Quinte Fishing

The cloudy water conditions in Wellers Bay and West Lake are common certain years. Those years that this happens there has to be some open water, some ice cover, high winds and freezing temperatures. The result is frazil ice being formed. The water is super chilled and the sediment is suspended in the water but will eventually silt out but it takes time. This only happens in these shallow water embayments or in rivers. It will not happen very often in water bodies over 20 feet as the deeper water stores heat.
I ice fished the Trent river up stream from the mouth for many years and experienced this phenomenon many many times which is called anchor ice. It is formed when the water flows over the dams and gets super chilled during really cold conditions. It also happens in the Moira River at Belleville.
I think it was around 2007 that on West Lake I had frazil ice all the way to bottom in 12 feet of water at Maggie's Island. Took 2 weeks to disappear. As soon as the water cleans up and the frazil ice melts out the bite will really pick up.

This an publication that might help to explain it better.
http://www.glerl.noaa.gov/pubs/fulltext ... 990016.pdf

The following is a excerpt from page 7 of the publication.


Ice formation and ice types
The timing of initial ice formation is dependent upon water and air temperatures
and winds. Ice crystals can form when the surface waters cool to the freezing point
and give up the heat of crystallization, if winds are calm. If air temperatures are
sufficiently low, the surface waters can become super-cooled, cool below the
freezing point of water, and individual ice crystals (frazil ice) form. In early winter,
high winds can slow down ice formation even though surface water temperatures may
be near the freezing point and air temperatures may be well below the freezing point.
Ice forms in calm or turbulent water. Ice formed in calm water is called plate or
sheet ice, and ice formed in agitated water is called agglomeratic ice.
Ice formed in calm water directly from freezing of lake waters in the absence of snow
is the strongest and purest form of lake ice. Agglomeratic ice forms from the freezing
together of individual pieces of ice of various origins, such as snow falling into the
lake (slush), frazil particles (individual ice crystals), or the wreckage of other ice that
had formed previously. Frazil ice is composed of individual ice crystals that can be
carried down in the water column by vertical currents. Frazil ice in rivers will adhere
to any substrate such as rocks or water intake grates, forming anchor ice. Frazil ice
can also accumulate vertically in rivers forming hanging dams that can reduce river
flow rates and cause flooding upstream.

Hope this helps explain conditions,
Al

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Captain - Team ATOMMIK/Rockets

I know that happens up on Lake of The Woods too. Very informative, thanks Al!

Very informative

Hey captconsecon do you know how the ice is at the south shores of wellers? I was hoping to go out for an evening fish. And how are the winds?

Wow I always just thought it was sand in the water, pretty sandy lakes. What about in the summer when these lakes are cloudy and not from algae. Both these lakes are wind blown, shallow and sandy, just a thought?

Thanks for this Al! Very informative.. I live between locks 6 and 7 on the Trent and this has been a slow year, now I know why.... We were nailing them every night before the fragil ice formed in Glen Ross pretty much down to Rosebush.. Fortunately, I'm in a good area , well protected with still 8" of black and have been riding the quads on the river since Jan 8th. The fishing has been tough though .....

Grizz and I have been fishing Quinte and doing ok. But I have tried West Lake 4 times in the last couple of weeks and yet to mark a fish. a few perch and they won't even hit. as soon as the frazil ice is gone we will do ok.
beauty part is it didn't get totally busted up during the rain and big wind on January 10th and we have 10 to 16 inches of ice on the north side. I don't know about the main part of the Lake.

Al

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Captain - Team ATOMMIK/Rockets

That was such a great post.it explained so much that I have seen , but didn't know why. Thank you for posting.

Awesome post al forsure..and not sure about wellers..ive nit been back yet...as for west lake i had a friend from the board here do pretty gd yesterday there.. Think he got four walters couple lbs each..tue bay has been a hard fish this year

thanks trannyman, iv been wondering for a while why its like that. i tryed wellers again for 2 hrs on sat and got nothing, im done with wellers this year as i dont think it will clear up before the ice is gone. about 4" of ice on the east side.