This fishway now permits trout access to the superb spawning beds upstream. The fishway also acts as an excellent means of evaluating the populations of rainbow and brown trout found in Lake Ontario. For more pictures or a virtual tour of the fishway, click here. A fishway can be made in many ways. The Ganaraska Fishway is a pool and weir style consisting of a concrete channel ninety feet long and five feet wide.
Baffles divide the area into nine pools each of which is about one foot higher than the former.
The water flows from pool to pool. The fish are attracted to the tunnel by the fast flowing water. The trout can easily manage the steep, initial jump although coarse fish such as carp and suckers become discouraged. Likewise, sea lampreys have the ability to swim up the strong current leading to the tunnel but these parasites are prohibited entrance into the tunnel by a steel plate which they can not climb over. The carefully constructed design of the fishway purposely selects the preferred or desired species access to the upstream of the Ganaraska River.