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Saturday
Our timing was considered by many to be a
little early in the season for the big big walleye that exceed 30 inches
or roughly 10 pounds. Many thought it would be a waste of time - they
didn't think the walleyes would be in the Bay...period. Why?
While the Bay of Quinte has been noted for
its populations of resident walleye, it is the migratory giants that we
would be after. These giant walleye spend the better part of the year
chasing forage around Lake Ontario. Each fall, usually starting around
mid-October, shad swim in from the vast expanses of Lake Ontario and congregate
in the Bay of Quinte - it's a part of their spawning routine. Not far
behind the shad are the walleye...beefing up for the winter months, gorging
on shad (and happily for us, Mann's +20s).
These walleye are as long and as fat as they
get anywhere in the world. Would the walleye be in the Bay of Quinte yet?
Sheldon, one of the walleye fanatics that was going on our Adventure Week-end,
went to The Bay several days early to hunt some down. His thinking was
that mid-October called for a hunt that would be conducted as close to
Lake Ontario as possible in order to intercept the first walleyes entering
the Bay.
It was exciting to see one of his reports
that came in prior to the entire party leaving for Quinte...the one that
included a picture of an 11 pound walleye he had caught. More than one
angler going to Quinte that week-end had trouble sleeping the night before.
Now it was Saturday. Most of the guys into
walleye fishing had had a great day on Friday and were feeling good about
the five-dollar derby for largest fish. Most of the boats were still on
trailers and the anglers drove down the road to the launch not far from
Adolphustown. Trailering the boats saved a lot of time as compared to
the rough boat ride that I myself took to the fishing grounds...the one
that inspired a patent for Fish-Hawk kidney belts.
Now you have probably looked at the pictures
taken on Friday where there's all these soaking wet anglers and thought
to yourself, "Oh! That weather looks nasty!" Well as nasty as
Friday was, it was only raining hard and blowing a small gale. The wind
didn't really get going until Saturday. It started out strong and grew
in intensity the rest of the day until it blew everyone off of the water.
And being blown off the water may not be
the best way to describe it. At one point it looked to me like Eye-Tracker's
boat was about to grounded onto the beach and never trailered. It was
Fish-for-fun who saved the day as he waded into the water of Quinte, icy
waves threatening his privates (lol), to keep Eye-Tracker's boat from
beaching like a sailboat in a Florida hurricane.
Back at the Lodge, everyone waited with great
anticipation as boat-by-boat the anglers returned and found out whether
they had boated the biggest walleye that day. Wow! Again there were plenty
of large walleyes caught but it was Jazman, Markus and Hoss who were the
front-runners.
I found out first that Jazman had caught
a 30.5 inch walleye. That's a good one for sure, but 30.5 is a cursed
number for Jazman. He had been the leader for two days with a 30.5 inch
pike at Lakeside in May. With 30 minutes left in that derby, our friend
Tony caught a 31 inch pike to deny Jazman the cash. This time Jazman had
measured the fish without pressing its tail together to gain the added
eigth's of an inch it may have taken to win.
I learned of Markus's fish next. There it
was, coming out of his "cooler of death" as we fondly know it.
And it was enormous! Jazman - it looks like your lead is in trouble
my friend. Markus laid it out and squished the tail to elongate the
fish's total length to 31 inches. The crowd went wild (not really, it
was more like Ohhhhhhhhh ahhhhhhhh!)
Not Markus again! He's always catching
big fish...except for that time he was handi-capped by teaming up with
MT Livewell for the Arnprior Catfest last spring. Sorry MT, but there
is no question that you are jinxed.
It looked like Markus was going to do it
again. But wait. I received a late report of another angler who reported
a big fish as well. Another 31 incher in fact. Who? Hoss? That fella who
came all the way up from Toronto to fish with us? Well done Hoss. Someone
at least tied Markus.
That night we handed out prizes for the longest fish,
the longest walleye, and the largest bass. As there was a tie between
Markus and Hoss for the longest fish and the longest walleye, we tossed
a coin to see who would pick a prize first. Markus won the coin toss and
ran with the Derby cash (80 bucks). Hoss was left with a beautiful Shimano
(thanks Lee Branscombe) spinning reel. For the big bass we had a pair
of sunglasses that came with three interchangeable lenses. Fishmaster
caught the biggest bass and thanks goes to Logocentral for those.
In addition to the prizes that were given
away for outstanding angling, we had prizes available for just about everyone
who showed up. These prizes were drawn randomly and came to us thanks
to Paddletales Tackle, Bass Pro Tackle, SuperDad, Otto's BMW,
the Ottawa Truck Centre,
Shimano Canada and
Logocentral . We had mugs and t-shirts and hats and tackle and Uzicks
and knives etc etc.
The next day, Sunday, our last day on The
Bay, was a day on which many people packed her in and headed for home
early. But not everyone! There were still several guys whose motors started
and whose bilge pumps were working that managed to get out on the water
for another kick at the cat. You can see their pics below.
When it was all said and done, the Quinte
Adventure Week-end has to go down in the books as one of the great ones.
It is amazing how 35 people from different occupational, educational and
geographical backgrounds are able to come together in the environment
of an Adventure Week-end and simply have a blast. My conclusion...fishing
people are good people and they need to get together as often as possible.
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We did our fishing
close to Lake Ontario where we anticipated meeting up
with the large migrating walleyes chasing shad.
Saturday
didn't start out too bad. Muskiemagnet is driving, WIG is in
orange, and Markus shows off the contenders for the derby.
Big-O found standing up to be the answer to the body blow each
swell delivered. That's Topwater driving the boat.
Arrrrr Billy...av ya ere been to sea?
The only thing missing from this picture
is the Hibernia oil-drilling platform and an iceberg.
After having enough of the weather
(no one admitting to being sea-sick)
Eye-Tracker and most of the others decided to get the boats out.
Contender Number One in the $5.00
Derby. Jazman measured this fish at
30.5 inches then released it. He neglected to measure with a squished
tail.
Contender
Number Two - Markus denies Jazman his day in the sun by
showing up with a 31 incher. Ya shoulda squished the tail, Jaz!
Contender Number Three
- What's this? Markus has competition for big fish?
Hoss also had a 31 incher before the weather forced everyone off the water.
Accepting their awards for braving
the week-end are Hailee and Spencer.
They were each awarded a new Fish-Hawk.Net Kids model cap. Sharp!
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