TORONTO FISHING SPOTS

This popular city park on Lake Ontario is located near the intersection of Lakeshore Road and Kipling Avenue, in Toronto’s west end. Created from landfill, it fronts the site of the former Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital and the RL Clark Filtration Plant. A Humber College campus is also located nearby. The fully-accessible park provides ample parking and is well served by public transit.

Colonel Samuel Smith Park offers seasonal fishing opportunities along the Lake Ontario shoreline. A long peninsula shaped like a backwards letter C extends from the park’s eastern boundary, creating a lagoon that contains a sizeable marina. The protected waters in the marina bay are home to bluegill, punkinseed, yellow perch, brown bullhead and carp. The shoreline rocks on the lake side of this peninsula provide opportunities to catch carp, freshwater drum, largemouth bass, smallmouth bass and pike. Given the peninsula’s height above the water line, a long-handled net is advantageous here, particularly when fishing the lake side.

The large bay located along the eastern park boundary contains good numbers of largemouth bass, small pike, carp and a variety of panfish. It offers good fishing through the summer months (particularly in early summer before the weeds grow too thick). It is best fished from a small boat, although caution is prudent given its exposure to the open waters of Lake Ontario. On calm summer mornings, look for fish to hide in the shade of weed walls scattered all through this area. Dropping a weedless jig down the shady side of the weeds can produce exciting action.