Fishing Hot Spots

Lake guides for this map

Month-by-month patterns, fish, ramps and rules for each water:

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Fishing Hot Spots by area

Headlands, ledges, islands, harbours and the offshore banks. Tap one to fly to it on the map.

Giant bluefin off PEI and Cape Breton, stripers in Fundy, groundfish on the banks

The Maritimes are home to some of the biggest Atlantic bluefin tuna on earth. From late summer into the fall, giant bluefin of 500 to over 1,000 lb feed in the Gulf of St. Lawrence off North Lake, PEI, and Port Hood, Cape Breton, and licensed charters take anglers out for catch-and-release fights. The all-tackle world record, a 1,496 lb bluefin, was caught by Ken Fraser in 1979 in St. Georges Bay, Nova Scotia.

Inshore, mackerel run all summer off every wharf, pollock and cunner live on the rocky headlands, and striped bass follow the huge Bay of Fundy tides into the Minas Basin and the rivers. Offshore, the Scotian Shelf banks hold haddock, cod, pollock and Atlantic halibut, with blue, porbeagle and mako sharks along the edges.

Rules: Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) sets the recreational seasons and daily limits for groundfish (cod, haddock, halibut) and striped bass, and they change by region and year. Recreational bluefin tuna is catch-and-release only, with licensed charters. Marine protected areas like the Gully and St. Anns Bank have closed zones. Check the DFO Maritimes or Gulf region rules before you go.