Quinte Fishing

Thanks to Dan providing me with some info/tips, my father in-law Kevin and I were able to hit the ice out off Finkles on Wednesday. I would have posted this report sooner but I was tied up with family commitments yesterday (March break activities).

As we walked out from shore we had to cross a pretty soft pressure crack (which I am sure has opened up more by now) just out from the launch but after that the ice was a solid 6 - 8 inches - again, I am sure that has all changed by now.

We hadn’t fished there through the ice before and we walked out too far to start as we initially setup in 95 FOW. We also realized that the rod I had given Kevin didn’t have near enough line on it to be fishing that deep. We headed back towards the north shore and setup over 67 FOW with me using a white tube jig and a livetarget golden shiner lipless rattlebait. Kevin started out with some big spoons and various rattle baits.

It wasn’t too long before we started marking fish - not a ton but the odd one would come through. Kevin and I each had one rod with heavier braid on tied to our main bait (mine being the white tube and his being spoons). I assumed the rattlebaits would just call them in and that the tube or spoon would make them hit so we tied the rattlebaits on to backup rods I had that only had 6lb test mono on them.

Well, sure enough the first fish I get on came screaming up off bottom and smashed the rattlebait, a quick fight and it came unbuttoned - 0 for 1. We fished there for a bit longer but no takers so we moved again to slightly deeper. Not too long there before I get a big mark come up off bottom, chasing my white tube jig all the way up to 24 FOW. The fish then turned and headed back to bottom, I opened my bail and tried to re-engage but she wasn’t interested in that anymore. I had left my rattlebait sitting at about 60 FOW and as the mark passed that I gave it a good jig and the fish decided it wanted that, I reeled away from it and it chased hard, smashing the bait and the fight was on. At first I thought it wasn’t too big as I managed to make some good ground on it with my little 6lb test setup. It wasn’t long though before the fish decided to fight back. After a lot of running and head shaking (while I constantly adjusted my drag and worked the rod down the hole) we got the fish topside. It was a solid 18 pounds - personal best through the ice for me - couple pics and back down she went.

We moved again to around the same depth just near a different contour and Kevin switched to a white tube jig as his main lure - that’s when Kevin got his on. A nice 6/7 pounder that he kept. When he gutted it we could see they had been eating well (see pic).

After Kevin’s fish, I went back to my hole and there was a fish staring at my rattlebait. A quick reel and it hit it, fight was on….sadly though it came off again - 1 for 3.

We fished from about 8am until 2pm and ended the day with the one fish each. All three of my hits came on the live target and Kevin’s came on the white tube jig. We had a blast though and I am very thankful that Dan helped provided me with ice conditions and tips as I probably wouldn’t have gone otherwise. So thank you Dan!

I think that might be the last hard water action (barring a trip to a back lake) for us and we’ll probably get the boat ready for some Brown/Lake Trout action.

Be safe everyone.

Cheers,
Andrew

Thats an awesome report! 18lber on 6 lb test ! Im laughing out loud, did I read that right? That would of been a crazy battle, nicely done WTG! Thanks for a great report.

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