From October 20-23, 2005, 49 anglers gathered on the Bay of Quinte to take in some of the best walleye fishing in the world. Once again, the Bay showed why it is the quintessential walleye fishery of the world.

The people in this story have their own great stories to tell about that week-end. They are all there for you to read on Hawk Talk.

There was never any doubt that the Autumn 2005 Adventure Fishing Week-end would be on the Bay of Quinte. Last year we gave it a try and the results were outstanding. There were lots of big walleye caught by a number of different anglers. It was such an impressive display that even I decided I would have to put aside my love of bass fishing for a few days to try my hand at dragging planer boards and crankbaits. The thought pained me to great ends. The Bay of Quinte has great bass fishing too ya know!

This is how my planer boards were configured behind my Princecraft. This was my first time using them so you had better go and read what the experts say - all I can say is this worked pretty good for me for a few days.

The heat was on. I was going to have a couple of guests with me on my boat and that always makes me feel additional pressure for bringing fish in - a terrible feeling when I have no confidence in my ability to use planer boards and deep-diving crankbaits - there's just too much that can go wrong with all that line and all those hooks.

On Friday morning breakfast was served at 6:00. My crew on this day, Lise and her son Mike, were right on time - they showed up around 7:00. Despite my intentions of being on the water early, Lise and Mike got to stand and watch me run like a chicken for two more hours. Finally we got on the water. Bundled up in layers we headed out to the Adolphus Reach.

Thank goodness it was calm for my first attempt to try using planer boards. That made it much easier reading the planer board cheat sheet that RJ had drawn on a piece of cardboard. Lise, perched in the bow held it up for me to look at while I set up the lines and boards in the stern. After 20 minutes I had managed to get four lines and boards running in a nice configuration behind the boat. With the 90 hp Merc pushing us between 2.5 and 3.0 mph we trolled Mann's +20 deep-diving crankbaits. It wasn't long before we noticed a planer board had broken rank and to my amazement I found myself reeling in what felt to be an enormous walleye. And was it! It was easily the biggest walleye of my life. He was so big he didn't fit in my net and we lost him... or something like that. No picture evidence. Mike and I wept. But not for too long.

Shortly after our first encounter another board was running a little off kilter. I plucked the rod out of its holder and handed it to Lise. Your turn! She cranked in the fish and this time we had better luck with the net. Phew! What a relief! And time to celebrate - we got our first Quinte walleye! Not a giant for Quinte - but a beauty on just about any other body of water.

Talk about happy! Stuff is working like clockwork my first time using planer boards. We are now one-for-two and looking to go two for three. And what do ya know? We have another fish on! It feels like a nice one. It's Mike's turn - take the rod and reel. Start cranking buddy - it's about 400 feet back there. As Mike reels in the planer board comes closer to the boat and I get ready to unclip it. And then when it is nearly within reach it falls completely off the line and we watch it float away. Helpless! Hmmmm. What did RJ's planer board cheat sheet say about retrieving an unattached board?

Lise holds up the biggest walleye she has ever caught. It was our first fish of the day and a sign of good things to come.

Not much! I thought about it. Are ya supposed to be able to turn the boat around and pick it up with three other boards out plus a fish being played? For sure it can't be done without creating a world-record ball of monofilament. To retrieve will require a painfully slow turn (you have to remember that this is my first experience running boards). Forget the turn - we need to get Mike's fish in the boat. Come on Mike keep cranking - you have about 300 feet to go. We finally saw the walleye. And lordy will you look at it! It's got to be nearly 30 inches long! A beautiful specimen.

There was still the matter of the lost planer board. It was way back and out of site at this point. My guest, Mike, was now doing the driving and as he began to execute the turn, I heard from a distance, a thunderous crusty voice yelling
"WE'LL GET IT!!!"

Without looking over my shoulder I knew who it was. I looked anyway. Sure enough there is Turkeyman and Brenda steaming toward my abandoned planer board. Thanks for the rescue! We ended up doing a 360 to get headed back into our original direction.

A little later on I finally got myself a beauty walleye that was approaching the 30 inch mark. Are there other things to catch besides 30 inch walleye? Are there any 25's around? Finishing the morning session on a successful note, we returned to our accommodations to take a brief break and to give me a chance to call Goodfellow's in Picton to make sure I was still picking up 50 striploin steaks around 5:00. That's one thing you don't want to be late with. When 50 guys have been catching tons of big walleye all day long you better get the steak in front of them as soon as they are off the water. No messing around - no sir!

So what do you think about the following excuse for bungling that good intention?

Having grown tired of tracking down lost planer boards in the morning, for the afternoon session I decided that I would loop the braided line around the clip for double protection. No way that board can come off the line now. This worked well for Mike's next fish - another fish close to 30 inches long. I had no difficulties un-looping the line around the clip and no difficulties with un-clipping the board from the line.

That is until I was reeling in my next fish. It felt like a goodie for sure. I slowly retrieved the planer board to avoid undue stress on the clip and finally the board was in my hand and all I have to do is unwrap the line from around the clip and the board will be free...

Oh oh! What have I done? That's not a loop around the clip anymore - it looks like a knot - kind of like the knot I use to tie the boat to the dock - the "Don't know knots, just tie lots" knot. This ain't gonna be too easy to pick out, especially as I have to hold the line in my bare hands with an 8 or 9 lb walleye on the end of the line. It took me 20 minutes to unclip the board - it was that or cut the line and hand-reel the walleye. That's not what I came here to do. And that's my excuse for being late to pick up the steaks and feed 50 hungry anglers. And I'm sticking to that story. Sorry fellas!

Friday had been a beautiful calm sunny day. Saturday morning we saw the smoke from the cement factory stacks blowing east, and really blowing east at that. This meant there would be swells rolling down the Adolphus Reach. For Lise, Mike and I these swells made for a kidney-pounding ride to and from our hunting ground east of the Glenora Ferry. Somehow we survived it.

With the wind blowing into our faces and the odd swell rolling over our bow, we set up a couple of planer boards and were almost immediately rewarded with a fine specimen of a sheephead. Mike had wanted to catch one real bad and now that mission had been accomplished. When it looked like rain was inevitable we decided to pack it in for the morning.

Later that afternoon Bobber and I suited up and headed back to the Reach. What is a Fish-Hawk Adventure Week-end without boating in waters resembling the North Atlantic? We were rewarded that afternoon for braving the elements with three more trophy-size walleye out of five encounters. And we finally lost a planer board for good. Not the kind in the picture on the right.Ya don't lose that kind so easily. If it was prone to getting lost I wouldn't be able to take a picture of it - would I?

The fishing was fantastic all week-end. The most fish my boat encountered during a morning or afternoon session was five, with three being the most we managed to get into the boat. I felt like we were having non-stop action as I was pretty busy learning how to run four planer boards at the same time. Around the campfire each night we had a chance to talk to the guys in the other 20 boats that were with us. It was nuts! Several boats scored more than 20 trophy-sized walleyes each day! One boat caught close to 40. Between the 49 guys and gals who attended this Adventure Week-end there was more than three hundred walleye caught - an astonishing number.

Below you can see more pictures of the fish that participants on our Week-end excursion caught.

ACROSS This is a modification I made to my Princecraft that allowed me to run 4 planer boards very easily. I attached two Down-East rod holders to the plank to supplement two Scotty rod holders that were already attached to my boat.

Before moving on to the dozens of pictures that others took during this week-end, I would like to take this opportunity to express my thanks to everyone who pitched in to make this week-end as great as it was. First, we were given outstanding informative seminars by Sheldon Hatch and Big Jim McLaughlin. It doesn't get any better than when you don't even have to raise your hand to ask a question. Second, Big-O, Topwater, Jazman and MT Livewell did a fine job of preparing our two suppers. That was great steak and turkey!

Third, I have to thank Merland Park for the prizes donated for our draw prizes. They were numerous and nice. Also to be thanked for furnishing generous prizes are Bait Casters, Rinaldo Hair Designers and Spa and Magnus Fishing Nets. Your prizes helped make a great week-end of fishing just that much more special.

And if you were impressed by the pictures of the walleye that we got into my Princecraft, check out the pics from some of the other anglers who made it to this Adventure Fishing Week-end...