Smallmouth bass
Excellent
The prime season: tubes, crankbaits and topwater along the rocky points and breaks.
Grand River Fishing Report
Updated Fri, Sep 25, 2026 from live weather and water data
The Grand River: brown trout below Shand Dam, smallmouth through the middle and walleye and steelhead near Lake Erie, with a live gauge at Brantford.
2/5
Slow. Work for them.Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing.
Level
0.24 m19.3 m³/s
Air / High
22 °C / 22 °C
Wind
NNE 15 km/h
Sources: Water Survey of Canada station 02GB001, Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.
Today's Fishing Report
Grand River sits in the warm band: moving baits and fish on the edges. The gauge reads 0.24 m, easing 0.07 over the week. Today brings clear skies, wind NNE around 14 km/h, rising pressure near 1024 hPa and a high of 22 °C. Water sits around 19 °C for the season (estimated). With the full moon, the solunar majors run 10:25 AM-12:25 PM and 10:25 PM-12:25 AM: the windows to build the day around.
Walleye (pickerel)
Excellent
Jig and minnow along the weed edges, reefs and current breaks; troll the flats when they scatter.
Brown trout
Good
Hatches bring browns up; fish dries and nymphs in the riffles, streamers under the banks on cloudy days.
Tie on: Jig and minnow · Spinnerbait over the weeds · Bucktail fly, fast troll · Leech pattern under an indicator. Prime windows: 10:25 AM-12:25 PM, 10:25 PM-12:25 AM, 4:55 AM-5:55 AM. Similar at 23 °C. The solunar majors shift about 50 minutes later.
Before you go
Ontario requires a fishing licence for most fishing, from C$12.21. Ontario fishing licence: cost, rules and where to buy →
Chasing smallmouth bass here? Check the size and bag limits with Ontario MNR before you keep anything; the Smallmouth bass page has the seasons and the tactics.
Fishing times for Grand River today
Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today from sunrise (07:11), sunset (19:12), the moon and today's score. Tap a bar to see why.
Bite planner
Solunar majors 10:25 AM-12:25 PM and 10:25 PM-12:25 AM; minor 4:55 AM-5:55 AM. Full Moon, 99% lit.
Water and weather
Live readings from Water Survey of Canada station 02GB001 (GRAND RIVER AT BRANTFORD).
River level, last 30 days
Water Survey of Canada real-time hydrometric data, station 02GB001. Latest reading 2026-09-25 14:05.
Right now
Latest readings
Air temp22 °C
High / Low22 °C / 3 °C
WindNNE 15 km/h, gusts 21 km/h
Pressure102.37 kPa, rising
Sky / Rain0% cloud, 0%
Sunrise / Sunset07:11 / 19:12
MoonFull Moon, 99%
Water temp (seasonal)~19 °C est.
7-day fishing forecast: which day to fish Grand River
The best day on Grand River this week looks like Sunday Sep 27, at 5 out of 5, against 2 today. Every day is scored by the same engine as the report above: pressure trend first, then wind, sky and season. Pick a species and the plan for that day changes with it.
Best day this week: Sunday, Sep 27 — excellent at 5/5, falling pressure, usually the best window of a week.
Today, Sep 25 — Tough
Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing.
- Solunar majors
- 10:25 AM-12:25 PM and 10:25 PM-12:25 AM
- Minor period
- 4:55 AM-5:55 AM
- Sun
- 07:11 to 19:12
- Moon
- Full Moon, 99% lit
- Sky and wind
- Overcast, 16 km/h
- Rain chance
- 0%
Scores are a planning aid built from forecast data, not a promise.
Species guide
The species that matter on Grand River: seasons written for the Canadian year, and how to fish each one. Today's ratings live in the report above.
Smallmouth bass
Opens late June in most of Ontario; best July to October
The rock-and-current bass of the Great Lakes shores, the Bay of Quinte, the St. Lawrence and Lake St. Clair. The Ontario bass season opens in late June in most zones, after the nesting period. The prime season: tubes, crankbaits and topwater along the rocky points and breaks.
Brown trout
Best: spring and fall
The big-fish trout of the Bow below Calgary and of a handful of Alberta and Ontario rivers. Wary, nocturnal in summer and aggressive before the fall spawn. Hatches bring browns up; fish dries and nymphs in the riffles, streamers under the banks on cloudy days.
Steelhead
BC: winter run December to April, summer run into fall; Great Lakes: fall and spring
Sea-run rainbow trout, the fish of the Vedder, the Skeena system and the Island rivers in winter, and of the Great Lakes tributaries in fall and spring. In BC wild steelhead are released; a steelhead conservation surcharge applies on top of the licence. Fish the riffles and the heads of runs as water drops and clears after a rise.
Walleye (pickerel)
Spring opener to fall, and the ice
Called pickerel in much of Ontario and Manitoba. The fish of Lake of the Woods, Lake Winnipeg and the Red River, Lake Diefenbaker, Tobin Lake, Lake Erie and the Bay of Quinte. Most zones close in spring for the spawn. Jig and minnow along the weed edges, reefs and current breaks; troll the flats when they scatter.
When to come: the Grand River calendar
Activity by species and month for the Canadian year, and how the water warms and cools. Tap any cell.
Species activity by month
1 = slow, 5 = peak. Current month highlighted. January is midsummer here.
J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Smallmouth bass
Brown trout
Steelhead
Walleye (pickerel)
SlowPeak
Water temperature through the year
Typical surface temperature for this water type in degrees Celsius; today is around 19 °C (estimated, not a reading).
Angler reports
Real reports from real anglers, reviewed before publishing. Nothing here is copied from a shop or a charter. The water log below tracks each day automatically.
No angler reports yetBe the first: your report helps every angler who checks Grand River today.
Water log, last days
Auto-logged from live dataThu, Sep 24
4/5 Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up. Smallmouth bass led the card at excellent. High of 19 °C, wind to 21 km/h.
Wed, Sep 23
2/5 Slow. Work for them. Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing. Smallmouth bass led the card at excellent. High of 19 °C, wind to 29 km/h.
Tue, Sep 22
3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Smallmouth bass led the card at excellent. High of 17 °C, wind to 27 km/h.
Before you go
Licence
Outdoors Card and Ontario fishing licence, from C$12.21 for a resident adult, with higher prices for other Canadians and visitors. Details and where to buy →
Regulations
Size and bag limits, closed seasons and protected areas are set by Ontario MNR and, in salt water and for salmon, by Fisheries and Oceans Canada, and change: confirm the current rules on the agency page linked from the Ontario licence page before you keep anything.
Access
An Outdoors Card and an Ontario fishing licence are needed; the special rules for the trout water and the zone limits are linked below.
About this water
Grand River is a river in Ontario, Canada, covered from the Ontario reports and listed in all Canada waters.
Fishing Grand River: the full guide
The Grand River
The Grand River runs about 300 kilometres from the highlands near Dundalk through Fergus, Elora, Kitchener-Waterloo, Cambridge and Brantford to Lake Erie at Port Maitland, a Canadian Heritage River with three very different fisheries along its length. The Water Survey of Canada gauge at Brantford supplies the level, the flow and the 30-day chart on this page.
Species and seasons
Below Shand Dam near Fergus, the cold tailwater holds a well-known brown trout fishery; the middle river around Cambridge and Brantford is smallmouth bass water in summer; the lower river below Caledonia and Dunnville has walleye in spring and steelhead in fall and spring from Lake Erie. Ontario’s zone seasons and limits apply, with special rules on the trout water.
Where to fish it
The trout water between Fergus and Elora is waded and fished from the bank, the middle river is floated and waded for bass, and the lower river is fished from boats and from shore near the dams and at Port Maitland. The Caledonia and Dunnville dams mark the lower river, where the walleye and the steelhead gather below the barriers.
Planning a visit
The river is within an hour or two of Toronto along most of its length, with parks and access points maintained by the Grand River Conservation Authority. The Elora Gorge is a popular summer spot for tubing. Paris and Brantford have river access points.
The water through the year
Spring runoff raises the river quickly; summer flows are supported by releases from the upstream reservoirs; fall rains bring the steelhead up the lower river.
Reading this report here
The gauge at Brantford shows the flow of the middle river; the trout water above has its own flow from the dam. The chart shows the last 30 days; pressure and sky build the score.
Licence, access and rules
An Outdoors Card and an Ontario fishing licence are needed; the special rules for the trout water and the zone limits are linked below. Our Ontario licence page has the fees.
Common questions
Is there trout fishing on the Grand River?
Yes, a brown trout fishery in the cold tailwater below Shand Dam near Fergus.
Where does the Grand River meet Lake Erie?
At Port Maitland, below Dunnville.
Is the Grand River good for smallmouth bass?
Yes, the middle river around Cambridge and Brantford is smallmouth water in summer.
Is fishing good at Grand River right now?
Check the daily report at the top of this page: it is regenerated every morning from live data. Today's read: Slow. Work for them. Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing.
Nearby waters
Where this page's numbers come from
- Water level and flow readings
- Environment and Climate Change Canada, Water Survey of Canada real-time hydrometric data, station 02GB001 — GRAND RIVER AT BRANTFORD
- Open-Meteo forecast model
- https://open-meteo.com/
- Fish stocking
- Ontario fish stocking report
- Moon and solunar windows
- Calculated on this site
- The written guide on this page
Pablo Ruiz Quintero
Readings refresh on a 30-minute window. The full method, with every figure and its source, is on How our reports are made. Something wrong here? Tell us and it goes in the log with the date.