Apparently the Lakes around Halifax were once brimming with trout, and salmon was also common in nearby rivers. Upon the arrival of European settlers, sportsmen emerged among the British officers stationed in the city. Local historian Mike Parker describes as much in his book Guides of the North Woods:

In 1784, a sportsman fishing near Halifax landed 150 trout in one and a half hours. Lieutenant Francis Duncan of the Royal Artillery wrote in 1864, ‘There is hardly a stream and never a lake … in all the myriad lakes of this country where fish do not abound.’

-Mike Parker, Guides of the North Woods. Halifax, NS: Nimbus Publishing Limited, 2004) 2.

Halifax’s Trout Lakes in the 18th Century

I was visiting Long Lake the other day with Woods and Lakes Society, and I was happy to see fish jumping in the water; I even made a remark about it in my notepad:I also came across a contemporary sportsman; he was fishing and I decided to interrupt him to ask what species were in the lake. He said there were trout and bass. On the hike home, I noticed another sportsman fishing. So after all these years, there are still trout in the city, but clearly not as many as before— neither fisherman was getting any bites.