Quinte Fishing

Been fishing Quinte since the early 1980's. This is by far my biggest walleye ever. Fish was caught in Big Bay. I went out from Wagar's. She was caught on a 1/2 oz. silver Kastmaster. I doctor them a little bit by putting red prism tape on one side and silver prism tape on the other. I also put a larger treble hook on them. I've used that lure for years and usually have decent luck with it. I was riding my ATV so my normal strategy is to run and gun. I pop a hole and if I don't have at least a solid hit after 30 minutes or so I move to a new spot. I fish pretty low tech. when ice fishing. No fish finder or camera. I do have a GPS so I do punch in way points when I either catch or lose a fish. I just keep moving and hope I drop my lure in from of one that will bite. This guy hit in about the 3rd hole I cut at about 8:30 am. This is only the 3rd fish of the ice fishing season that I have caught. Previous two were small eaters. Over the years I have caught a lot of fish in the 8 to 10 lb category and honestly this guy didn't fight any harder than those. He did make a couple of runs against the drag. Getting his head in the 8 inch hole was the toughest part but he did come in eventually. When I laid him on the ice I new he was big and probably the biggest walleye of my life. I had no scales or tape measure with me but I suspected she was over 14 lbs. I normally put these big girls back but since I was pretty certain she was my new PB, I decided to keep her for the wall. When I got her home and measured and weighed her I was in shock. I really thought 17-18 lb walleye's were only a myth and never dreamt that I would catch one myself. This fish was the only bite I had all morning with the exception of a single jumbo perch.