Closing out Quinte Walleye, Couldn't dig up any gold

As this was the closing weekend of walleye on Quinte, Glenn and I planned to try it again as well as visiting friends.

Since we were slow at work, I took Friday off and we headed out by 10am towards Gananoque to visit Gayle for the night. We planned to fish Huffs that afternoon for a bit before continuing the trip and do some pre-fishing for our adventures with Gayle, her stepson and his wife on Saturday.

We walked out 1/2 km to the deeper channel of 30 fow to try and find some active fish. There were some huts in closer to shore but the majority were out where we were. It played out like the other 5 trips we have made with marking only a few fish and no bites and was very quiet all around us as well. After 2 hrs we decided to call it quits and continue on to Gayle's to catch up on her adventures from Barbados which she had just returned from after a months stay.

After a great night of good company, great food and several drinks we woke up, had some breakfast, packed up and head to our next overnight destination of Gayle's stepson's place which he had just purchased on Hay Bay. There property is over 1km long and with all the snow, would have needed a skidoo to access the lake so I had to find another public access. Her stepson (Colin) and his wife have never ice fished before so I was the tour guide for the day.

I was hoping to go from the Old Hay Bay Church but that lot is not plowed and there is no parking along the street so I decided to go back to Huffs which is about 1/2 hr drive from their house. After looking at Navionics a little closer to see what depth the closer huts were in, I realized that they were fairly deep as well so shortened the walk to 1/10 km. After drilling the first hole, we were in 29 fow so figured that was good and continued to drill holes for everyone else and set up the hut.

As Colin's wife was expecting, we set her up in the hut because it was quite cold and windy out and I kept her company since I was the minnow hooker and wanted to keep my hands out of the wind. She had never fished before so it was a learning experience. I set her up with a slip float but she couldn't get the hang of setting the hook when the bobber went down but at least she got some hits.

Glenn got the first fish (perch), fairly quickly as we were marking fish right away. Everyone outside the hut seemed to be getting perch except for Colin who was still trying to feel the nibbles and setting the hook. He did finally catch one which made him happy as he had to go home just after to start dinner. His wife wasn't able to catch anything but she didn't really care so I'm not sure if she would come out fishing again.

I picked up my catching percentage but Gayle seemed to be the big winner with Glenn 2nd and then myself. I do have a defense though as I was the minnow hooker, every time I was marking fish, someone would show up at the door wanting a minnow on their hook. I missed several hits that way. The wind started howling and the sun disappeared and was getting colder so we packed up and went back to Colin's for a great evening.

Everyone had a good time fishing and they were going to go out again on Sunday but after too many wobbly pops on Saturday night, everyone declined to join us again on the ice. Since we were still quite a ways from home, we decided to head closer to home and fish the west end of Quinte. We checked on Potter's to see if there was any parking and to our surprise, there was lots so we decided to head out there.

We got our suits and boots on, unloaded the sled from the van and headed towards the shoreline. There was a big pile of snow in front of us so we couldn't really see the bay from the parking lot other that I saw a few huts in closer to shore. When we get to the shore, we now see how much snow is on the ice and thought this is going to be tough walking, that is why people are in so close. We changed our mind and didn't even get on the ice and headed back to the van.

I was really surprised at how few people there were fishing out towards Belleville and Trenton but I guess the amount of snow on the ice had deterred many people or else it was just the time of day since it was around noon.

We knew that Bluenote was going to his usual spot and figured we would join him. We were not expecting to arrive basically at the same time but that is how it turned out and he was generous in offering to take us out on his argo to save us the walking.

You know the story from there from his post...

So, after being skunked from walleye on Quinte this year, I haven't been impressed but from the sounds of it, it has just been one of those years. As they say, there is always next year. Maybe Mother Nature can help us out a bit more by not dumping so much snow or giving us such cold temperatures to deal with.

Still a great report/story. Sorry about your skunkshow for eyes.

Yup great report as usual. Sorry about the skunk.
I am looking forward to the boat!!
Ice season hasn't been the best for me. Lol
Cheers!

Yeah, I'm counting down the days to when we can get the boat out! Hopefully sooner than later.

X2 on the boat ,can't wait two trips already booked in May to maten river.

Marten river is a really nice place. If you go underneath the bridge, theres some really nice bass and pike fishing on that side. I remember one year my bro caught a really really nice pike and was hell bent on keeping it. We rigged it up on the stringer and attached to the boat (previous boat, no livewell). This thing took one good thrash, and ripped the stringer right off the boat. Watched this beast swim away stringer and all haha. Good times.

Terrific report - enjoyed reading.

Good that you could get out for three days straight!

Next hard water season will better BOQ and area.

Still some weeks left to try some lakes north this year . . .

I can't say it enough you guys put in the effort all the time... Full marks and with your persistance, knowledge and skills, it will happen, sooner or later we'll see a pic of you smiling with that trophy walleye..

Sounded like a tough year out there, and weather, especially on the weekends has not been ideal..

Keep at it and we still have a few ice fishing trips left this season to ice some nice fish..

As always thanks for the report, always an enjoyable read.....

haha.. Yes time to start thinking about the boat...

Nice report Nicole. The fish will come!! Hope you do well on our honey hole. Heard of an 8 and five pound walleye caught there the other day.

I knocked 2 feet of snow off the big boat today. The other one's buried.