, Lake Opinicon, Lower Rideau Lake, Newboro Lake, and the Rideau River mainstream Total number of fish reported that were re-captured by an angler: 40+! Interesting facts from the project so far: - Recaptured fish have been 74% largemouth bass, 17% smallmouth bass, and 9% northern pike -75% of the recaptured fish were released, 25% were harvested Remember, any time you reach out to us and let us know you caught one of our fish, we can send you the history of that fish. So you can learn where and when it was originally tagged, the size at capture, and if it has been caught previously! We will also enter your name in a draw for the chance to win a $200 gift certificate. Stay tuned for more updates!

Thank you for exploring our research! We began our 2018 tagging program about a month ago and have focussed much of our research on the Rideau River system, particularly in the areas surrounding Big Rideau Lake, near Smiths Falls, ON. To date we have tagged just under 900 fish, including: -Largemouth bass -Smallmouth bass -Northern pike -Bluegill -Pumpkinseed -Black crappie ... and more! We have been thrilled by the number of anglers who have reached out to us to let us know that they caught our fish. A highlight of this research is being able to engage the community! If you're curious to learn more, or see a video of how we tag the fish, you can check out our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/CookeFECPL/

Hello everyone! We are thrilled to partner with Angler's Atlas to help report the capture locations of tagged fish. If you are fishing in the Rideau system and come across a fish that has an identification tag, we would love to hear from you!