St. Marys River revisited...

Tom Whalen and I hired guide John Guiliani to show us the ropes (or I should say rocks) fishing the St. Marys rapids on the Canadian side of the river. I should count this another river in my quest even though I fished the St. Marys in June. The rapids is nothing like the outflow below the power plant and the approach to catching the Atlantic salmon entirely different. Each time I cross the bridge into Canada I wonder about the fishing below. From the bridge the river looks almost too shallow to fish, but there is always one or two fisherman down there casting away. We parked in a public lot in front of the old post office building at the Canadian locks, crossed the catwalk and headed down a well warn path to the access point just downstream from the bridge. The river here is divided by a cement wall running the length of the rapids. We crossed the swift but shallow water to the wall wading just above a series of 3 large boulders. Once on the wall we walked up to the dam which regulates Lake Superior flow into the river and the lower great lakes. I casted crank baits while Tom floated spawn. When this failed to produce, John walked us down the wall to the first hole where we both floated spawn down through the swift current. We had a strong east wind so John advised against fly fishing, opting to use a spinning rod rigged with a hard rubber "bottom bouncer" and 4' of leader to fresh spawn bags. The rubber ball weight is preferred to the classic dangling lead because the bolder bottomed river is notorious for hang-ups. We each managed to momentarily hook up with a fighting Atlantic but not long enough to enjoy the effort. Tom landed a small rainbow. The Atlantic's were occasionally jumping all around us but the east wind had made them finicky. The holes can be fished from above or below, but John advises not to get seduced into walking too far out into the rapids. We fished 3 holes and although we didn't land a big Atlantic in fall colors like we had hoped, the experience was well worth the effort. We left thinking we could do this on our own and will certainly do so the next time we pass this way. The pink salmon run should be in full force when we come up in September to fish the Garden River. John says a good day can produce dozens of Pink Salmon on the fly rod. Discounting guide talk by half that still sounds like a fun day.

According to John a good fall trip would be to fish the St. Marys in the morning for pinks and then drive up to the Chippewa River to fish King Salmon in the afternoon.

Weather: Sunny, cool, strong east wind
Access: Canadian SOO locks