Streams of Thought: Unless things change, anglers can expect extra costs, headaches crossing Canadian border this summer

The annual – mostly, but for a few interruptions – sojourn my friends and I make to Ontario to fish each spring has, over the years, come with a hiccup or two when crossing the border between the United States and Canada.

There was the delay for my brother’s high school graduation in the late 1990s. The rest of the gang apparently preferred an extra day of fishing to my swell company on the road trip, so I drove solo a day in their rearviews.

Gear and supplies in tow, I made the customary stop at the Canadian border, reported what I transporting, and was informed that the nightcrawlers I’d picked until my back ached couldn’t enter that country when packed in plain dirt: worm bedding only, I was told. (It was legal, then, to bring such bait to the province.)

Rather than disposing of the squirmy fruits of my labor, I hiked back across the Rainy River, walked down to riverside off the highway, dumped the works on the beach, and returned the crawlers to my container. Then hiked back. It’s not a short distance.

The border agent seemed unimpressed that particles of dirt still clung to my worms, but, sensing I’d learned a valuable lesson, allowed passage.

Returning to the U.S., I once pulled over at the checkpoint to eat two apples that were sitting on the dash of my truck. Little did I know that such fruit was prohibited U.S. entry, but I certainly wasn’t going to waste two perfectly good Granny Smiths.

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Over the years, our fishing party has learned much about border crossing. We know the questions that’ll be asked (firearms, alcohol, tobacco, where we’re from, our relationship to others in the vehicle, where we’re headed, for how long, etc.) We generally know what’s on the prohibition list and other new developments, mostly due in part to our resorter’s updates.

This year’s latest, however, might be a bit more complicated than just remembering to leave raw potatoes at home. The ongoing tariffs debate between the two nations appears to mean, at this moment in time, that the items we drag along – mostly food, but some other supplies, as well – may be subject to tariffs, duties, a tax. Call it what you will, but it’s an additional 25%. You can do your own math.

My resorter was one of several to alert anglers about what they might encounter upon passing into Ontario (or any other Canadian province). Additional cost is one thing; how it affects border-crossing length of time is another.

Per the resorter’s Facebook page: “Nonresident visitors to Canada (continue to) have an exemption for their personal baggage (clothes, suitcases, fishing rods, tackle, etc.) for goods suitable for the purpose and duration of their trip,” along with the usual exemptions for certain quantities of alcohol and tobacco. However, “There is no exemption for consumable items such as groceries. Traditionally these have not been an issue, as many categories of groceries are non-taxable food items.”

He said a tourism organization of which his resort is a part has appealed to the Canadian government “to request an exemption for U.S. guests on these consumables.”

In the meantime, he wrote to other resorters, “It is our recommendation that you prepare your guests by … encouraging them to consider purchasing groceries in Canada if they can. If that isn’t possible, they should plan to keep their receipts for all USA-produced consumables so they can provide it at the border if asked to pay the tariff …”

The simple days of dirty worms and prohibited apples seem now so far away.