Credit River

The Credit runs about 90 km from above the Niagara Escarpment near Orangeville, through Caledon, Brampton and Mississauga, to Lake Ontario at Port Credit. It holds two fisheries less than an hour apart. Up high, around Cataract, the Forks of the Credit, Belfountain and Inglewood, the river and its West Credit branch hold native brook trout and wild brown trout in cold, clear water. Upstream of Old Baseline Road it is catch and release for trout, with artificial lures and one barbless hook. Down low, through Streetsville and Mississauga, the river takes runs of Lake Ontario steelhead, chinook and coho, and lake-run brown trout. MNRF stocks rainbow trout into the Credit every year and chinook in most recent years, and a fish ladder at Streetsville moves fish upstream.

The upper river is small, technical wading water. The hatches run from Hendricksons through May to sulphurs in late May and June, then Isonychia from June into September, tricos in August and hoppers late in the summer. Read the Boston Mills gauge for this water: wading is easiest from about 2 to 6 m³/s, and past about 12 the river is high and coloured. The lower river is a steelhead river. Fresh fish come in the spring and again with the cool rains of fall, and the water below Highway 403 stays open through the winter for anglers who like clear water and few people. Chinook and coho run into the lower river from late August into October. Swung flies, nymphs and egg patterns all work. Read the Streetsville gauge for the lower river: it fishes from about 3 to 10 m³/s and is blown out past about 20.

The Credit runs through one of the busiest parts of Canada, and the rules change by the reach. Below Highway 403 trout and salmon are open all year. From Highway 403 to Britannia Road in Streetsville the river is open only from the fourth Saturday in April to August 14. Britannia Road to Highway 407 is open from the April opener to December 31, and from Highway 407 up to Old Baseline Road the season ends on September 30. From Old Baseline Road up to Highway 9 the river closes from October 1 to the April opener. Expect company on weekends and near the parks. The Credit is also a target stream for Lake Ontario's Atlantic salmon restoration, so release any Atlantic salmon you hook. Drift Outfitters in Toronto sells steelhead and trout gear, and River Run Guiding swings flies for steelhead on the Credit.