Quinte Fishing

This has been a great season as a 1st year bass boat owner. I have loved to fish all of my life, but was never taught how and as a result I have failed to consistently catch the fish (size, type, etc.) that I wanted to catch.

My favorite part of this sport is understanding the technicalities of the variables that affect your ability to catch the type of fish you want to catch, when you want and where you think they "should" be".

I have golfed for 20 years and never really enjoyed it. Fishing is tons more technical with way more variables and I get to travel really fast on water with no mosqitos on hopefully sunny days.

I can't believe I wasted 20 years golfing? Because this was my 1st year "real" fishing, I was excited at the begining to catch anything that weighed more than a pound. In May we were catching 10 lb sheep head and I had never seen or heard of one in my life. I caught a 9 lb + channel cat in early June and it is still my screen saver today. The biggest mudcat I caught previous to that was 5 years old, catching the little baby minnows that gather in the shallow warm water at the Sandbanks in a net. I have been to Alabama a number of times and eaten in varoius catfish houses and they have photos of 100 + lb cathfish that seem unreal. I got 10% there this summer.

I actually have a friend (Scott Lavender) that taught me early in the season how to fish for Pickeral. We started at season opener and on most occasions up until it got really warm, we would catch our limit or more. I am pretty sure this is probably against bass boat etiquette, but we are to new and unknown to care. Both my boys and I had a load of fun catching pickeral in the spring with our record weight being just over 9 lbs. I actually don't enjoy eating fish, so I release 98% of what I catch, unless my young sons want to have a fish fry, then we will keep one or two and fry them up, the small good tasting ones. We learned early to throw the 4+ pounders back if you wanted a really good fish fry.

My first and only post to this website was in April this year looking for help to fish for crappie. According to the licensing rules (that were all new to me) that is all we could really fish for early in the season. To put this into perspective, I bought my boat from Brian at Belleville Sport and Lawn in November and it was winter stored and I wasn't going to be able to touch it until spring. I think my boat was the 1st out of winter storage and in the water because I was so anxious to use it and catch something.

Jeff Kerr was the 1st to respond to my post. Jeff and I attended Carleton University together where we played (no not golf) hockey together and had some mutual friends. Jeff agreed to meet me at Belleville Outdoor Sports and help me buy rods, reels, lines, lures and get me started. It was almost $700, but I had nothing. My tackle box previous to this was a couple of Mepps, some hooks and a few bobbers. Jeff was great and we still haven't got out to fish together yet.

I have run into Jeff on the water a couple of times over the season and the last time I was having some difficutly getting through the weeds. He threw me a brand new lewer, told me to give it a try and then sat and watched me for a few minutes to make sure I was using it correctly. I still haven't caught a god dammed thing using it, but what a great guy!

Anywayt, once bass season opened, we started fishing for bass. I learned quickly that there is much more of an art to catching any kind of bass than pickeral. We have been all over the Bay (Deseronto to Trenton) AND to Main Duck and False Duck Islands and I have concluded that bass are smarter than pickeral.

To end this long story. I have met many very nice fisherman this year, relied upon a few friends and I have taught myself (by reading and experimenting) a bunch and through trial and error and trying harder after the errors to catch fish.

I have caught 5 times more fish (in weight) this year than I have in my entire life and every new outing is just as exciting than the day or week before.

Thanks to everyone and anyone that has helped along the way. I have met many people that I don't know this year that are probably members of this forum. I am the guy with the 1988 Ranger and new(er) 175 Evinrude. I am at the George St. dock at least twice a week or more.

I'd can't wait for the late fall fishing season that I keep hearing about. I look forward to entering the tournament season in 2008 and hope to finish in the top 20 in at least one tournament.

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Misfortune is directly correlated to which end of the rod your on.

Hi SlikFish,

Welcome to the outdoor world of Fishing, I hate to see people going through life fishless...........

It sounds like Fishing is under your skin... Join the crowd..

I plan on being at the George St. Boat Ramp on Sunday. A friend and
I will be out ripping up a few bass for the Fall Brawl in October.

My boat is a 3 tone blue & gray Ranger. Maybe we'll bump into you at the ramp.

Dave Frasso

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Island View Fishing Charters
Providing Angling Adventures in the Kingston & Surrounding area, since 1981.
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Give a man a fish, feed him for the day. Teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime ------<@III><
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