Quinte Fishing

Taken from
Journal of Great Lakes Research
Volume 48, Issue 1, February 2022, Pages 159-170

Abstract
Walleye (Sander vitreus) are the top nearshore predator in the Bay of Quinte and eastern Lake Ontario, where they have strong ecological and socio-economic impacts. The population is known to migrate seasonally; however, the precise timing and extent are not well defined. This study used acoustic telemetry to provide a fisheries-independent measure of timing, extent, and seasonal distribution of migration in Lake Ontario and to examine the influence of sex, spawning river, size, and year. Annual detection histories were used to determine the timing of migrations into and out of the spawning rivers, departure from the Bay of Quinte post-spawn, and the pre-spawn return to the Bay of Quinte. Sequence analysis was subsequently used to examine how fish occupy defined regions of eastern Lake Ontario annually and identify patterns in migration strategy. Spawning site fidelity was high for both rivers (91–97%) and annual residency within the Bay of Quinte was low (9.5%). Females spent less time in spawning rivers, migrated to the main lake earlier, and generally travelled further than males. Larger fish also migrated to the main lake first and travelled further, and differences in timing between spawning rivers were minor. Annual differences in timing were observed and were most likely related to environmental differences between years. Cluster analysis was used to identify groups of fish which utilized unique annual migration strategies and demonstrated sex and size had an important influence on the variability in annual spatial occupancy, but the importance of spawning river and year was minimal.

Full article here https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0380133021002410

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

Great read....thank for posting Dan.

I read the entire report (because I'm a fish geek) and some very interesting observations. A lot of it we all know...the big females come in to the Bay in December, and most are gone by the beginning of May. The Trent and Napanee Rivers have two distinct spawning populations, but they don't mix. Both populations enter the rivers in late March and most are gone by the end of April. The big females leave first, the smaller males hang around a little longer. Only 9% of the entire population are resident fish that spend the entire summer in the Bay.

What was interesting to me is where they go once they leave the Bay in spring. Some fish travel up to 330 km's. Some travel to the NY side, some up the Larry, and some over to Presquile through the Murray Canal. However, there seem to be two distinct areas in eastern basin of Lake O that a lot of them hang around to feed on soft-finned bait (cisco and gizzard shad).....in early/mid summer they tracked a lot of the the big females on Melville Shoal (between the Gap and Salmon Island) and then later in August/September around Timber Island.

Looks like these two areas may be worthy of a little summer exploration...rather than waiting until they start migrating into the Reach in November.