Quinte Fishing

My son invited his friend and his father to do some ice fishing this weekend. The four of us fished in two huts with one in the channel roughly off of Bain park and one at the mouth of the Trent. Both of us found that the fish were on the move early and we did not mark much past 8 am. In fact on Monday morning probably had at least 8 or 9 different events of fish coming in, rising, and then slowly dropping back between 7 am and 7:30 but only marked one more fish for the rest of morning. My sons father who is an avid bass fisherman caught his first ice walleye on the last morning which was just under 2 pounds. Never cheered so hard for a 2 pounder . I think next year I am going to ensure that I am set up at least 30 minutes before sunrise as it appeared we missed some of the bite and possibly the best part. We ended up catching 3 decent walleye between 1.5-2 pounds over the weekend and the one evening we set up on a 12 foot flat at the mouth of the trent and had small walleye on the screen for most of an hour and a half and ended up landing 5, approx. half pound each. The day previous he also ended up accidentally snagging a large gar pike which gave him a heck of a fight. Had another group of friends in a group in Big Island who fished the weekend as well and had very similar results on numbers as we did (slow) but they said most of their fish were over 5 pounds, with my friend catching a monster just over 12 and another in their party caught an 11 pounder (both caught friday).

There was about 14 inches in the mouth of the Trent on Monday morning and about the same in the channel. Most I spoke with had similar results and reports. Have to say that the weather was near perfect as we enjoyed some good cloud break most of weekend and the temp was just around the freezing mark. Numbers were not really the issue, getting them to finish was.

Bought a new Clam XR200 Pro series hut earlier this year and have to say I love it. It is a big shack but with all the electronics (vex's, cameras,) I would not want it any smaller assuming I don't have to pull it. If you are looking for a real nice hut with lots of room I would take a look. Had a decent year, did not catch any monsters, did not catch any big numbers, however most days we did come back with a fish or at least a picture of one. Probably my last post of the Quinte ice fishing season as I am not likely to get back before it ends. Wish the remaining ones who are able to get out best of luck, be safe and look forward to sharing posts with you all in the spring.
Shawn

Great report thx