Waterway Traffic

[jimmer]

What waterway do you feel is the busiest and most dangerous in Ontario?

[Lape0019]

That's a tough question because I haven't fished many out towards Toronto. In my area, the easiest response would be the rideau river between Manotick and Burritts Rapids. The reason for this is that the river itself is not very wide. At most, the widest portion may be a bit more than half a kilometre wide. But because it is the longest stretch between locks, it gets a lot of boat traffic as well as people tubing, water skiing and wakeboarding in the channel. Around the beach, it can get really jammed up, really quick.  

[Terry]

the honey harbour area can be crazy

[Dan668]

11 minutes ago, Terry said:

the honey harbour area can be crazy

Agreed. If not out early morning in July and August, it gets hectic. 

[misfish]

Couch can be crazy.

[Woodsman]

The St. Clair river at Sarnia can get quite busy with both large lake freighters and commercial fishing boats and fishing/recreational boats. And you can add Coast Guard boats also.

[Old Ironmaker]

Anywhere on the Trent system on any summer weekend. It's the 400 series of Ontario waterways. May 24th is the worse. 

[porkpie]

Detroit River is sporty in April.

[BillM]

2 hours ago, Dan668 said:

Agreed. If not out early morning in July and August, it gets hectic. 

Yup, the channel up towards Tomahawk gets insane on some days.

[jimmer]

14 hours ago, Old Ironmaker said:

Anywhere on the Trent system on any summer weekend. It's the 400 series of Ontario waterways. May 24th is the worse. 

I rarely go out on the weekends anymore, especially on the main parts of the lakes that have the traffic flowing through the system. Tough on a smaller boat.

[AKRISONER]

gannon narrows on a saturday in the summer, holy crap.

[jimmer]

1 hour ago, AKRISONER said:

gannon narrows on a saturday in the summer, holy crap.

I remember quite a few years ago there was a guy staying at Ennismore Inn an Resort with his kids.  They were in the Narrows on a hot day.  He decided to jump over for a swim and the waves pushed the boat away from him.  His kids watched him drown. Sad Story!

You have waves coming from every direction and it extends out into Pigeon Lake up to Bobcaygeon.  Chemong can be quite crazy north of the causeway too.

People have to start being more careful with the amount of traffic on the water. There are some very fast boats out there.

[lew]

I think when you consider the large amount of boat traffic in the Kawartha's, specially on weekends, the number of serious collisions is relatively small in my opinion. 

[jimmer]

4 hours ago, lew said:

I think when you consider the large amount of boat traffic in the Kawartha's, specially on weekends, the number of serious collisions is relatively small in my opinion. 

I agree, that there doesn't seem to be many accidents for the amount of traffic. It still keeps me off the water though when it's busy.

[Squid]

K's when there is a bass tournament on.

[David Chong]

Been on quite a few bodies of water but the St. Lawrence River around Ivy Lea is insane on a weekend!

[captpierre]

Stupid crazy here on north Pigeon especially long weekends, then regular weekends mainly between noon- dinner time. Midweek in summers pretty quiet. Dead midweek in June and after Labour Day.  

Several guys speeding by in the dark without lights on last night. People never learn. 

[AKRISONER]

On 8/28/2019 at 11:06 AM, jimmer said:

I remember quite a few years ago there was a guy staying at Ennismore Inn an Resort with his kids.  They were in the Narrows on a hot day.  He decided to jump over for a swim and the waves pushed the boat away from him.  His kids watched him drown. Sad Story!

You have waves coming from every direction and it extends out into Pigeon Lake up to Bobcaygeon.  Chemong can be quite crazy north of the causeway too.

People have to start being more careful with the amount of traffic on the water. There are some very fast boats out there.

Last year running from Bobcaygeon down to the narrows it was a perfectly calm glass day, I was running back for weigh in going about 50mph we got south of big island and the entire lake looked like a wash tub, i hit a rogue double up and almost speared it going full teats. There actually wasnt a boat near me for at least a kilometer in any direction. In a small 14 foot or less tinner you wouldnt even be able to drive it easily even if its glass. It gets that weird glass chop where theres 3 footers everywhere.

Edited September 3, 2019 by AKRISONER

[G.mech]

 

The middle of the freighter channel on the Detroit River can get busy at times.  

Edited September 3, 2019 by G.mech

[misfish]

Does everyone out there usually get along ? Or do they start to play  bumper boats ?  And I will presume,everyone moves for the big guy. LOL

[dave524]

What are they fishing for, looking at the graph in the lower left, there are fish stacked from top to bottom..... Silver Bass ????????????????

[Garnet]

And we go to boat school to know freighters have  right of way.

I've been on most of these water body's and they are all crazy.

The thing that confuse me is Quinte when everywhere you look is a swan that Trenton area is crazy.

 

[G.mech]

2 hours ago, misfish said:

Does everyone out there usually get along ? Or do they start to play  bumper boats ?  And I will presume,everyone moves for the big guy. LOL

It's surprising but everyone seems to get along okay as you drift downstream, at least for the most part.  If anybody gets out of line they just get a walleye tossed into their boat to help sooth them.  It's the knobs that drive upstream though the pack at half throttle that upset people.  It's a total sh!t show at times but it's actually kind of fun once in a while.  

     The freighters get on their horn and are pretty intimidating so everybody seems to give them adequate distance as they steam through the fleet.   Note I didn't say safe distance, only adequate....