Late Fall Bay Of Quinte report Nov 23-29
What a week it was! End of November is my favourite week to fish Quinte and this year did not disappoint.
Day 1 was a Saturday morning launching at dawn. I joined a good friend Eric on his boat, an Alumacraft powered by Yamaha, and we motored to where we wanted to start the day. It was -6 Celsius and a low wind. Hours went by without any action, despite hearing reports of others catching around us. After setting lines at 8am and trolling for 4 hrs without a bite we finally had a fish. We proceeded to boat 9 walleyes between 12pm and 430pm trolling Rapala Deep Husky Jerks and Reef Runner 800’s at 1.6-1.7 mph on the GPS. There was a healthy mix of smaller fish (16” class) and some giants. We ended the day with 4 fish over 10lbs with the largest being 27.75” and 11lb 14oz, a true Quinte slob.
Day 2 had a change in winds and warmer temp so we started at a different ramp to head to the same general area. Today however we had bites all day and finished 12/18. Some of the strikes were short hitting and gone before we even got to the rods. We had a very calm morning and a really rough afternoon as the boats thinned out dramatically due to the waves and wind. Another healthy mix of fish today with 3 more fish over 10lbs and a couple just below. Our largest today was almost a copy of yesterday with an 11lb 15oz 29” gold bar.
Day 3 I joined good friend Jim Lyon in his Ranger 620 and headed to the same area again. We had great weather to run to the fishing grounds and had mostly following seas. We hit a fish pretty quickly after setting our 4 lines out and had another 4 come shortly after. First pass, 5 fish, going to be a banner day! Nope, it died haha. The fish went deep on the sonar and became inactive. Right around this time the wind had picked up and was gusting enough that we couldn’t troll into it effectively. After a couple hours the wind died and was a gorgeous afternoon but the fish were off. We boated one more late afternoon and finished the day 6/6. We had an average around 7-8lbs with one fish that was above 10lbs.
Day 4 was on my boat, joined by a buddy of mine. We launched in the dark and headed to check a different spot with another boat (friend from day 1/2). After a chilly ride, -8 Celsius, we set lines on some great marks and bait. They hit 2 smaller fish (5lbs) quickly but we couldn’t get anything going so pulled lines and ran to where we had caught on days 1-3. Quickly after setting lines we hit a 7lb eye and a 9lb eye. After a short while we hit another that was right at the 10lb mark and then it died! We trolled from 10am-4pm without a bite and covered a lot of water. Sometimes Quinte is like that, the fish turn on and off quickly with no apparent rhyme or reason. We pulled lines and headed back to where we started to check those marks and try one last pass. What a great move it was as we hit a 10lb 8oz 29.75” tank just at dusk on a Barbie Reef Runner 800.
Overall for the week we landed 10 fish that were true double digit giants and not one of them was over 30” length. Talk about fatties. Our best baits were Naked Barbie Reef Runner 800, Deep Husky Jerk 14’s and Deep Husky Jerk 12’s with various snap weights. Trolling speeds had to be between 1.5-1.7 to get bit, anything more and we couldn’t get any action. We did try more speed when the bite slowed but it didn’t matter.
The Bay of Quinte is a special place in the fall, these migratory Lake Ontario Walleyes are on the feed big time and have tremendous colours. The later the better leading right up to ice and I’m still hoping to get our once or twice more before it locks up.
