Quinte Fishing

Hello folk,

My buddy and I are from Ottawa and often head to lake Ontario during the summer to fish some salmon and steelhead. We have heard on many occasions that we should visit the Bath/Amherst area during April to fish some big lake trout so we gave it a shot;
- We fished from 6h30am to 7h00pm on April 14th
- We fished from 6h00am to 3h00pm on April 15th
- We fished from 6h30am to 3h00pm on April 29th

To resume, we spent over 30 hours trolling around the Amherst island; Lower gap, Upper gap, The big bar and many other areas.

We fished anywhere from 10-20 feet of water up to 150-200 feet of water but mainly stayed around the 60 feet with down rigger balls around the 30 feet deep. We also attempted with planner boards on each side and varied our speed from 1.5Mph up to 3Mph but mainly stayed around the 2-2.5Mph.

Our lures consisted of so much, but mainly a combination of; Rac spoon, Mooselook, Williams, Syclops, Rapala and Spinners... Unfortunately NOTHING worked, not even 1 bite in 30 hours.

We fish lake trout every year and catch many of them... this was our first experience at going big on lake Ontario and we are both quite disappointing by our first 3 full day on the lake.

I attached a map of approximately the area's we attempted.

What are we doing wrong???

I would say you did nothing wrong

My program has been 2-2.2mph and only consistent depth pattern was 45-60 fow with riggers 2-10 feet off bottom. I use spoons in purples and gold/silvers.

I think it's been a very odd spring. Past years I fish 20-40fow all April and slam them but this year I caught zero in less than 40 fow.

You fished a lot of the same areas I fish and at the same times also.


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Bob MacMillan
Owner/Operator
Kingston Sport Fishing
https://kingstonsportfishing.ca/

Sounds like improbable bad luck. I've caught a couple dozen lakers this year in the area around where you made a circle in the lower gap. One differences is that I catch most of my fish with the gear right on the bottom. Try using a release clip with a self-locating snap on the rigger end, and attach it 4-5 feet up from your ball. Then work your downrigger depth as you are trolling so that the cannon ball is just tapping the bottom. I'm told this kicks up sediment in the way a feeding laker would, attracting other fish. The green/purple Williams UV with the eye on it has been the best producer for me thus far. The fish will start moving out soon as the water warms, I'll start targeting some of the bottom structure south of Big Bar where bait tends to hold.

It may have just been off for some reason. If I were laker fishing these must be pulled

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U.S.C.G. Licensed Captain
Pure Fishing Ambassador

We went out of Wellington over to the Bonnett on Saturday and nary a fish. We marked 3 fish all day.

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Dan Elliot - A bad day on Quinte is better than a good day at work !!!
http://www.quintefishing.com

Exactly, you have to be on bottom in that 40 to 70 fow. The lakers will rise later in the season when the alewives come into spawn. At present they are foraging for gobies. A goby does not have an air bladder like other bait fish species so they can not rise in the water column.

Landshark posted very useful rig for laker fishing.

Al

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Captain - Team ATOMMIK/Rockets