Camping and fishing without a single fish

Dunnville Mudcat won’t let you down!!

If you are Asian immigrants like me, camping isn’t in your book! But then after discovering it, I would say I missed out a lot of not trying such amazing activities. And I don’t want you to miss out as much as I did. Here is my story

Last July, my family decided to take a first camping trip to Dunnville where my friend’s relative lives there. There aren’t many people knowing about this new Ontario attraction Dunnville MudCat where Muddy, the giant mudcat , is 50- foot long, 27-foot high statue’s permanent home at Centennial Park at the western entrance to Dunnville. The importance is the camping price is very affordable compared to other places.

©Licensed under Creative Commons: Kenneth Moyle, 2006

At first I didn’t give a thought as I had a gut feeling that I wouldn’t enjoy. But then when I arrived in Dunnville, the new horizon was in front of me. It has many camping sites and lakes all around. Also it’s minutes from the beaches of Lake Erie, close to the Niagara and Hamilton regions and only an hour away from the U.S border. We decided to land in Byng Island where it has the Grand River and Lake Erie.

Let me tell you a little more of Byng island Conservative Park. It features one of Canada's biggest fish ladders, allowing lake fish to migrate past the Dunnville Dam to prime spawning and nursery habitats upstream. Moreover, it also boasts one of the largest outdoor swimming pools in Ontario that accommodates more than 1,000 people and diving board.

Few hours passed by, some of my friends got ready with his variety of fishing knots and walked us to a bridge close by to go fishing as this area is famous for Cat fish, and more than 20 species. Dunnville is also well know for Prime Fishing area where when it comes to particular seasons or holidays, people from all around near by provinces come to take sport fishing.

©Licensed under Creative Commons: michael brooking, 2009

The interesting fact that I was told sometimes they can catch constantly hundreds of fishes a day thrilled me totally. Then I started learning how to take this so - called sport fishing and the fun thing is it took me 2 hours sitting still to wait for the catch time. None of them was baited.  I gave up and looked around if anyone could get a catch. I found out many locals there who baited so many fishes while I had nothing! I got back to our campsites and start joining grilling food there. It wasn’t bad fishing experience because I was told that in order to bait a fish, it requires a lot of skills and experience in where to bait the fish such as below the bridge or around the rock in the river. However, it turned out a great experience as I learnt how to camp, how to bat and fishing guide lesson!

Dunnville has left me a peaceful impression with blue water river, large pools and the beauty sky with cool breeze.  I would love to recommend Dunnville a next stop for your summer activities or during long holidays.

What do you think of Dunnville and Byng island? Is it a good one in your list? 

Also you can take a look at my post about up coming festivals and my holiday calendar planner to start planning on from now.