Quinte Gold Rush 2019
10 years strong.
Our annual trip to the Bay of Quinte just wrapped up so I figured I’d share a few pictures and let you know how we made out. We spent January 17-20 on various parts of the Bay searching for the somewhat elusive Quinte gold. We were faced with some interesting weather this trip. Thursday and Friday were perfect fishing days with a bit of sun, no wind and close to 0 degrees. Saturday and Sunday on the other hand were windy, -17 & -18 with lots of snow. That being said, fishing is fishing and we would all rather be on the ice then sitting on the couch.
Thursday - Morning
With people coming from all over southern Ontario, 3 of us started our trip Thursday morning fishing Belleville. We knew the ice was new so we spudded our way to the red can and set up in 13-14 feet of water. We got out a little late because of the questionable ice but started marking fish right away. We should have been out there a bit earlier but, we ended the morning with 3 fish iced and a few lost. It was nice to get the rust off and get back on the Bay.
Thursday – Evening
That evening the rest of the team had arrived and we headed to Huffs. We usually don’t fish straight out with the crowds. Over the years we’ve found a few little isolated section that usually hold/attract fish. It’s a bit of a walk but we aren’t sharing fish with everyone else. If its your first time hitting the Bay try to stay outside of the crowds. The evening bite started out very strong with the biggest fish of the trip. This was a new PB and he couldn’t be happier (even though he isn’t smiling)
The rest of the evening was filled with a few nice fish and a bunch of eaters.
Friday
With the cold front moving in Friday evening/Saturday morning the fish were looking to feed up before it hit and we were waiting for them. The nice thing about Huffs is that they have to come through that section to get anywhere else in the bay. We went back to our usually spot, set the huts up and had an amazing day on the ice. They wanted it jigged very aggressive and if you slowed down at all they would just swim away
If you’ve spend any time on the bay you know that the morning and night bites are usually where you see most of your fish. The midday lull sucks. Today was a different story, the fish kept coming in waves all day and really didn’t stop at all. This was our single best day on the ice for the last 10 years I’ve been doing this trip.
Saturday & Sunday
That winter storm hit the Bay hard and put a stop to pretty much everything we had going. The fish were still there, they just weren’t interested in eating. We caught a bunch of smaller keepers over the next few days but it was a grind.
One of the issues with Huffs is that the current can get pretty strong at times. This makes downsizing hard as it will sweep your lures away and you can’t see them on your fish finder.
The highlight of Saturday was this beauty 9lber that decided to play along.
Baits
We usually keep it pretty simple with our lure selection. This year the hot baits were the gold and orange sidewinder, UV jigging raps, and macho minnow. Braided line with floro leaders in the 8-10lb range and M to MH rods.
Interesting find - I put the Aqua-Vu down for a bit at Huffs and saw a bunch of carp moving through the area. If you have every marked a bunch of larger fish in a school just moving through that doesn't give you the time of day, it might be a pod of carp.
If you’ve got to this point thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed the recap.
Next up…Simcoe
See you on the ice
- Randaller
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