Fishing is so basic in Canada!!!!

Currently in Canada working and let me tell you the fishing over here is so primitive and basic. It is literally 90 percent spin gear with some fly fishing)!

Canada is full of lakes and fantastic fish species (despite the ridiculous names), but all the gear is just spinning stuff. Go to any fishing or outdoors store and it's all spinning gear, no float, feeder or ledgering rods. I didn't bring any of my kit with me so I'm stuck with a telescopic spin (majority of rods are telescopic) and some lures, and just catching the odd pike or Zander, or Walleye as they call them here

European methods would completely dominate if they employed them.

I lived and worked in Canada twice over a 4 year period and exclusively fly fished as what we know as coarse fishing virtually doesn't exist.

There are some wonderfully scenic places to fish there and without usually having to travel too far. Whereabouts are you?

I lived in Ontario for 8 years & the fishing was amazing really. Yes most of the fishing is either lure fishing or fly fishing, but that's all you need to catch the better quality fish - as the Canadians see it. Very few fish for carp, suckers (barbel) or catfish, mainly channel catfish I think they are, with Dew Worms similar to our lobbies. Much more fun fishing for Largemouth Bass, Smallmouth Bass, Walleye, Pickerel, Pike, wild Rainbow trout, Lake Trout & Coho Salmon.
Just embrace the way the Canadians fish & what they fish for, I enjoyed it & I'm sure you will too!

There isn't a great deal of interest in non-predatory fish in North America, hence lure fishing and fluff chucking dominating. I suspect that if I could catch an awful lot more fish locally on such methods, it would actually be a real Billy bonus. No bait to buy and store, an awful lot less gear required and preparation time being minimal.

North American fishing might sometimes seem a little primitive to many UK coarse anglers. However, I really think that's more to do with our perceptions of such methods, particularly of lure fishing. Most North American anglers find our styles of fishing, and especially the species we are fishing for, to be very strange.

Much as their culture is quite different to that of the UK, so is their fishing. There's plenty of good logical reasons for that being the case. Them being a bit primitive with their fishing styles isn't really one of them.

I've been Bass fishing in the USA and caught one or two other things whilst trying. The gear I was given was a lure rod with a few lures and a basic float set up with a tub of worms. it is great fun and I can understand why it is so popular and they don't bother with general coarse fishing.
I watched a program, not that good but anyway it was a competition between a group of anglers all from different styles, there was the fly guy, lure guy, big fish sea, beachcaster, bow fishing etc. etc. One guy specialised in European style fishing and he was the odd one out.

sam vimes said:

Them being a bit primitive with their fishing styles isn't really one of them.

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Perhaps "limited" would be a better term than "basic"?

dangermouse said:

Perhaps "limited" would be a better term than "basic"?

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Perhaps, but even that implies that they are missing a trick somehow when I doubt they are. It's more akin to how UK fishing might be if all we were really interested in were salmon, trout, pike and perch. Throw in much larger expanses of water, and huge land areas too, and UK fishing might resemble North American angling a bit more.

I've fished in BC with canadian anglers and found them to generally be great brothers of the angle and very good at what they do, which is generally lure and fly fish. I don't think that you could have beaten them using bait against their methods and why would you want to? If we had the fish stocks they do, I think that we would fish the same. It's not so much primitive as extremely effective!

Only time we used bait was for Sturgeon.

Best fishing I have ever experienced.

Stu

sam vimes said:

Perhaps, but even that implies that they are missing a trick somehow when I doubt they are. It's more akin to how UK fishing might be if all we were really interested in were salmon, trout, pike and perch. Throw in much larger expanses of water, and huge land areas too, and UK fishing might resemble North American angling a bit more.

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Well, when I say limited it was more in relation to the species they fish for, rather than the methods they utilise.

Having started my fishing "career" in Canada as a 6 year old, I would cycle to the local park lake with my mates & spend all day fishing worms for carp, cats, sunfish & largemouth bass. At weekends we would drive out to the Grand River & lure fish with spinners & plugs, mainly for bass - which very quickly became my favourite sort of fishing. The bass fight really well on light tackle, with the odd pike & pickerel just for a change. The fishing is that good in Canada, especially if you have a boat or access to one, fishing the Great Lakes - Erie, Ontario & Superior - is just amazing. One evening I was fishing on Lake Superior for bass with a surface lure - Hula Popper - & it was followed to the shore by a huge pike or musky, which made a final lunge for the lure, right at my feet! An amazing sight and an amazing place. Any angler would love to spend time in Canada. I intend to return to fish for Musky on the Lake of the Woods!