Montreal’s Lachine Canal now a popular fishing spot [Video]

Live music pulses through the air as Henry Leung casts a lure into the murky waters of the Lachine Canal at a site wedged between a noisy festival and the high-rises of Montreal’s Griffintown neighbourhood.

It’s no bucolic day on a lake, but Leung says there are plenty of fish to catch in the heart of the city, ranging from bass and walleye to the large muskellunge — or muskie — which can grow to 125 centimetres long in these parts. 

“It’s a really great activity for learning how to be patient,” Leung said of fishing. “It’s not always going to happen, it’s not always going to work out, but if you put the time in it, eventually it will.”

Leung is one of many urban fishers dropping a line into the Lachine Canal, undeterred by floating garbage, the roar of passing traffic or the layer of contaminated sediments at …