Quinte Fishing

Good Evening All,
I am an all round newbie here. New to the area, new to the site and new to Walleye fishing. I was looking to head out to Picton for a bit of fishing one night this week. Probelm is I have no idea what Im doing.

I plan to fish from shore, I read someone mentioning the docks of the harbor. Are these accessible to the public? Also what bait, rigs, or lures to use?

Any help will be greatly appreciated.
thanks
Dave

The little dock next to the boat ramp in Picton Harbour may be the smallest chunk of real estate in the world [a couple-three hundred square feet] that has produced the greatest number of 10+ pound walleyes in the history of fishing! Truly, there have been TONS of walleyes caught off this dock. Or at least there used to be.

Back in the 90's, you would find ten guys standing there. It seemed to produce more fish than other places, maybe because there is a light over top of it. [Ignore the "no fishing from this dock" sign]

Unfortunately, this is no longer the case. The harbour emphatically does NOT produce like it used to. This being said, it is still the best place to fish for walleyes at night.

You could fish off the dock right next to the ramp, and you can easily access the docks on the same [south] side of the harbour heading west towards the motel at the end of the harbour. Similarly you could fish from the other side of the harbour, accessing the dock from the north. Also, guys fish from the dock in the narrows from the north side, to the north-east of the ramp.

On a good night, you will catch fish. The long-time traditional lure has been the jointed Rebel Fastrac - sort of a yellow-chartreuse colour with pinky-orange diamonds on it. You can find it in any Crappy Tire - it has a big red "SALMON" sticker on the package.

The other perennial favourite is the clown-coloured Husky Jerk. Either of these lures should work at night, but try anything and see what works!

But the deal round this place is, if you get some info, you have to post a report and let us know how you did.

My dad and I will be there tomorrow all day and will be the last boat out of the water at night. Tracker boat, I'm full-body orange floatsuit, he is yellow float jacket only. See you if we see you.

[As for not posting my report for last Thursday - 8 fer 8 including a superb 12-pound pike - my own computer is in the shop, and I've been unable to get the photos off my camera. So I guess the next report will be a "double". And in case you're wondering, I'm borrowing someone else's machine to write this]

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Self-unemployed and available for fishin' mid-week most days.

I fished from that dock in Picton last Friday, as well as last night. Haven't caught anything unfortunately, but last night a guy from Toronto had a 8 lbs "eye" in his box that he caught just before we arrived there. We casted from 21h to 23h on both visits.

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Jean-François Néron
Wasaga Beach, ON
http://vimeo.com/36058981
http://www.jfneron.com
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Thanks for the info fella's.

I'll probably be heading out tomorrow night, (Tuesday), at some point. once I get back I'll let you know how I got on, hopefully including some pics!!

Pete, I'll be wearing a blue and red Penn float suit, so perhaps I will see you there.

Thanks again
Dave

I went to the harbor last night and casted from about 2000 hrs until about 2300 hrs, and unfortunately not even a single bite.

There were a few other people fishing the various docks without success.

I met passthepitonspete comming off his boat as I arrived. Again Pete, thanks for the info.

You're welcome. At least you only spent three hours. My dad and I fished from about 1100 to 2000 and had only one fish to show for it. Thank goodness. It was skunk insurance.

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Self-unemployed and available for fishin' mid-week most days.

The docks will be hit and miss, but there some nights we'll be out there trolling and come in only to find the guys getting fish off shore. It's still quite early based on water temps. We may have a late freeze (if the current weather pattern) continues, experience tells me to hold off until the inshore temperature drops to below 40 deg. F, then the fishing's a little more predictable. Good luck out there!

Concur. The colder it gets, the better. December fishing is the best of the season. If you can get out of the boat ramp, you usually [but not always] do well. Same for fishing in the harbour. Much fewer people, too. Only the real die-hards survive.

The pussies [er, uh, smart guys] put their boats away some weeks before. It ain't fall fishin' if yer not bustin' ice somewhere, if only off your rod guides.

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Self-unemployed and available for fishin' mid-week most days.