Quinte Fishing

My Lady drove down to meet up with me after my fishing outing yesterday. We rented a room at the Hayes Inn Bed and Breakfast. Conveniently 2 minutes from Waupoos Marina. Mike and Katie at the Inn were great hosts. Made us feel very welcome and made us an amazing breakfast. Our room was quite comfy and there some enough parking to accomodate my Boat. We popped into Picton for dinner and enjoyed a great experience at the County Canteen. There was good food, live music and many were dressed up in Halloween costumes. It was great fun.

Sunday morning after we packed up at the Hayes Inn, we headed to the Marina, deposited our launch fee in the box and launched the boat. It was a late start. We didn't get setup until after 11 am. The Sun was up and the wind was down. Yet, another, beautiful, warm, late October day.

I went to my new favorite area to see if I could find anymore pike there. We picked up one small Pike on a purple flicker minnow in 23 feet of water.



After a couple of hours of nothing we moved on. We pulled up and tried the south shore for a while. Partly to get out of the slight breeze. We towed along one small bass for a while. Only noticed it when I checked the lines.

At one point we went into some shallower water and I thought I might get hung up on the bottom and sure enough the line closest to shore starts peeling out line about the speed the boat is going. I thumb the spool to see if it's a snag but it's not, the line is heavy but not pulling like a fish. I figure I've hood a branch or tree or something and I'm dragging it along. It feels real heavy and I'm worried I might break my 20 pound test. Then I feel a couple of headshakes and now I know it's a fish. I reel slowly up to the planer board. Unclip the planerboard and pass the rod to my Girlfriend who struggles to reel it in the rest of the way. When she finally gets it to the boat I see it and I think it's a big sheeps head! But NO! I scoop it into the net and it's a big Lake trout! WooHoo! I certainly wasn't expecting that! That's one thing about this area, you just never know what you might hook into.

I'm sure you can tell from the smile, my lady was very happy to catch this 14 + pound Lake Trout.



It was caught on a purple flicker minnow in about 16 feet of water.

We packed it in and headed home about an hour later. It was another fabulous day on the water!

Tight lines everyone!

Just went through all of your posts trophycraft.

Good work! Nice to see some smiles!
Looks like some fun days!

What an awesome adventure...

Great report and congrats!

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The fishing was so good........I thought I was here yesterday!

Looks like a beautiful day to be out on the water. Appreciate the report and thanks for sharing.

Just a friendly heads up...you may want to reconsider posting that photo of the Lake Trout in a public forum. Even though it was released, some folks (including the ONNR) may have an issue with that image.

https://oodmag.com/qa-can-take-picture- ... ed-season/

Please don't consider this any kind of negative comment..just wanted to make you aware of the reg's.

Thanks for the heads up Crowman. I didn't realize taking a quick picture and weighting an out of season fish was frowned upon by the ministry even though the fish was live released. I will keep that in mind in the future!

This spring during the new Catch & Release Bass Season on Lake O, I caught a couple of Smallies that were certainly PB's for me ... I've caught some big Bass over the last 60 years, but these in my estimation were in the 23" + class. Unfortunately no photos, even though you were allowed to target and catch them. Here's the OMNR's stance on this issue:

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF) recently announced changes to the Fisheries Management Zone 20 (FMZ 20) bass seasons effective January 1, 2021. New for FMZ 20, is a catch and release season for bass (smallmouth and largemouth) from January 1 to May 10.

Several tournament organizers have enquired about hosting catch, photo, measure and release events during the catch and release season.

Taking time to measure, weigh and photograph a fish in a strictly catch and release fishery is not permitted.

MNRF direction on what anglers must do with their fish when there is no legal possession limit is as follows:

“If an angler catches a fish that cannot be legally possessed (e.g., during the closed season, prohibited size, exceeds the catch and possession limits), the fish must be immediately released at the place and time of capture. This includes fish that may be injured during catch. This information is available to anglers on page 11 of the 2021 Ontario Recreational Fishing Regulations Summary.”

For further information on the immediate release provisions around catch and release seasons or competitive fishing in Ontario (generally) please contact:

Dan Taillon
Fisheries Section, Fish and Wildlife Policy Branch, MNRF
dan.taillon@ontario.ca
705-772-8748