Walleye success

[frozen-fire]

After a few years of consistent lake trout ice fishing on Simcoe, I really wanted to change it up this winter. I have caught some walleye through the ice, but they were always unintentional catches while targeting crappie.

Having never specifically targetted these fish through the ice before, I knew that there would be a bit of a learning curve involved. My first lake trout took me a whole season and a dozen trips before I got the hang of it. I certainly hoped that this wouldn't be the case with these walleye.

 

Bay of Quinte was my goal this year. I have never fished it before either on softwater or hardwater, but I have seen the pics and heard reports and know that monsters lurk these waters in great numbers.

With this winter being so kind to ice anglers, I was able to get on the BoQ before the new year. My first trip out was around mid December. There was a good solid 5 inches of black ice and safe for travel on foot. A group of friends and myself made the journey and decided to fish an area that doesn't have easy access and actually wasn't fished at all since the ice was safe. Using navionics on our smart phones, we walked to areas that showed potential. Wasn't long until we started marking fish on our sonars. While it was exciting to know that there was potentially my target species swimming around underneath me, it soon became annoying when these marks weren't hitting anything I dropped down. It soon clicked in that these were dink perch and so small that they couldn't take in the lures/bait we offered. I downsized to a micro jig and confirmed that these were indeed really perch. 3 to 4 inch dinks.

We moved around a lot. It paid off for two in our group that each ended up with one walleye each. Very respectable fish. I was jealous!

The evening flurry of action started and marks appeared on my finder, and I tried different jigging and retrieval techniques to no avail. Perhaps it was my instinct to take the lures away from the fish that was ingrained in my head from fishing Simcoe too much which caused me to not hook up on this day. I left the bay with a smell of skunk.

 

The second outing, I was more prepared. Watched and read many tutorials online and was more confident than ever! Me and a member on this forum headed out to another area on the BoQ. This area was more heavily fished and the first thing that came to mind was that these fish were really under pressure. It was boxing day and I was surprised to see so many anglers. Once again, we walked out on foot to locations that looked promising. It wasn't long before my screen was lit up. So many fish that I actually lost track of my lure. Finally a good tug and I set the hook. Relief set in as I reeled in what I thought was to be my first BoQ eye. A shiny silver sheepshead poked through the hole and I cried . Turns out it was a big school of these fish moving through.

 

 

It wasn't until noon when I saw another mark on the screen. I knew I had to fine tune my jigging technique to keep this fish interested. The fish stuck around for a while, so I knew it was interested. Eventually the fish met my lure and all I felt was weight. The fish fought hard and went on a couple runs. I knew it was a walleye. It finally showed itself and there's nothing better than seeing a hole with a mouth full of teeth . My first BoQ eye. It wasn't a huge fish, but I was screaming and prancing around like a little girl and surely looked like an idiot to other anglers nearby.

 

 

 

 

 

15 minutes later, another mark appeared on my screen and using the same jigging technique, I managed to set the hook into another fish! I am really starting to like this!

 

 

 

Both fish were released and I had to call it an early day. Didn't have enough time to fish the evening bite.

I was smiling the whole way home, and I wanted back at it as soon as possible. I was hooked!

 

A few days later, I returned and had the full day to fish. My goal now was to be part of the 10lb and up club.

It was right before the new year on Dec 29. It would be great to start the new year with a 10lb'er under my belt!

 

The action started early. I finally iced some eater sized walleye in the 3lb range. Wasn't long before I hooked into a massive tank that fought hard. I knew it was my new PB when it showed it's huge head. My buddy had a scale on him and we got a quick weight. 9.84lbs. Oh so close.

 

 

 

It was about an hour later when I had another huge fish on the line. After a quick fight, it was on the ice and I put the scale to it. Twin! It was 9.85lbs. If only this fish ate another perch before it took my lure, I'd be at 10lbs . My buddy was sleeping in the hut, so no pics with it. Snapped a couple pics of it on the ice before I slid her back down into the depths.

 

 

 

 

I ended the day hooking and icing 8 walleye and losing a couple more. Only 2 fish were small in the 3lb range which went home with me. The rest were 6lbs and up. What an amazing fishery!

The season ends at the end of February, and I wanted to make a 4th trip out there, but it just hasn't happened.

No doubt I'll be back for more though.

 

Since my last BoQ trip, mostly lakers and crappie have been keeping me busy. Hopefully I'll get out a few more times before the ice goes.

This winter has been phenomenal for crappies. Many fish in the 12 to 15 inch range, with quite a number of huge jumbo perch thrown in the mix.

 

 

[chris.brock]

great report, nice walleye

[Terry]

real nice

[Fisherpete]

Excellent collection of fish! Well done.

[ccmtcanada]

Hard work and perseverance certainly has paid off!!! Great walleye there!! (Huge crappie too....oh...and laker...LOL)

[limeyangler]

Wow…nice fish and pics!

[NewHips]

Thanks for the report..........wishing I could be there

[adempsey]

Nice fish! Thanks for posting your report. One of these days I might actually get up there to fish it.

[BowSlayer101]

heading there today, it closes march 1st for walleye so my last trip out there.

[akaShag]

Thanks for the report!

 

Even though Quinte is basically in my back yard, I have not been down there for a few years. I was really spoiled by the glory days of the mid-80s when good numbers of big fish were iced with regularity. A lot of the anglers KEPT their fish, even the big ones, and it would take a hog about twelve pounds or so for people to really take notice. I never did take one that big down there, my best was a winter walleye 10.5 pounds which is on the wall in my "man cave." (And then the next spring I caught one that was 12 pounds, up in the Key River. That fish is on the wall of the fishing lodge where I was staying at the time.)

 

Based on your report, I guess I am overdue to get my fat butt back down to the Bay!

Doug

[JoshS]

Nice work. Learning a new body of water is always challenging, looks like you figured it out.

[Jds63]

excellent report ... those are great looking Walleye !!!

[Headhunter]

Sweet Pickereyes!!!!! Thanks for the report!

HH

[solopaddler]

Some great fish there man, well done!

[leaf4]

definitely jealous, if quinte was closer I would go, but between hamilton and there there's a lot of other places closer for me unfortunately. I'll have to make a trip out there one of these weekends...

[Rod Caster]

Challenge conquered! As a mainly nipissing fisherman where most keepers are around the 14" mark, a 3lbs eater makes me quite jealous. There would be more meat on that 3lber than in a typical double nipissing limit.

[Joeytier]

Nothing like the quinte DUNK...awesome fish and great photos mang