Walleye at the Snye
One boat launch, many adventures.
I was watching some men fishing at the bank of the Snye without any luck when I decided to throw in my line. After a few unsuccessful casts - a tug.
'Do I have a fish?!' I think to myself. The fish responds with the characteristic fight of a walleye, the more coveted catch by most people in the area. As I reel in I can feel all eyes on me. 'That's right guys!' I think to myself as I pose for a picture and release it back into the river.
The Snye River. Man that brings back some memories! The river itself is a funny short stretch between downtown Fort McMurray and MacDonald Island. It, with the Clearwater River and the Athabasca surround MacDonald Island.
The sandy spit in the bottom right was a common place to hang out.
I have a ton of memories at the Snye. Fishing of course, Pike and Walleye were the main target. People would show up with these complicated looking ‘pickerel rigs’ while I’d usually keep things more simple.
Winter Crossing
In the winter the rivers freeze over. Solid. People take their cars out onto the ice for fun. Where two rivers converge there are usually places where the water ‘eddies’ or swirls around making it harder for it to freeze. Every year someone falls through and the car has to be rescued. I even crossed the Clearwater a couple of times to explore backroads on the other side. At night actually, northern lights glowing overhead.
By Boat
Friends of mine would launch their boat at the Snye. They took me fishing upriver once, bouncing up the rapids and waterfalls as we went. It was an absolute blast and we got a nice feed of fish out of it! Another time we launched from the same place and did some waterskiing. I like to think I’m part of an exclusive club of people that’ve waterskied the rivers in Fort McMurray. Great times with incredible people.
Just Float
You can also do a river float, from a part of town called ‘waterways’ and land at the Snye. I did it once and it was a lot of fun, though took a really long time and I ended up with sun stroke. The river was slow that year. As I was floating in the middle of nowhere a black bear watched us float by. A little tense but it minded it’s own business. The river is ever changing - you sometimes need to manoeuvre around sandbars that go halfway across. Or just get stuck on them and have a little dance party.
Fort McMurray is based around it’s rivers. Before oil it revolved around many different industries. Fur, Lumber, even Ice export. It’s a surprisingly fun town with a long and interesting history.