Quinte Fishing

I was wondering if it was worth heading out to the Duck Islands area to catch some salmon or trout. Anybody hear any reports...???

Thanks.

A&P has salmon on for 5.99/lb starting Saturday. Caught & dressed. There are too many skin divers around the Duck Islands on the weekends. You sure as heck would not want to snag one of them. You better have a good boat, those islands are trecherous on windy days. Thats why there are so many ship wrecks around them. Please be carefull if you do decide to go and give someone your voyage plan.

I was out last weekend for bass 0 fr 4, went out saterday morning(rough but on plane) there was one boat salmon fishing but I didn't talk to him. Came back sunday morning (real rough 5-7mph)kept taking water over the bow. How many gallons can you pour into a laptop and still expect it to work?

There were about 15or 20 boats out there from 16' to 40'. The first guys out sunday came back, two others headed out and kept going, I headed out with three others my 23' down to a 16'. I thought my boat being the longest and a deep v I would be way ahead but instead I was the last one in. The waves were so close that I had a hard time keeping the bow out of the water and with my windshield having 4" opening vent windows that don't seal it was like somebody kept throwing a pail of water at us. The smaller boats didn't seem to have any problem.

If you do go out take an extra can of beans, some of the guys might still be there.

Hi Folks
I've got a charter heading out saturday from Brighton looking for bigguns,anyone been out that way the last few weeks??? Will post sunday with results,hopefully good.
Thanks, John

Salmon have been scarce this week around Scotch Bonnet. Some caught but a lot of boats coolers came in empty. Heard this morning that some were caught out of Wellington straight south five miles and three miles west of Sandbanks down 45-55 ft. in 90ft of water. I know of one boat did very well in that area on Wednesday, Chris owner of the tackle shop said another boat had three large Salmon from the same area .

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Fish often and enjoy, "you never know what tomorrow may bring"

Hi Folks
Well, went out for our salmon charter saturday, you couldn't ask for a nicer day. Started trolling fairly shallow, about 70' as we worked out to Scotch Bonnett, then worked anywhere from 85'-125'. Marked the odd fish with their bellies scraping bottom, not too many suspended and hungry.
Our boat got skunked for the 1st time in almost 15 years that this crew has been going out,although it is only my 2nd year with them. Last year we boated 3 shakers and they were tasty let me tell you,but for the price, it doesn't seem worth it. This group has said that their catch totals have been going down every year for the past 5 or 6 years,as it used to be common to land 5 or 6 fish in the 15-25lb range not counting the shakers.
From the radio chatter out ion the water, it sounded like not too many at all were being caught, heard of a 10lb,a 25lb and 1 shaker. Pretty slow going, hopefully others will do better as the summer progresses.
Thanks, John

I was out last Thursday. Things were very slow and the wind made fishing a challenge. I had about 5 releases for the day but most came up dry. I had only 1 shaker for the day. Chatter on the radio was quiet. I did hear of one boat take one about 20 just South of the Bonnet and another boat out near the Bonnet shoal broke one off right at the back of the boat. Otherwise, most boats were the same as me.

We too were skunked for the first time in almost twenty years on Saturday. The steady decline in this fishery has been going on for the last five or six years,(you don't suppose the cormorants have anything to do with it?). It's to bad the government can't get their *&^% together and deceide if they've got the balls to do something to help this fishery. Because of the nature of the lake not many individual fisherman go out and this whole charter industry will die soon without some positive action.
I feel sorry for the guys that have mortgages on their charter business, it's got to be hard enough on some of the older guys who own their boats outright. I've seen small business's go down and that's just what is happening here.
My group is rethinking our two trips each year in light of the decline and now a skunk. A charter captains main source of money is weekends of which there's only about 16 in the season and if you loss one of your regulars that go out a couple of times it's got to be hard to make up. I don't need to go back to the days of limiting out in 4 hours and coming home with a couple hundred pounds of meat but I would like to catch enough that everyone gets a feed after the charter and gets to take a taste home to the family.

Bassn51 - take the grandkids fishin

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Bassn51- Bring on the Bucket Mouths

Out off Wellington on sunday afternoon, 4 salmon and a brown cought a mile east off Mcfauls.

What is a "shaker"?

A shaker is a small trout or salmon, two or three pounds at best.

Bassn51 - take the grandkids fishin

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Bassn51- Bring on the Bucket Mouths

When I was out last Thursday I noticed a number of fish marking down about 25 ft over about 165 ft of water. There were many of the largest marks that my fish-id makes. I'm not sure what these fishe were. Maybe large walleyes? I tried running a shallow line through them a few times, but couldn't get them to hit. This was just south of the Bonnet. Anybody else notice any of these shallow running fish.

I'd try a shadrap for something like that because just about anything will strike a shadrap. We worked a school of the sandbanks years ago and finally got a heiring on the rap.

This seems to be a bad year compared to last year. Fishing was hot in late June/early July but it is extremely slow right now EVERYWHERE. If you want fun, it's best to head out to deeper water for bows.

I fish out of Darlington and this year is poor but I guess the cycle is about right because 4 years ago it was extremely poor out here. And I agree about the comment about getting quite a few fish per trip about 7 to 10 years ago. I used to average 5 - 8 fish per 4 hour trip out here and did get days where I'd get over 17 fish (in 4 hours) by myself. So, the coldwater fishery isn't what it used to be in the mid 80's.

Just check out spring bow runs up the Ganny - they peaked in 1984 where over 18000 fish went over Corbetts Dam. Last year 4600 fish went over, the year before that 6600, before that just under 6000. The trending is there......I know the stocking #'s are less than what they used to be but there is also more fishing pressure now, ???? what the survival rates are, and the alewife population has also decreased.

Sort of reminiscent of the walleye fishery in BOQ, isn't it.

Went to Port Hope Saturday. On the water at 4am looking for that false dawn bite. Fishing was very slow. Things picked up around 10am when we headed out to 200ft, 3 miles off shore. We boated 9 Rainbows between 4 and 10 pounds and managed only one 20 pound Salmon. All fish were taken between 15 and 40 ft down, over 200-250 feet of water. The Salmon are scattered right now with no one reporting great #s.