Quinte Fishing

First, I want to thank this board for their help. Without it, I doubt I would have ever made the trip. I've heard about it and wanted to go for over 5 years, but seeing the pictures and the info on places to stay made that leap much easier. I'm an Erie guy, so pretty much have a good trolling background. But there were guys we met at the landings who help locate the active fish and was nice sharing information.

For some reason as another poster mentioned, I find it necessary to say that we released every single fish we caught in very good shape. However, as you can see in our first picture, these fish bleed very very easy. We realized that right away and was that much more careful except for the ones that were hooked in the gills in the first place.

This is our very first BOQ walleye, 12.2 lbs. that Spanky caught. I've seen fish that long in Erie before, skinnier for the most part and thought it was just a sub 10 lber. Not until its back came out of the water and the size of its head. The head on this fish was enormous.


This is my very first 10+ lb. walleye that I ever caught. They have been in my boat, but not from me. And I have been fishing Great Lake waters ever since my Dad took me out when I could walk


After that first one, we began re-setting personal bests. This one came just shy of 11 lbs.


And the new personal best's kept pouring in





Wanted to point out in this picture, wearing my new flotation suit. I never felt so secure and comfy as I have been in this thing. It was a little bulky and heavier, but for cold boat fishing, hard to beat. Don't forget your snowmobile helmet - it made the experience that much better. This fish here also, was the 3rd fish from a triple: just shy of 12


A 12.6 lber. caught at 10:30pm in front of the Cement Plant.


And finally my whopper, caught it fishing by myself - 12.8 lbs, 31" long, 18.5" girth. It was tricky to get the camera to self time and have everything framed in correct. That night, I had to break ice to get into the harbor. What an experience.

Great photo's ....congrats on catching your personal best
looks like you have great boat for late Fall Quinte eye's

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BIG-O(Phil)<!!!!!><
SO MUCH WATER .....SO LITTLE TIME

Its great too see those big eyes again.I see pull pt. is still a hot area .So do you think erie is better for size or Quinte? Congrats on the fine catch! roughrider

"Ho - hum ..... Just another day at Quinte ..... a boatload full of ten- and twelve-pounders......"

Congrats on your personal bests! Glad you found the website to be of help. Your BSEG's* say it all.



* [Big Sh*t-Eating Grin]

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

Way to go Stormsearch!

Great photos

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WIG

WAY TO GO Stormsearch! Those are some real nice fish Congradulations on the personal best!

Nice Tiller! Man mine only has a 60hp. What is your boat length and top speed ?

roughrider - Erie is hard to beat for quantity and overall quality of fish. There is just so many fish there that weather is really the only thing that should prevent people from getting their limit. Sir Walter and I belong to a club down in the lower Detroit area and we have been targeting large walleye for a number of years. Four of us from the club broke our personal best's with one trip to BOQ. So for a true trophy water, BOQ is it, and I agree with In-Fisherman. I only go there to experience the fishery with C&R, at Erie, it is a matter of putting food on the table. Erie had a record hatch in 2003, by 2006 catching walleye will probably be too easy. It has been phenominal for MI waters already in the last 3 years.

RangerGuy - it is a Skeeter 1775T, 17.75' long with a 80HP 4s Yammy on it. This is a very popular boat over in Minnesota with all their smaller lakes. I drove 14 hours one way to pick it up from Detroit. I have only seen two other 1775 Skeeters, and they both were consoles. One was at BOQ during our last trip. I can get 35mph on any given day, faster/slower depending on load and conditions.

Nice Stormsearch! Mine is a 16'11" with a 60hp 2 Stroke. I definitely would like to put a 4 stroke on her to help with gas mileage. I get average 35mph as well

Do you have a kicker or do you troll with you main motor? I have a old 4 stroke 4hp I am thinking of mounting on the boat. Just can't decide LOL!

Right now I'm using a trolling plate but it cuts the thrust so much I feel I have to rev the motor to much to keep a constant speed and am making to much noise.

You do save on gas versus a standard 2s, but the bigger 4s motors use enough gas. Newer 2s DFI motors tend to even save more gas. I tracked my gas usage for 2 years and basically consume 1 gallon/hour. That figure combines travelling to spot and trolling all day and travelling back. On Erie, 6 - 15 mile runs are very common. I don't know my usage would be with a 2s and the cost advantage of buying a 2s versus gas savings of a 4s. I am believing it will be a break even point over the life of the motor. Fishing up at BOQ for 2.5 days, coming in for lunch every day, I used 20 - 25 gallons of gas.

A disadvantage with 4s, is their trolling speeds tend to be higher. They are managing to get them down, but most idle too high. I troll with the main motor and I have to use two trolling bags to slow me down. Even with the two bags, I struggle to go slower than 1 mph. So far I haven't been in a situation where I couldn't go slow enough. If I ever need to go slower, I end up using my front trolling motor. Without the bags, 2.2 mph is my slowest speed. With the trolling bags, I tie one off each front cleat and they drift back to mid-ship. Helps really good on steering, bow wind drift, and the bow going up and down in waves. For the money, I love them compared to a cost of a new 4s kicker motor. My main motor is fantastic trolling all day - no smoke and very quiet. With the plate, you will lose some steering capability. If you find to lose too much steering and need to rev your motor to maintain speed, most people put a hole in the plate. It works well enough to slow you down but gain steering capability back along with lower trolling rpm's.

Had a Johnson 40HP 2s on a 16' before. Could only imagine what it would be like with your 60HP on it. It was a fun boat, but needed something a little bigger/heavier for Erie. Good luck for you guys the rest of the year and have any more questions, let me know. Thanks.