“Oh, definitely,” enthuses Natalie Émond, vice-president of marketing for Pêche Blanche Ice Fishing Village. “Weekends are quite busy, and we recommend that people make reservations in advance. On a busy weekend day we might have as many as 400 people here.”

It’s a simple matter of location, location, location. Which in this case is the Clock Tower Basin in the historic Old Port, a ten-minute walk from Old Montreal’s Champ de Mars metro station. The proximity is not lost on Pêche Blanche’s rapidly expanding patronage.

“We see real fishermen, the ones who come at 7:30 a.m. and stay all day, but they’re not the norm,” says Émond. “It’s mostly families and tourists, people who would normally take their car and drive an hour and a half in order to go ice fishing.”

“People are mostly fishing perch and walleye, and we had a pike come out last Saturday, which was the first of the season. And a lot of burbot as well.” Er, burbot? “It’s not a very nice looking fish, but apparently it’s very good.”

But can you eat ’em? The answer is yes. And no. While there are several species of fish that are only catch and release – sturgeon, muskellunge and catfish primarily – there are numerous others, including perch, walleye, pike and the aforementioned inglorious burbot, that are yours for the keeping. And to answer the bigger question, yes, they are safe to eat.

“The fish are definitely edible,” says Émond. “[Journalists from] La Presse came and caught a few fish and brought them back to the Université de Montréal to have them analyzed and the mercury in the fish was way, way under the government norms for edibility.”

The Ice Fishing Village is open every day until 8 pm, Sunday to Wednesday, and until 11 pm Thursday to Saturday. And for the nervous among us, have no fear. “The ice is 23-inches thick at the thinnest,” reassures Émond. So no need to worry about taking an impromptu winter swim in the boat basin? “Absolutely not!”

A

THE DETAILS

Pêche Blanche Ice Fishing Village, Clock Tower Quay, (514) 284-3456

The post ICE FISHING HOT SPOT IN THE OLD PORT appeared first on Tourisme Montréal Blog.