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Ottawa River (Ontario) — a spot well known among anglers. About 55 km long. Flows into Lake Erie, Lake Erie drainage basin. Nearest town — Ottawa. This page shows an hourly bite forecast for today and the week ahead; the algorithm factors in the weather, atmospheric pressure, and the moon phase.
Recorded 16 catches here. Most commonly caught: Bluegill, Channel catfish, Smallmouth bass. Peak season: June–August.
Choose a fish to see its hourly forecast, catches and BiteGuide.
The bite is moderate — fish feed in short bursts. Pressure is rising — activity tends to be more subdued.
Best time — 07:00–08:00 (dawn bite) and 20:00–21:00 (dusk bite).
Work the cover — snags, weed edges, hole entrances; retrieve the lure with pauses.
In clear water, natural colors work best: salmon spoon or salmon fly.
Pack transitional-season clothing — mornings and evenings are chilly.
An average day — best chances during peak windows.
The computed water temperature is around 17 °C — warmer than the 4–14 °C comfort range for Atlantic salmon: in the heat it drops deeper and feeds less often.
Atlantic salmon works the twilight: the peaks are pinned to sunrise and sunset — their times are in the sun-and-moon card above.
Pressure is flat: it moves no more than 1 hPa over the day, so the weather isn't shifting today's bite.
One more input — the moon's feeding windows: within their hours the score sits higher than across the rest of the day. The window times are in the “Solunar feeding periods” card below.
September is an active season for Atlantic salmon here.
These are the same values the bite curve above was computed from. How the forecast works
Clear · feels like +21°
The day is 3 min shorter than yesterday.
Sunshine hours count direct sun only — cloud cover cuts it, so it is shorter than daylight.
The windows are set by the moon's transit and rise, and the forecast above already accounts for them: within these hours the bite score sits higher than across the rest of the day, while the day's overall level still comes from the catch-calibrated model.
What are solunar periods?Measured river conditions are available for Ottawa River: current gauge height, streamflow, and water temperature when reported by the source.
USGS gauge OTTAWA RIVER AT BRITANNIA, 19 km away · measured 2026-09-02 09:35 · data source · provisional data, subject to revision
BiteGuideFrom anglers’ reports
This is a summary of anglers' reports, not a proven cause of the bite: conditions lining up does not mean they drove it.
vertical axis — number of catches
| Value | Catches | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Bluegill | 6 | 38% |
| Channel catfish | 5 | 31% |
| Carp | 1 | 6% |
| European eel | 1 | 6% |
| Pike | 1 | 6% |
| Smallmouth bass | 1 | 6% |
| Yellow perch | 1 | 6% |