Fishing adventures on the Rideau Canal

My wife and I are giggling like kids who have stolen cookies from the cookie jar. Her light spinning rod buckles as she fights a largemouth bass. It’s her fourth in a row on casts to a grassy hump on beautiful Sand Lake. “I could do this all day,” Sue says, as she boats the fish. Without missing a beat, she removes the jig, releases the bass, and makes another cast. I watch her line as the light jig sinks, then hits bottom in eight feet of water. A warm June breeze sends ripples across the lake. Then, a largemouth jumps out of the water. In its mouth is my wife’s jig, and as I turn to her, she gives me a mile-wide smile, the kind one gets from a spouse who’s out-fishing you. I twitch my jig to pop it off the grass. Moments later a fish inhales the bait. “Double header,” I say, getting back in the game. “Triple header,” Sue says, pointing at a loon surfacing with a beak full of Sand Lake sashimi. I look over my shoulder. A storm looms at the far end of the lake. I watch the thick, grey clouds, wondering if they’re coming our way or pushing southward and away from us. I’m uncertain, but estimate we’ve got another 30 minutes before we need to make the stay-or-go decision. Below the billowy clouds a pristine cedar boat weaves its way through green and red navigation buoys, and I watch it until a bird of prey catches my eye as it swoops down and lands on a pine tree set in an island of metamorphic rock. Sue setting the hook into another bass pulls my attention away from the postcard scene. Such is the experience of fishing the beautiful Rideau Lakes. Steeped in history The Rideau Canal is 202 kilometres long and connects Ottawa to Kingston. In 2007, this route, along with Kingston’s Fort Henry, became a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Site, joining places like the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, the pyramids in Egypt, and Versailles in France. Construction of the canal began in 1826 and was completed in 1832, overseen by England’s Lieutenant Colonel John By of the Royal Engineers. It was built as an alternative route to the St. Lawrence River for moving supplies, soldiers, and civilians to and from Kingston, Ottawa, and