Batchawana River

The Batchawana drains a long stretch of the Algoma highlands and reaches Lake Superior at Batchawana Bay, about an hour north of Sault Ste. Marie on Highway 17. Its name comes from the Ojibwe for the swift water at the narrows off the bay. For steelhead the fishery is the lower river, from the bay up to the falls, about 12 km upstream. Lake-run rainbows come in from late April through May, and again from September, when steelhead and salmon gather off the mouth and move up after fall rain. Far upstream, Batchawana River Provincial Park protects a 13 km canyon and wild brook trout.

The lower river is a wading river. Steelhead hold in the deeper holes on the outside bends and at the heads and tails of the runs, and they sit shallower at first and last light. Drift a nymph and an egg pattern near the bottom, or swing streamers on an 8 weight. In the fall, when low water keeps fish out of the river, they can mill off the mouth for weeks, and casting from the beach on the bay is a real option. The gauge near Batchawana, just above the falls, reads the river. It rises and colours fast after rain on the highlands, and it fishes best on the drop.

Below the falls a brook trout must be over 56 cm to keep, from the fourth Saturday in April to Labour Day. Rainbows are two a day on a sport licence, but wild steelhead are worth releasing. Batchawana Bay Provincial Park, just west of the mouth, has a beach and picnic area, and Sault Ste. Marie has every service. The Chippewa and the Goulais are short drives south if the Batchawana is out of shape.