bronte in the old days

[fishinguypat]

i always wondered how were things at bronte at this time...iheard it was really good

[Guest ThisPlaceSucks]

in the 80's the mermaid fishing was incredible...

damn snaggers!

[l2p]

I for one am very interested about this, i have come across many guys on the river that have told the same story of how awsome it use to be back in the day. im sure theres a couple older folks on here that could show us some old school eye candy!!

[solopaddler]

Nothing much changes I'll tell you that, crowds have always been horrendous.

Lots -o- pic's but no scanner so you'll have to wait for that..

 

(And yeah unless you've got a legit report the bronte threads are a bit tiresome)

[BITEME]

Well I can tell you having grown up on the creeks in oakvile and fishing and playing in them since I was 5

Salmon fishing was awesome, used to sit under the old arch bridge with my dad and get everything . The salmon fishing in the fall was fantastic dont know if anyone remembers the old flat fish they had 4 hooks on them 2 at the front and 2 at the back and it was like a spring steel wire seperating them .

any way used to go up in the canoe with my Dad and Uncles and fish on the big turn in bronte it was pretty quiet back then as I got to my teenage years the amount of fishermen increased and with that came problems

Garbage drunks vandles and alot of people that just didnt give a firetruck .the reason for making it a sanctuary wasnt so much the fishery but the 2 footed menace on the shore lines with a flagrant disregaurd for nature and property owners .

The garbage was phenominal, peoples fences were ripped apart for fire wood and pretty much any tree within 25 feet of the shore was consumed I was sad when they closed it down because in fact it was part of my heritage but I also knew it had to happen to save the area.

I really like the decision they have made to keep people of the shore and only make it a boat fishery. May be down the road they could put 50 numbered posts in and sell tags for 1 week of fishing per tag and run it for 6 weeks you fish for a week you get what you get and go home with a little bit of policing I think it would work great

Anyway theres my rant and I was there through the whole thing.

 

KEEP IT CLEAN

 

BM

Edited October 13, 2009 by BITEME.Esq

[l2p]

I was aiming more at photos from any lake o trib from back in the 80s, i think it would be cool to see

how people, gear, apparel and the fish looked before as compared to now you know what i mean?

[craigdritchie]

The biggest difference between then and now is that 25 years ago, Bronte Creek had about twice as much water in it as it does today. So the pools were all MUCH larger and deeper, and there were many more of them. Even the shallow riffles were deep enough to hold fish all day long, and there was no shortage of deep undercuts and runs where you could always find unmolested steelhead and browns.

 

Today, most of the smaller pools are long gone, and the bigger pools that do remain are nowhere near as large or as deep as they used to be. Those undercuts and runs that always held steelhead don't exist anymore either. Now they're all silted in. By building all those subdivisions in north Burlington, Waterdown and beyond, land developers have lowered the water table and cut the amount of water flowing into Bronte Creek by half. The river current isn't strong enough to clean sediment out of the pools anymore, so it just piles up and the pools slowly fill in.

 

Back in the 70s, even a light rain shower would send chinook charging upriver all the way to Lowville. Today, even after a torrential downpour there's so little water in the creek that they barely make it to the QEW.

 

The end result of all this is that where you might have had maybe 20 or 30 spots to fish over a given kilometre of river back then, today, you have maybe only four or five. Sure, there were heavy crowds fishing Bronte back in the 70s - there were just as many people as today - but because there were so many more spots to fish you could always find a place to drift. With more water in the creek, fish - and anglers - could spread out. But it's no longer like that. Now, fish and fishermen are all crammed into a few shallow spots. So the fish are pretty much permanently spooked. That makes it really hard to catch them.

 

You know what? I can say exactly the same thing for pretty much every single stream that flows into Lake Ontario. They all used to be much better places to fish than they are now, mainly because they were bigger and deeper, with more consistent water levels and thus many more spots that would hold fish. Thank you, urban sprawl.

 

I have lots of old Bronte and Credit photos, mainly colour slides and b&w prints. I'll see if I can find time to scan some just for fun.

[davew3]

I do remember back in the "old days". I had heard that there were salmon being caught at Bronte. So being only 14 (1974), my friend and I talked his mother into driving us.

 

We went to Petro park and were amazed at all the vehicles. From Ont. the States and Quebec. Guys were staying in campers and vans.

 

It was teaming rain and the creek was a river. The water was just below the top of the bank, so about 5 -6 ft deep right across.

 

All we were doing was dropping in right against the shore and letting it drift down. I was using worms.

 

Well on drift number two don't I hook into one. It dragged out, then came back, and then turned down. But by then a guy just down had a long handled net and the fish ran right into it.

Caught my very first salmon. Later on lost another.

 

So the appointed time came to go to the parking lot and my friends mom was there. She took one look at the fish and said "That's not going in my car" A gent in the lot had a big green garbage bag so we bagged it and put it in the trunk. We had salmon steaks for days.

 

The water level back then was amazing. No wading then. Now it is barley a trickle. Sad to see what goes on.

 

Ah the good old days.

Edited October 13, 2009 by davew3

[tributaryhunter]

I DON'T KNOW IF ANYBODY REMEMBERS HOW STACKED IT WAS BACK IN 2000 THE THIRD WEEK OF SEPT DID'NT HAVE TO MOVE FROM POOL TO POOL AFTER THAT IT WENT DOWN HILL.