West River

The West River rises in the hills of Queens County and runs past Riverdale and Bonshaw to an estuary that opens toward Charlottetown Harbour. It is a brook trout river first, with sea-run brook trout in spring and a run of rainbow trout, half an hour from Charlottetown.

It is small, wadeable water, and it fishes the way most island rivers do. The season opens April 15 with sea-run brook trout in the lower river, the summer belongs to resident brook trout on dries and small nymphs, and the fall is for rainbows. As a rough guide from the Riverdale gauge, the river fishes well between about 0.9 and 3.5 m³/s and is high and coloured over about 7.3. After hard rain the red soil colours it for a day or two. It can warm in July and August, so fish early.

After June 1 the main river from the Black Brook junction, where Black Brook crosses the Bolger Park Road, down to Crosbys Dam is a conservation zone: catch and release for brook trout, with a single barbless fly or lure. Below the Foot Bridge on the Green Road in Bonshaw the river has an extended rainbow season after September 15. Register, keep a logbook, use a single barbless fly or barbless lure, and keep at most 3 rainbows a day. Tidal water starts at St. Catherines Bridge on Highway 9, where no licence is needed. A watershed group plans a counting fence at Bonshaw, so watch for signs.