Bay of Quinte help

[Ducker2]

Hi everyone

Heading down to quinte to try for some walleye last week of February. Can anyone give me some pointers or tricks for these fish. Lure, color choices tactics info in general. Much appreciated thanks.

Rick

[Roblin]

Hope you have a sled. Real hard walking on the ice. Lots of snow with water underneath. Some fish being caught off Huff's. There's parking in a field for $5.00 and some on the ice. Don't park on the road. $50.00 parking ticket being handed out. Most are fishing in 30 ft. but I've been doing a lot better at 26 ft.. I've used a brass Chap and a mud minnow for the last 30 yrs and always caught fish. Jigging about 6 inches off the bottom. I get as far away from other's as I can. I think best bite is in the late afternoon till dark. Talked to a guy last week and he was saying no fish off Deseronto so he moved to Green Point, but you need a sled to get there. He said there's 5 inches off Green Point. There was a foot at Huff's but it's down to about 8 inches. If you go off Foresters Island be very careful of the ice. If you go but the Skyway Bridge be careful. Real strong current in places thins the ice out. I fished there once or twice years ago. No worth risking your life for a fish. Good Luck

[water-werx.ca]

As Roblin mentioned, very hard to get around on Quinte right now without a sled

see LINK below to a post on QUINTE East posted last week, hopefully that helps you
- Any questions on locations,lures, bait shops and lodging, just PM and I'll do my best to help

http://www.fish-hawk.net/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=47013



Cheers and Good Luck
Spenc

[riverdog]

You can also check out quintefishing.com which is more specific about fishing that area,there was a good post by TylerCurt that included all access points to the ice. You also get info from guys that successfully catch walleye up there. Usually by the end of Feb you can expect to find the walleye a little shallower up there. As per lures/jigs my rule is nothing less than 1/2oz weight unless I'm fishing less than 20'. Best of luck usually the end of Feb bite is a hot one but with all this ice & snow it may be a repeat of last year which was slower than previous years.

[RJ]

Quinte is more about being in the right spot when they come down the highway. Very few spot on the spot type of areas. Find somewhere in the 23 to 27 FOW on Navionics in the main channel areas. Hope for a bit of current and settle in.

It's the only place where I'd say hole hopping doesn't produce more fish than camping over one hole all day. I've seen one day you'll catch 6 fish out of one hole and the guy 40 feet from you catches zero. The next day you return and he does it back to you in the exact same holes. Bizarre but routine out there.

For baits, I use 1/2oz to 5/8ths jigging spoons. I truly don't think color matters. You'll hear I'm wailing em on a gold Champ. I'll ask what else did ya try? Nothing I always get em on the Champ. Then how would you know? Pick up mud minnows there, don't bring shiners. I ALWAYS have 3 minnows on my spoon, one per treble hook. Looks stupid but do it. While jigging you may have one fall off and at that point you still have bait on if a fish shows up.

Locations. That map posted on QF.com is a good one. It's all about access. Huffs, Shermans Point, Hay Bay, County Shores can all be good, but like said traveling out there right now sucks. I'm done with it for the year due to my schedule but I wouldn't be going anyways simply due to that.

Hope that helps.

Good Luck!

RJ

[Ducker2]

Thanks for all the great info guys and I will let u when I get back how I did

Rick

[water-werx.ca]

nice to see you getting helped out Rick.... If you ever need any tips on Smallmouth Bass in the Prescott- Cardinal area shoot me a PM

my Avatar pic is from one of my 'super SPOTS' for early season Smallmouth action ( notice the Johnstown Bridge to the "EAST" in the background? lol )

[Cyber]

my Avatar pic is from one of my 'super SPOTS' for early season Smallmouth action ( notice the Johnstown Bridge to the "EAST" in the background? lol )

Zat mean you're fishin' on the 'Mercan' side??

[water-werx.ca]

lol - nope.... just EAST of the grain elevator on the NORTH side of the red buoy ( oops! )

Sharing is Caring

[i got worms]

After 20+ years of ice fishing on the Bay of Pigs I can tell you one thing for certain: there are no spots that will produce fish whenever you want them. Too many guys have a good day in a spot and then head back the next day, the next month, the next year only to be disappointed. We've had more great days than not but you can't just go back to the same spot the next time and expect the same success. All of the popular areas offer the potential for a great day on the ice... but the fish have to be there! It's really that simple. And when they are you can easily have one of the best days of hardwater walleye action available anywhere. These fish aren't just sitting on classic structure waiting for something to eat. We're talking about acre large schools roaming and staging in preparation for the spring spawn. If you're around them you'll know it because at first light your flasher will light up like a fleet of school buses is driving by along bottom. The tricky part is that more often than not these fish are here today and gone tomorrow. Chasing the hot "message board" bite can work but it can also be fools gold. Guides have the privilege of being able to scout day to day and do a good job of staying on these roaming schools. But when you're just heading up for a day or two it's always a crap shoot.

Best advice I can give is this: If you're NOT marking fish, get off your butt and move until you are. If you ARE marking fish but not catching, stay on your butt and figure out what they want. Don't blame the fish or the weather, having a bad day means you didn't figure out where they were or what they wanted. They're always biting somewhere.

As far as baits go, everybody has they're favourite spoon but when you're on fish and it's not producing then you've got to be versatile and figure out what they want. Sometimes it's a fast falling spoon like a buckshot, other times it's a slow fluttering spoon like a little cleo, other times it's something in between like a macho minnow, other times it's a jiggin rap or lipless crank. Don't worry about what colour they want until you've figured out the action they want. If fish seem interested but won't commit it can be as simple as changing your jigging cadence or reeling up a bit and getting them to chase. For size I prefer 3/8oz unless the current is rippin then I'll bump up size as necessary. Experiment with your minnow tipping as well, most days 1 minnow is just fine, some days 2 or 3 minnows works and other days just a single head will out fish your stubborn buddies.

As most quinte regulars know, truth is there's no one magic spot to fish on quinte and there's no one magic way to catch fish on quinte. Those who stay mobile and versatile will most likely have the best success. The more time you put in the more scenarios you will encounter the more tricks you will learn. And most importantly, once you think you have them figured out... they'll remind you that you don't