Salmon Hunt

Looking for Salmon in Toronto’s Don River

Day 1 to 20

Sept 20 - Nov 18

Day one - September 20 2021

Monday morning 6:30 wake up. I'm a night person so waking up this early isn't something I like doing, but I did. I packed my gear the night before and, being honest, I probably overpacked just because I don't know what I'll want or need.

note about the gear. I'm also trying to make this into a video but I do most of my Vlogging off a GoPro Hero 5. I also want to get some shots of me biking, some POV and try for some underwater, so about half the gear is GoPro stuff that will be culled down as the week goes on.

Grabbed my stuff and jumped on the bike and rode off to a little spot along the trail that I normally use as my break area. Locked my bike up to the railing and set the camera up. The sun was just coming up over the highway bank and was creating harsh highlights. It made for some interesting images

Ended up talking with a few dog walkers that asked if I was out looking for salmon. I replied that I am, one said that she had see one over the weekend and this got my hopes up.

I went back to where my bike was and ended up talking with an older man for probably 15-20 minutes. We talked about the river, what we've seen in it (he said he's a fisher), and I got some more advice on when the best time to see salmon would be. He also said he saw one the previous weekend, so I know they come this way, it's just waiting for them now.

The advice I've gotten from several people is:

The best time is early in the morning before the sun has time to warm the water

After a cold night will make them more active the next morning

After a storm when the water level is higher

These are the three things that have been repeated to me when I talk about this subject so I guess it's just a mater of going out until I find what I'm looking for

Day 2 - September 21 2021

I biked out again and it was lightly raining today so got all dressed up in my rain gear and you guessed it about half way there it stopped raining.

I'm not sure if it's the same for all rain gear, but mine gets hot so by the time I got to my spot I had worked up a sweat.

I went to the same spot as yesterday and found the same guy I had talked with. He said he had already been there for a while and hadn't seen anything. We talked while I took the rain gear off and set the camera up, then he rode off.

I set the camera up in video mode and got some B-roll of the river. I like these video clips more than yesterday's because today it was cloudy and the light was softer. I didn't get any harsh highlights like I did yesterday.

No luck seeing anything again…

I came to the first little fork in the path: the left take you over a bridge and the right takes to you a path that is often flooded by the river. They both meet up again on the other side, but I took the path on the right, looking for another simple long exposer photo.

Well, I found a composition I liked and a bunch of plastic bottles in the river. Now I've started carrying a set of small metal tongs and some garbage bags for this reason. Why? I enjoy nature and I don't want to see if filled with trash. But here's what made my day while I was picking up trash I set the camera up to do some video. I figured in might be nice for some B-roll in the video I'm making about all of this. When I turn back around, right in the little path way is a Great Blue Heron… and I didn't want to bring the 100-400 with me this day. Switched lenses and took some more shots as well as some video. I thought that my day would be over when someone's dog ran into the river and scared the heron off, but it didn't go far and I got some more shots of it sitting in a tree. I'll be honest, I lost track of time photographing this bird and probably spent close to two hours watching it until it finally flew off. Yes, I got some video of it catching fish.

I heard a screech from above the trees and tried to quickly grab some shots of what I assumed at the time was a hawk. It wasn't until I got home and reviewed my photos that I realized that it was a Turkey Vulture. I have never seen one of those in the city.

Day 4 - September 24 2021

You guessed it! Back to the same spot, and once again no luck finding fish.

Wasn’t prepared for it to suddenly fly away

I did set up for the heron again and it was on the other side of the river. Unfortunately another photographer showed up and decided to walk though some bush to try to get close and that scared it off. I understand that I'm on a public trail. but it's still frustrating when I was waiting for close to an hour for the heron to come out from the shadows of the trees and into the light and in two minutes it's gone because of someone else…

That was the end of my day. The heron flew off and I couldn't see where it went.

I biked home but I went down river this time. I tried looking for another spot where the salmon could be grouping. I might have found one area, but it's under a heavy tree canopy and only has one good spot to capture an image. In the spot I was before, I have several areas to capture them.

Day 5 - September 27 2021

I think I saw one today! It was quick and it happened while I was getting my gear ready so I'm not sure if it made the jump or not. Besides that one moment I didn't see or hear anything else.

I did pull the wide angle macro out and took some photos of a snail though.

I also brought the water cage for the GoPro and the selfie stick. I tried putting in the water to see what I could see. The water was really cloudy and I could only see maybe a foot or two in front of me. Going to have to find the floaty and some rope, toss it further in the river see if that works…

Day 6 - September 29 2021

I was under 10 degrees last night so I have high hopes for today.

And they paid off! I was setting the gear up just as one was attempting the jump and maybe 20 minutes later, I saw a few others snake up the rapids, and just like that I'm sure there are four fish in the area just before the jump. I actually ended up talking to a bunch of other people who where biking or waking the trail they stopped and waited for a while. I met the same man who I spoke with on one of the earlier days and he stayed and watched for a while.

Not knowing when the fish would jump, I made the choice that I would try for video. I could set it up and every few minutes, I would start a new clip. If I didn't catch anything on the previous clip, I would just delete it. I don't need dozens of clips of the same shot where nothing is happening. This method paid off. I ended up catching several jumping attempts and I say 'attempts' because I didn't see any fish actually make the jump.

It got to be past 11am and I had not seen any activity for a while. I guess the fish had lost their energy and stopped trying. Before left, I watch a couple of men try fishing the area. I have to look it up because I didn't think you could fish this area during the season. (answer here)

I spoke with another fisherman on his bike, and he seemed to think it was fine in this area and also salmon wouldn't be going for bait this time of year. Regardless, they didn't stay very long. Amateurs aren't very patient. After 5 minutes, I moved 20 yards up; 5 more minutes and another 20 yards up river until I lost sight of them.

Day 7 - September 30 2021

Bringing my father with me today seeing as he has the day off work and we don't get many chances to spend time together like this. Had a nice bike ride out to my usual spot. Just as I was setting up, from down river the Great Blue Heron took off and flew up river. That was nice to see first thing in the morning.

Unfortunately that was it, we spent the next two hours watching a river with no fish. I guess it was a bad sign when the bird that spends most of its day fishing leaves.

Oh well, it was still a nice ride and I got to spend time with my father

Day 8 October 4 2021

I'm not going out on weekends anymore, it's just too busy. It also rained over the weekend and I didn't feel like biking out in the rain.

Unfortunately, today wasn't much better. You would think that the higher water would make it easier for the salmon to make the jump, but no. No sighting today either.

I did talk with another cyclist who comes to see the salmon. He said that a few years ago the salmon were jumping just about every day and you could come down anytime and see them.

So I'm wondering, what's happened to them?

Based on my limited research, salmon take the same river and return to the same area they were born in.

I did end up taking a nice bike ride though Taylors Creek and got some nice early autumn shots. Another week or two and the tree will look beautiful.

Don River after a storm

Day 9 October 6 2021

I'm sure its not uncommon but I saw a Cormorant in the river today. I've never seen one this far up the river before. They normally stay down by the Lake.

Besides this Cormorant, it was another quiet day. I also couldn't stay long this day as I had another job I had to get to.

Its also been warm this week. Remember, everyone I've talked to has said that a cold night is best and on the days that I have seen salmon, the nights have been around 10 degrees. This weeks the lowest has been 15 degrees.

Day 10 October 7 2021

I arrived at my spot to find another cyclist there who says that one just made the jump…

As I'm setting the camera up another one tries, but didn't make it. I know there's one in the river now. I'm also making the decision to go for photos instead of video. I put the 100-400mm on the camera so I can get a tighter shot, I'm changing the focal length up between 100 & 200 through out this shoot.

I have to tell you, trying to capture a photo of something that's only above the water for a second or two is really hard. The fish tried multiple areas along the rivers step/ledge and trying to move the camera up and down along the river even just an inch the fish has already made its jump and you miss the shot. There ended up being two fish in the river, one big one small. They both looked like they just didn't have the energy to make the jump. The first few attempts were good and really close, after that they looked like they were just hoping out of the water. They didn't make it higher than the ledge. After almost an hour of no activity I decided to pack up. The area was also getting busy, normally when I leave it's just me and maybe 2 other people. Today, there were almost a dozen people watching.

Day 11 October 11 2021

for an unknown reason I’m missing this day

will update latter but I don’t think I saw anything of interest

Day 12 October 13 2021

It was Canadian Thanksgiving over the weekend so I didn't go out. It was also a long weekend so I had a few days off from salmon hunting.

This week I'm going to try and go out during the evening and leave around 3 or 4 pm.

Today I arrived at my usual spot around 4pm and found a few other cyclists waiting there. I asked if there are any fish jumping and one woman said "Yes, I think there are 2 and they're both quite active". I pulled the tripod out and set the camera up, trying to get it into video mode as fast as I can.

Guess what? Just as I'm about to hit the record button a large Salmon jumps out of the water and soars over the jump. It was awesome to see, and did I capture it? NO of course not! Literally a half second late on hitting the button!

I ended up waiting around for almost 2 hours with no signs of activity so I slowly packed up my gear and took my phone out to grab a quick insta story post and

BOOM! SALMON BURSTS OUT EASALY MAKING THE JUMP!

Me: "F##king Fish!"

At this point, another photographer pulls up and asks me if I've see anything. My phone is still in my hand at this point. We talk for a few minutes, he tells me about some of the wild life he's seen in the area. Seems like evening is a better time for wild life. Then he tells me there are some salmon spawning down river, so… I'm off down river.

Found them! I spent about a half-hour watching these two salmon. Got some photos and video of them splashing around. Wish I had a polarizer for this lens. It would have taken the glare off the water and made the images that much better.

When I was done watching salmon have sex, I decided to ride up though Taylors Creek. Glad I did too because I found the Blue Heron, photographed him for a few minutes, and then the same photographer rode back up and quietly called out "Heron?" I replied yes. He got off his E-scoter and pulled his camera out and said that he'd been looking for the Heron.

I'm glad he got the shots he was looking for and again I didn't get his name…

This evening was successful so I'm going to try and do some more evening trips.

Day 13 October 18 2021

Went back out in the morning, this time to find another cyclist taking a break and watching for salmon. I talked to him for a few minutes while setting up and he said that he's been watching one for a few minuets now. Well, I had my gear set up by about 8:45 a.m. and around 9:00 a.m. the fish tried again. I decided to go for a full river shot today with my focus point in the middle of the river at f 14 to try to get as much in focus as possible. There are pros and cons of doing this, but the end result worked I got a few shots of the Salmon jumping up the river!

A couple of quick pros and cons to doing this:

Pros:

I can set the camera up on a tripod with a remote shutter and sit down or talk to someone.

Similar to the one above, I don’t have to be constantly looking through the viewfinder or back LCD.

Cons:

I have to constantly have the remote shutter in hand, which has a slight delay (mine may just be old)

If the Fish jumps on either the far or close side it will still be blurry

Results:

So things worked out! I got some shots of fish, they are a little blurry, but I think that may be more of a shutter speed issue.

I forgot how fast these Salmon move…

Day 14 October 19 2021

Went out in the evening today, I'm also trying my 100mm Macro lens this time. Why? Because it’s the only lens I have that fits my polarizer filter (58mm and yes, a new polarizer in on the shopping list) it did take the glare off the water, so that’s good, but I think it was too dark outside to make any real difference. I’m going to have to try this in the morning if I remember.

It was a good test but I didn't get any photos of fish jumping. I did get some video clips though.

After watching for fish I took the bike down a trail and along Taylors Creek. I didn't see any other animals of note. The only thing I found out is that if I'm going to do a trail at night again, I'm going to need brighter bike lights. It was really hard to see that night.

Day 15 October 20 2021

Another day another evening to go out and look for salmon!

You can probably tell how successful today was based on how short this entry is…

Not a lot of activity today. I got to talk with a few other photographers who where taking advantage of the above seasonal tempter this evening and other then that, I tried out the same set up last evening. 100mm with the polarizer on it. While the sun was out it looked like it was working well, but as soon as the sun went down the water just looked black. Again, there wasn't much activity tonight. I’m wondering if the activity level dropped because of the above seasonal temperature.

Day 16 October 21 2021

Today was interesting. When I arrived, I talked to a man walking his dog and he pointed out a fish behind one of the rocks. I thanked him and quickly set up my gear in hopes the fish would jump soon. Turns out there were two fish! I'm excited now.

Guess what?

Neither of the fish jumped… They both kept circling the area before the jump. I'm still not sure what they were doing but they ended up swimming over the the fallen tree and eventually slipped back down river. They were most likely looking for a place to spawn, but all I could think was that I just watched fish swim in a circle for almost two hours…

I did get some photos and video of them, so some success today. This would have also been the place to test the polarizer if I hadn’t left it at home today.

Day 17 October 22 2021

Just my luck, I get there just as one's jumping over.

The lady I spoke with said she thinks there were three trying right then, minus the one that just made it over, so two more to go. I set up and start the long wait. I'll be honest, I'm writing this a few days later so I don't remember what distracted me, but I must have been looking away or maybe trying to vlog about what I'm doing, because one jumped and it was the quietist jump I have ever heard. If it didn't splash at the end, I wouldn't have known it had jumped.

I must have waited close to 40 minutes for the third fish to jump or, at this point, show any sign that it’s in the water. I got tired of waiting and was looking to photograph some birds by this time so I started packing up. At this point I'm also thinking that the lady I spoke to this morning miscounted and there were only two fish. I've packed up all my gear and I was just getting on my bike when BOOM! Fish jumps out of the water.

I'll be honest with you, I gave the fish the finger and rode off.

Day 18 October 27 2021

I left around 10 a.m. this morning and it was cold after a little rain the night before but I think it felt colder because the last few day were above 15 degrees and peaking at 20 most of the week. I've over-packed my camera bag and my bike bags today. Why? Because I'm testing to see how much I can carry and how many things I can do in a single day. But you've come here to read about my Salmon hunt so let’s start with that. You know the drill: bike out, set the gear up, and start waiting. Well I didn't have to wait long today. About 5 minutes after setting up I saw my first fish jump. Today I'm using the Tamron 100-400mm and I'm shooting in live view. This way, I can keep both my eyes on the river and use my peripheral vision to move the camera up or down depending on where the fish jumps. I didn't check what I got on the first jump. On the second jump I was slightly higher than the fish and only ended up capturing the splash it made. The third, and what ended up being the final fish of the morning, I only got the tail end of. It was so fast and unlike the last ones. It jumped right out of the water and didn't touch the small waterfall at all. It got to be around noon and I hadn't seen any more activity so I packed up AND BOOM!

I'm joking! No fish jumped just as I was riding off this time.

all most made it

Just missed it

For the rest of the day I rode up river, stopping to take some autumn tree photos now and then. The photos aren’t anything special, more like a snap shot that I could have taken on my phone, but I had the camera with me so why not use it? I also ended up picking up a lot of trash I found on the side of the path. I ended up biking to the Don River West Branch and stopped at E.T. Seton Parking circle to take a few photos. I was quite disgusted at the amount of garbage I found there. It looks like someone had a camp fire party the night before and just left everything there and thrown quite a bit of it deeper into the woods. This right here is one of the reasons I over packed my bags today. I spent a good 20 minutes filling my trash bag (check the pic below): pop bottles, beer cans, foam takeout trays, and just so much garbage… The worst part is that there are City Garbage and recycling bins placed all around the area and it took me under a minute to walk to one and then a few more to sort though everything I had just picked up.

Most days I ended cleaning the area I'm photographing just because I can and I have the time. I'm looking to do more trash clean up while I'm out photographing nature, and I might make it into a short YouTube videos or maybe just some TikToks… I wonder if I could make it into a challenge or something.

And if you made it this far, remember that first fish I tried capturing? It’s the best image of a salmon I've taken all season. Check it out!

Salmon Jump October 27 - 2021

18 days of attempting to photograph salmon and I finally got the image I was hoping for

Day 19 November 4 2021

Little late posting this one but here we go!

It's getting late in the season so my hopes are not very high right now. I set up at the regular jumping spot like I've done just about every other day and waited for the salmon. Then I asked in the new Facebook group if anyone has seen anything recently. Well, what do know? A few people said that they’ve seen a couple of jumpers over the weekend.

So I'm sitting. Waiting. Waiting some more. I have the 100-400mm on today and I take some photos of the local ducks while I wait.

After almost an hour of waiting, I walk down river to where I've seen some salmon spawning, and what do you know I find a few spawning!

It's not very exciting to watch salmon spawn. One rubs its belly on the river bed, then the other comes to check it out; it splashes around and the first comes back to splash around as well.

I watched these salmon for about half an hour before moving on up river to look for other spawners. I found a few more, a couple hiding in the shadows, and others right under the sun. Both are quite hard to photograph.

I watched these ones for maybe fifteen minutes and then spent the next several hours photographing birds. Well, trying… The Kinglet I really wanted to photograph kept moving just as I focused on him. Lots of blurry kinglet photos I now have to look through…

The most exciting thing that happened was when I was riding home I checked in on the spawning salmon again. Just to see if anything had changed, and as I was taking the last couple of shots of them the Blue Heron flow in front of my shot.

Yes I got photobombed my the Heron

Day 20 November 18 2021

Big date jump I know. I've still been going out but haven't had any luck since the last entry so I think I'm going to call it.

This will be the last entry of my salmon hunt for 2021.

I have learned a lot though and met some awesome people.

Most of what I learned was just about salmon and the Don River itself, but there are two lessons I'll share with you. The first is patience. Some days I stood or sat in the same spot for hours waiting for the darn fish. The second is never take your eyes off the subject area. Every time I looked away to talk with someone, boom! Jumping salmon.

It was an interesting experience, definitely looking for salmon again next year and will plan out my trips a little more and try to make it down to the Humber River. I probably wont go out as often either, as you can tell from the blog entries, I'm quite behind on posting. I also had plans to make a YouTube video for each week as well. That hasn't happened yet…

Oh well, I'm going to end it here before I start to ramble. I hope you enjoyed reading this and hopefully you'll consider going out to watch the salmon next season as well!

Closing thoughts & what I’ve learned

Let me start off by saying this was my first salmon run and everything was new to me.

Why did I decide to do this?

Well for starters, one of my dreams is to be a professional nature and wildlife photographer. One of my high school teachers (who I still keep in touch with) keeps bugging me to go check it out. And finally, I've been pretty much unemployed since COVID hit (Spring of 2020) so I've got the time.

Now what did I learn on the photography side of this experience? Let's start with some general things:

Shooting on a bright sunny day = Bad

Shooting on a cloudy/overcast day = Good

There are a few reasons for this but the general ones I have are that bright sun creates harsh highlights and often parts of my water were blown out. The location where the fish ladder is located is also half under a tree canopy, so finding a balance between the two is a challenge. And yes, you can fix it in post but I don't want to be maxing out sliders. It's always better to get it in camera and tweak it in post.

The next thing I leaned is that salmon jump fast and without warning, making it difficult to get them mid-jump. 90% of my images are just splashes, but some of them do have a blurry fish in the splash.

What did I lean about the salmon and the Don River itself?

Well, let's start with a salmon's life cycle.

They start as "eggs" then hatch in to "Alevin" where they will feed off the yolk sac. Then they become "Fry" and they're about 5 to 10 weeks old at this point and quite small. After this, they become "Parr" and at this stage in life they start developing the 'finger marks' adult salmon have. At about 1-3 years old they become "Smolt" and at this stage they group up and head back out to sea. Or in our case, Lake Ontario. They stay in a group until they become "Salmon". From what I've been reading they stay in a group until there 3rd or 5th year of life and then venture off to do salmon stuff (I don't know what salmon stuff is, I just assume they have things to do). A salmon will live up to 8 years before returning to the same stream or river it was born in to repeat the process.

During the salmon run you can often find salmon spawning in the river. I ended up watching this for several hours during my trips out. The female is the one who makes the 'bed'. She's often seen rolling on her side against the river bed, trying to move rock away or push them deeper in soil to create a flat area that she'll use to impress the male. Or you might see her swimming in circles. If this is the case, she's either waiting for a male or more likely she's guarding her eggs with what little time she has left.

Salmon only live a couple of weeks after spawning.

Final note: not all salmon die after spawning. There are many different species of salmon and this is just general information on them.

What did I lean about the Don River?

This will mostly be legal information about fishing regulations and I'm not going in depth on any subject here, but if you would like to read more, links will be provided throughout this section and at the bottom!

Let's start with some general info from Ontario Fishing Regulations:

The Don River is part of the Fisheries Management Zone 16 (Zone 16 Link)

Yes, you can fish the river, and according to the City of Toronto you can eat what you catch. Quick personal note: I've been volunteering with "Don't Mess with the Don", which is a local group that has community clean up events and seeing the garbage that I've pulled out of that river, I would not be eating anything that comes out of it.

Now for some more legal information about fishing in Ontario:

To legally fish in Ontario you need an 'Outdoors Card' and to in order to catch and eat the fish you catch, you will need one of two types of 'Fishing Licence'. There are several exclusions for needing this and if you would like to learn more check this link "Licence info Link"

Zone-Wide Seasons and Limits

Like everything, there are limits to how much you can catch and when you can catch. Let's go over some quick examples:

Crappie - Season: Open all year - Limits S-30 and C-10

Pacific Salmon - Season: Fourth Saturday in April to September 30 Limits: S-5 and C-2

Full List here

S and C are the different types of licences I mentioned above

Fish Ladder/Jump:

The one in the Don River was build a number of years ago to keep invasive species from swimming too far up the river. It's also the best place to watch the salmon jump, but we know that already. In Ontario you can NOT fish within 23 meters downstream from the lower entrance to any fishway, obstruction or leap.

and this is going to be the end for the 2021 Salmon Hunt. Hope you enjoyed reading this adventure, I plan to do it again next season.

Also check out the Insta Page of the photographer who gave me advice though out this adventure

https://www.instagram.com/beautyofthedon/

He has great Wild Life images

and If you would like to lean more about what I’ve quickly covered above

Please check out these links below

Zone 16 management

https://www.ontario.ca/page/fisheries-management-zone-16-fmz-16

https://www.ontario.ca/document/ontario-fishing-regulations-summary/fisheries-management-zone-16

Don River Fishing Summary

https://www.ontario.ca/document/ontario-fishing-regulations-summary/recreational-fishing-licence-information

Licence info