NEWFOUNDLAND, GASPÉ & MAGDALEN ISLANDS FISHING MAP

Fishing Hot Spots

From Cape Spear and St. John's around the Avalon Peninsula and its big bays, along the Burin Peninsula and the south coast, up the northeast coast past Bonavista, Fogo and Twillingate to St. Anthony, down the west coast, and across the Gulf of St. Lawrence to Québec's Gaspé Peninsula and the Magdalen Islands. Tap any star or dot to see what it is and what to fish there.

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Fishing & access

Marine chart layers

Parks & rules

Data rule: The offshore banks and the big bays come from the Marine Regions (VLIZ) gazetteer; the banks are general centers of large features, not pinpoints, and each star says so. Headlands, islands, harbours, slipways and marinas come from OpenStreetMap, and the protected areas come from the World Database on Protected Areas. Marine protected areas (with no-fishing zones) are shown in solid red; national parks, ecological reserves and bird sanctuaries are shown in dashed red, because fishing there follows their own rules. Every star shows its source when you tap it. BigJoe does not invent coordinates. The exact sources used on this map are listed under Map sources & checks below.
Select a Fishing Hot Spot on the map or from the list below.
★ Fishing Hot SpotBoat rampMarinaWreckObstructionRock (yellow = awash)Coral / rock bottomCanyonWeather/tide stationNo-fishing zone (solid red)Protected area, fishing with rules (dashed red)

Safety: these are planning references. Use current official charts, weather and marine alerts and proper safety equipment before heading out.

Lake guides for this map

Month-by-month patterns, fish, ramps and rules for each water:

📘 Gaspé Peninsula Atlantic Salmon

All fishing guides →

Fishing Hot Spots by area

Headlands, islands, bays and the offshore banks. Tap one to fly to it on the map.

Cod off the rocks, capelin on the beaches, bluefin in the fall

Newfoundland is cod country. When the recreational groundfish fishery is open, anglers jig cod from small boats in Conception, Trinity and Placentia Bays and all along the coast, with sculpin, flounder and cunner close to shore. In early summer the capelin roll onto the beaches, bringing cod, whales and seabirds in behind them, and mackerel and squid fill the harbours in late summer.

In the fall, giant bluefin tuna feed in the bays and the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Across the Gulf, Québec's Gaspé Peninsula and the Magdalen Islands add mackerel, cod, halibut and striped bass.

Rules: the Newfoundland and Labrador recreational groundfish fishery is open only on set dates with a daily limit, set each year by Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO). Bluefin tuna is catch-and-release with licensed charters, and Atlantic salmon and sea-run trout in the rivers and estuaries need a provincial licence. Check DFO before you go.

BigJoe’s gear for Newfoundland, Gaspé & Magdalen Islands

What BigJoe would bring to fish these waters.

MackerelMackerel trees & sabikisShop on Amazon ↗Diamond jigHeavy diamond jigs for groundfishShop on Amazon ↗TeasersCod & pollock teasersShop on Amazon ↗StripersSoft plastics for river-mouth stripersShop on Amazon ↗Jigging rodMedium-heavy jigging rodShop on Amazon ↗Reel4000 spinning reelShop on Amazon ↗GlovesCold-water fishing glovesShop on Amazon ↗Cooler50-quart fish coolerShop on Amazon ↗

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Species GuidesFish found in these waters.Weather & TidesCheck the ocean before you go.All Hot Spots mapsThe Caribbean, the U.S., Canada and South America.

Map sources & checks

Coverage
Newfoundland, Gaspé & Magdalen Islands. Mapped features come from public datasets and can be incomplete or out of date: a missing reef, ramp or wreck does not mean it is not there.
Map data
Hot spots
36 hot spots, each with its own source (tap any star to see it): OpenStreetMap mapped feature (28), Marine Regions gazetteer (8).
Protected areas
79 protected areas from the official list above, drawn in dashed red. Fishing rules inside them are set by the managing agency; check with them before you fish.
Chart layers (Charts button)
GEBCO ocean depth and OpenSeaMap buoys, lights and markers. GEBCO and OpenSeaMap are useful references, not official navigation charts.
Weather & tides
See Weather & Tides for this area: Open-Meteo weather and marine models. Tides here are estimated from a global sea-level model, not official tide tables.
Dates
This page last updated October 15, 2026. Each dataset keeps its own retrieval date, shown above.

⚠️ Planning reference only, not for navigation. Use current official charts, weather and marine alerts, and proper safety gear before heading out.

See something wrong or missing? Tell us and we will check it against the source.