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Eastern Ontario Fishes
Canada, as a whole, has a total of a little more than 170 species, but we have only seen about 15 species or about 8% of those 170 species. The species of fish in eastern Ontario are common in parts of the Great Lakes and some other smaller lakes in southern Ontario, eastern Québec, northern New York, northern Pennsylvania and Michigan. The species of fish discussed in this website are common in eastern Ontario. They can be caught with minnows, worms and artificial baits. Numerous other species of fish, besides those shown, are present in these waters but we have included only those species which we have actually caught. Sometimes fishermen do not know which species of fish they have caught, so some information provided can be helpful with certain identification problems.
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 The fishes of eastern Ontario live in a wide variety of habitats within lakes and rivers. Each species has a preference of habitat and 'old-time' fisherman know what species prefer what habitats. In this website we want to provide some information about the natural history, ecology and life histories of these fishes. The discussion for each species is divided into two sections, a General Section and a Life History Section. In the first section we have indicated where, in general, these species of fish live in eastern Ontario. Since some species are difficult to identify, we have included some hints on how to separate similar-looking species. In addition, we have indicated how we caught them and with what kinds of baits.
In the second section, Life History, we have included some information about their early lives in order to better understand theie natural history within our waters. Included is: information about what time of the year they spawn their eggs; if they build nests, a description of where they build them and/or lay their eggs; then we discuss the early behaviour of their babies (larvae) as they begin to move off their nests and/or spawning grounds after hatching; finally an enlarged drawing of their actual larva is presented which are, in life, only about a quarter of an inch long.
We would like to acknowledge the help of numerous publications from which we obtained information, however, much of this information has been gathered by personal experience and hard work of the fishermen/authors of this website. A few publications were especially useful, ie., "Freshwater Fishes of Canada" (by Scott & Crossman, 1973); "Identification of Larval Fishes of the Great Lakes Basin with Emphasis on the Lake Michigan Drainage" (by Auer et al., 1982); "Water Babies, Larval Fish of Ottawa and Vicinity" (by Faber, 1999); and the website of the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, http://www.mnr.gov.on.ca.
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