Northern Pike
Orchard Pond is the pike pond — and the busy one. It's where Credit Valley drops rainbow trout each spring for the put-and-take season, and it's where the resident northerns live all year. It's also the only water here you can paddle: carry a canoe or kayak down from the lot, or fish the pier. That mix of stocked trout and standing pike gives early season its edge.
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Pike at Ken Whillans are an Orchard Pond fish, and the pond's dual role shapes the year. When the spring trout go in, resident pike are sharing the same skinny water — an early-season overlap worth knowing.
Through spring, summer and fall, work the weedy edges and shoreline where a pike can hang and ambush; the shallow, warm pond gives them cover and forage in the same places. The real advantage over the bass pond is access: Orchard Pond takes carry-in canoes and kayaks, so you can leave the pier and cover the shoreline a cast at a time.
Don't plan a winter trip, though — ice fishing is not permitted at Ken Whillans, so the pike season effectively ends when the park closes for the year.
Structure
The RMA's pike water, and the only pond open to boats — carry a canoe or kayak in from the parking lot, or fish the small pier. It doubles as the spring-stocked rainbow trout pond, so early-season anglers share the water.
Regulations
This is a summary, not the legal regulation — confirm current rules with the official source before fishing.