I figured it's about time I shared some pics here.
After a few years of consistent lake trout ice fishing on Simcoe, I really wanted to change it up this winter. I have caught some walleye through the ice, but they were always unintentional catches while targeting crappie.
Having never specifically targeted these fish through the ice before, I knew that there would be a bit of a learning curve involved. My first lake trout took me a whole season and a dozen trips before I got the hang of it. I certainly hoped that this wouldn't be the case with these walleye.
Bay of Quinte was my goal this year. I have never fished it before either on softwater or hardwater, but I have seen the pics and heard reports and know that monsters lurk these waters in great numbers.
With this winter being so kind to ice anglers, I was able to get on the BoQ before the new year. My first trip out was around mid December. There was a good solid 5 inches of black ice and safe for travel on foot. A group of friends and myself made the journey and decided to fish an area that doesn't have easy access and actually wasn't fished at all since the ice was safe. Using navionics on our smart phones, we walked to areas that showed potential. Wasn't long until we started marking fish on our sonars. While it was exciting to know that there was potentially my target species swimming around underneath me, it soon became annoying when these marks weren't hitting anything I dropped down. It soon clicked in that these were dink perch and so small that they couldn't take in the lures/bait we offered. I downsized to a micro jig and confirmed that these were indeed really perch. 3 to 4 inch dinks.
We moved around a lot. It paid off for two in our group that each ended up with one walleye each. Very respectable fish. I was jealous!
The evening flurry of action started and marks appeared on my finder, and I tried different jigging and retrieval techniques to no avail. Perhaps it was my instinct to take the lures away from the fish that was ingrained in my head from fishing Simcoe too much which caused me to not hook up on this day. I left the bay with a smell of skunk - took it as a learning experience.
The second outing, I was more prepared. Watched and read many tutorials online and was more confident than ever! Me and a buddy headed out to another area on the BoQ. This area was more heavily fished and the first thing that came to mind was that these fish were really under pressure. It was boxing day and I was surprised to see so many anglers. Once again, we walked out on foot to locations that looked promising. It wasn't long before my screen was lit up. So many fish that I actually lost track of my lure. Finally a good tug and I set the hook. Relief set in as I reeled in what I thought was to be my first BoQ eye. A shiny silver sheepshead poked through the hole and I cried
. Turns out it was a big school of these fish moving through.
It wasn't until noon when I saw another mark on the screen. I knew I had to fine tune my jigging technique to keep this fish interested. The fish stuck around for a while, so I knew it was interested. Eventually the fish met my lure and all I felt was weight. The fish fought hard and went on a couple runs. I knew it was a walleye. It finally showed itself and there's nothing better than seeing a hole with a mouth full of teeth
. My first BoQ eye. It wasn't a huge fish, but I was screaming and prancing around like a little girl and surely looked like an idiot to other anglers nearby.
15 minutes later, another mark appeared on my screen and using the same jigging technique, I managed to set the hook into another fish! I am really starting to like this!
Both fish were released and I had to call it an early day. Didn't have enough time to fish the evening bite.
I was smiling the whole way home, and I wanted back at it as soon as possible. I was hooked!
A few days later, I returned and had the full day to fish. My goal now was to be part of the 10lb and up club.
It was right before the new year on Dec 29. It would be great to start the new year with a 10lb'er under my belt!
The action started early. I finally iced some eater sized walleye in the 3lb range. Wasn't long before I hooked into a massive tank that fought hard. I knew it was my new PB when it showed it's huge head. My buddy had a scale on him and we got a quick weight. 9.84lbs. Oh so close.
It was about an hour later when I had another huge fish on the line. After a quick fight, it was on the ice and I put the scale to it. Twin! It was 9.85lbs. If only this fish ate another perch before it took my lure, I'd be at 10lbs
. My buddy was sleeping in the hut, so no pics with it. Snapped a couple pics of it on the ice before I slid her back down into the depths.
I ended the day hooking and icing 8 walleye and losing a couple more. Only 2 fish were small in the 3lb range which went home with me. The rest were 6lbs and up. What an amazing fishery!
The season ends at the end of February, and I wanted to make a 4th trip out there, but it just hasn't happened.
No doubt I'll be back for more in the future!
Thanks for reading.
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