Quinte Fishing

Well, made our way down to Quinte from Niagara on Friday morning, Jan 9th. Obligatory stop at Pro Tackle for some bait, then off to Aikins, our last stop in January of 2014 where we were met with moderate/good success. On this occasion however, maybe due to a prolonged cold front or general fish snobiness, things were different. Ice conditions were excellent with approximately 6-7 inches of hard fresh ice. We made our way out to 14 FOW. Fished from 9-530, iced 3 walleye, 1 approximately 4lbs which we kept for the table, and 2 dinks. Not what we expected after double digits last year with some slobs. We did catch 50-60 perch, with the majority in the 6 inch range.

Day 2, made our way to the "slow long road" across from Huffs, proceeded to 26 FOW and set up shop. Really slow morning bite with 3 dink walleye being landed, and only a few fish being marked throughout. High winds and cold temps made it tough to prospect however we did fish a variety of depths from 26 up to 12 FOW. Shallow water brought on a bit of perch bite, but all small. At approximately 3pm we started marking some fish. Unlike the morning bite where you could play the eyes, only to have them leave after a few minutes, this time they actually tore 2 minnows off. I managed a small 16 incher, before seeing another decent mark appear on the screen. I played the fish for a minute before it stole my minnow. (gold mr champ, single minnow) I continued to work the fish and managed to hook up. I played the fish up to the hole where a single head shake crushed my dreams of pictures of a trophy fish!! I did get to watch him slowly meander down to the bottom through the glass clear ice of my hut. Like all other fish that "get away" this monster was in my estimation 10 + lbs.

Ice at our day 2 location was approximately 5 inches, good hard black ice, no pressure cracks to be seen. We did see a fair share of huts towards Shermans and Huffs. These crowds thinned mid day however.

So, in all a bit of a disappointment, however I cant wait to get back and try my hand at these trophy walleyes in an awesome body of water!!

As a side note, stayed at the Travelodge on #2, good clean room, decent continental breaky. Ate at a BBQ shack in Belleview which was excellent.

Great report. Thanks

Hope to get my trophy pic next week. Can't wait.