Bay Of Quinte Fishing Report July 27, 2011

Bay Of Quinte Fishing Report ( A Tad Late)
Finally went fishing with my long time friend Joey. He just sold his Stratos and picked up a Bass Cat, so we took my Skeeter for the day. Launching out of Trenton, the water was dark; really dark. I guess the two days of rain we had last week all funnelled into the Trent System. Well, out from Trenton, huge areas of the lake and several bays were also dark. The weeds were clean but starting to silt up. Having the daker rain water was not a plus. We couldn't buy a bite. We tried the many weed flats, some pads, a few trees and drops. All with a big zero.


While fishing a flat, this booming, blast of air passed us followed by a sonic boon. Really, it was a boom. Looking up, two F16 or F15 fighter planes did a quick turn right over us. Super cool. They come in so fast that you don't see them until it is too late to grab the camera.

Trenton, Ontario has a huge Air Force base. It was very busy that day with helicopters, jets and massive cargo planes. A nice air show while fishing is always a cool thing.


Look up in the top left corner.




After the planes, we changed locations in a hurry and started getting into them.We started getting them along the outside grass line. Joel was catching them on a white Yum beaver bait and I was using Havoc Pit Boss and a Berkley Cigger Craw. All these were rigged Texas with 3/4oz weights to pierce the grass. The water ranged from 8' to 11' of water.

After setting a water depth, we tried to run a pattern. The wind wasn't blowing super powerfully but strong enough to make it a battle to fish some areas. Unfortunately, the pattern woundn't hold up. Not sure why because this lake can pattern really well.


There is a bass under there, we hope.


Again, we got enticed to fishing some more trees. They looked so go. Even before we got within casting distance, I popped one in the 3lb cast with a jika rigged craw. Instantly, we imagined this was the place for a war. After 8 trees we got nothing again, or maybe one little guy. We kept working the shoreline and some inside grass lines with a bass here and there.

Docking fishing on Quinte has never been great. There are not that many docks and the fish don't seem to tuck up under them with consistency. That's my findings but I'm sure someone has a super row of docks. Well, we starting snapping baits up under them and almost every dock had a bass. Most were in the 2 pound range and eager to bite. Working 7 docks, we nailed 5 bass and they all jumped wildly. 

As the day started winding down, we returned to try some flats that held fish in the morning. The fishing slowly progressed but the grass beds started to pitter out.  As Joel alternated between a popper, spinnerbait, and pitching with some success. I started getting bored and picked up one of Joel's rods with a rattle bait.

Well, working is through the open areas a big one smacked it. I first expected a medium sized pike but it was a decent largemouth. Nothing giant but he pulled like one. I figured he was my bonus bass. Pure luck. That was until 10 casts later, another big one hit it. This one really fought. Much harder than the last, so I expected a bigger largemouth. As it jumped, it was clear it was all smallmouth. Surprisingly, it was in the weeds in about 5 feet of water. It was about 3 lbs after I grabbed it and had a look at it. Again, no giant but hell, how many rattle bait fish does one get at 2:45pm on a hot, muggy July day? Not many. With that we were done.