Berkley FlickerShad landed over 40 pounds of walleye in two tournaments. It all started on the Bay of Quinte with a tournament win and big fish prize while casting along weed-lines. The excellent action and pitch of the rattles in the FlickerShad had the walleye smashing the bait. Gord Schultz and I worked the shads in practice and it out fished all our other crank-baits. On tournament day we had our limit in the live-well only after a few casts each and moved around upgrading to larger fish all day, allowing us to bring in a winning weight of 18.65 pounds. The big fish for the tournament was landed on the Flicker Shad and tipped the scales at 8.05 pounds.
Right after the QFS tournament on Bay of Quinte we headed 8 hours north to fish the NOPWT Mattagami walleye tournament. The practice started out casting jigs tipped with gulp alive along the steep sand banks caused by the low water levels. When trying to get some bigger bites we noticed the walleye once again preferred the FlickerShad and smashed it at a fast retrieve speed. On day one of the tournament we landed a limit of just over 10 pounds to place us in 27th place out of 124 teams. On day two knowing the walleye would be a little spooked from fishing pressure we casted along mud lines to land another limit of walleye with the 5th biggest bag of the day at 11.64 pounds. This moved us up 19 positions to eighth place and allowed us to cash another cheque.
So in only three days of tournament fishing the FlickerShad landed over 40 pounds of walleye and cashed in on almost $6000 of prizes and money. Once again this crank-bait did not disappoint and I am sure Gord and I will be casting these a little more often after a great week of fishing.
18.65 Pounds - First place winning bag QFS Bay of Quinte walleye tournament.
The opening tournament of the Quinte Fishing Series 2010 season took place at the George St. ramps in Belleville on Sunday, May 30th with the only walleye event of the season. 50 teams were registered for the event which started with calm winds and waters at the 7:00 a.m. blast-off time. Anglers fished from 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and were allowed to bring in their best four (4) walleye caught during the day.
Early on, the leading weight hovered at just over the 13 lb. mark and tournament officials thought that this might hold up. This was not the case though as two thirds of the way into the weigh-in, Sheldon Hatch from Perth and partner, Gord Schultz of Smith Falls, took a commanding lead and it was never challenged. With a great four fish weight of 18.65 lbs, they blew the rest of the field away by three pounds! For their win, Hatch and Schultz took home a cheque for $3,000.00 plus two gift bags compliments of Mark’s Work Warehouse and a $50.00 Gift Certificate from Kelsey’s/Montana’s, Belleville. These two anglers, who only fish the walleye circuits in both Canada and the northern U.S., also had the “big fish” of the day. Their walleye of 8.05 lbs. earned them the Canadian Tire “Big Fish” Award which included two $75.00 gift cards compliments of Canadian Tire – Belleville and the “pool” money of $960.00 cash! Our thanks to the McCullough’s at Canadian Tire for taking on the Big Fish Prize for 2010.
Tournament time is here again and I have been very busy pre-fishing. Spent lots of time on Bay of Quinte and have dialed in a pretty good Pattern that should hold for a few weeks.
Spring is a great time to hunt for walleye as they can be found in all sorts of locations and you get to use every technique from vertical jigging to trolling with offshore planer boards. So far this spring I have taken walleye on all sorts of techniques, but bottom bouncing spinners and crawlers has been the top producer.
Looking forward to the first tourney this weekend out of Deseronto. Well time to get back into the swing of things – Tourney Time.
The walleye opening weekend was kicked off with an ezelo walleye institute on West Lake and the Bay of Quinte. My tournament partner Gord Schultz and West Lake Willows owner Scott Walcott walked the class through all the techniques involved in catching old marble eyes. A few of the walleye from Saturday made for a great fish fry on Sunday before heading out in the boats for the afternoon session. The weather held considering the hostile forecast and winds in the area. The fishing was a typical spring bite on spinners and crawlers pulled behind in-line offshore planer boards and bottom bouncers.
Tundra Class Room
The average depth was the 10 to 15 foot range and if you added new weed growth to the mix you increased your odds of hooking up with walleye. A strange coincident over the weekend was the colour of choice. Both West Lake and Bay of Quinte walleye seemed to like blades or small cranks in silver with blues in the mix. The surface temps where around the 60F mark so a quicker paced troll often produced walleye. Depending on the light and area you could go from about 1.3 to 2 mph to entice some walleye action. Water levels are down this year so you need to be careful when working shallows, at one launch I could not get my Tundra off the trailer.
Back out on Quinte again this week and will report how the spring fish are setting up for the season.
National Professional Anglers Association
Published April 28, 2010
Since 2008 NPAA members Sheldon Hatch (#928) and Gord Schultz (#553) have continued to grow their Ezelo Walleye Institute (EWI) on the Bay of Quinte. They are pleased to announce the addition of Fin-tech Tackle Company as an official sponsor of their school.
Each day the students will start their day in the classroom learning techniques such as trolling, jigging, rigging, bottom bouncing, electronics and boat control. In the afternoon they take the classroom on the water in their tournament boats so the students can put into practice what they learned.
While presenting seminars Sheldon and Gord have found the information is difficult for anglers to digest. The classroom and on the water experience reinforces the learning process and makes for a fun and educational weekend.
I have managed to get down to the river a few times during the spring run and it looks like a majority of walleye finished spawning in early April. It seems the warm weather and strong sun during Easter really got the walleye on the move. Most areas have very few fish left and the river currents seem to be at levels we would normally see in late May.
The water levels are down from last spring, so be careful this year on opening day as hazards will be prominent.
Only a few more weeks until walleye opener, so get your gear ready to go.
Last night I was in Arnprior to do a presentation to the Upper Valley chapter of Muskies Canada. The topic of the night was the new Lowrance HDS units and StructureScan. The members enjoyed seeing the features and a few can’t wait to get out on the water with their new units to try some of the tips I provided.
While driving around Ottawa today I noticed many of the trees starting to bloom, or already in bloom. This is usually the case in late May around these parts and signals me that the walleye will be moving to their summer patterns.
So what will this warm weather do to the spring walleye fishing?
Well I am not sure but we will all have to work out the bite as mother nature presents us with a “curve ball”, I figure by the time I hit the water the walleye will be in their summer locations and water temps will be above normal. The hunting technique I will be using in a few weeks time will be bottom bouncers with spinners and crawlers, this will allow me to cover lots of water to see how far the walleye have moved from their spring spawning areas. I will post a report on this blog the first chance I get to record some water surface temp readings on local lakes. So hold on tight with this warm spring weather and try to think out side the box this opener.
Time will tell what this spring season will be like and let’s hope we can all find those spring time walleye.
It has been very difficult to concentrate on fishing this past season as my wife has been battling breast cancer. We first found out in March and the surgery and treatments have kept us very busy. All the treatments are done and I am going to take a break from blogging over the winter to focus on family.
Here is a video I did on updating your Lowrance HDS software. This is the first of many videos I will be doing for Lowrance, no better way to learn then by example. Have to love the internet and YouTube for all it has to offer the modern day angler.
Berkley FlickerShad landed over 40 pounds of walleye in two tournaments. It all started on the Bay of Quinte with a tournament win and big fish prize while casting along weed-lines. The excellent action and pitch of the rattles in the FlickerShad had the walleye smashing the bait. Gord Schultz and I worked the shads in practice and it out fished all our other crank-baits. On tournament day we had our limit in the live-well only after a few casts each and moved around upgrading to larger fish all day, allowing us to bring in a winning weight of 18.65 pounds. The big fish for the tournament was landed on the Flicker Shad and tipped the scales at 8.05 pounds. 
