Sheldon Hatch

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.

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.

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.

The last week of October was great as usual on the Bay of Quinte with a few days of outstanding fishing. Looking through my logs this is always the best week for numbers of fish, but moving into November the fish get bigger. The hot colour where Blue and Silver and most fish seem to be located between the Ferry and the Light House East of Pull Point. The jig fishing has also been good, but I have been working flats and structure areas out in Adolphus Reach to stay away from the crowds around Thompsons Point.

Next week I am jigging in lake up north so I will report on how the bite is on the inland lakes. Next week I return to Quinte and will report on more walleye fishing activity.

Til’ the next report… keep you line tight.

-sheldon

The fishing has been stable with large fish caught on the troll while running deep diving cranks 25 feet down just East of Keith’s Shoal. The popular baits like the Reef-Runner 800, Manns Stretch 20+, Rapala Tail Dancers and Worden’s Sea Tiger in white or white with blue have been producing the most fish. Trolling speeds have been in the 1.7 to 2 mph range and the real windy days have produced the best.

Lots of fish are out in front of the cement factory in Picton Bay and there is also a good number of fish off of Sherman’s and Thompson’s Points. The jiggers have been doing good in these areas with a few nice walleye coming off the jig. In the next few weeks as the temperature drops the jig bite should improve as the fish start to relate to bottom.

The surface temperatures out in the deep water East of the Glenora Ferry have been in the 56 to 52 F range , while the Picton Bay area has been in 52-45 F range.

The long range forecast for the next week looks like more South winds and above normal temperatures so the water temps should hold close to the same for the week, which mean most fish will be in that 25 to 30 foot range.

Until next week keep you lines tight and fish on…

Well the walleye have been on fire out in the big lake this summer. Many have gone into the double digits for size and we have had a few days where we limited out in only a few hours. It is nice to catch the big walleye in the mild summer weather. Most fish seem to be coming off the troll with 800 series reef runners in any combination of Purple. If you are looking to get out for some of these big summer time fish make sure you book early as most guiding dates are taken for the remainder of August.

In October I will be moving into the Bay of Quinte to start hunting down the walleye as they move into the bay area following all the gizzard shad.

Fish on…

-sheldon

September 2008 has been a great month on Quinte this season with many large walleyes landed on every trip out. I have spent many days on the water trying to work out a pattern of how the walleye migrate in from Lake Ontario and have found many staging and feeding areas that hold the big walleyes the region is famous for. I have started guiding for the fall season and many personal best catches have already been logged by happy clients.

It is time to sharpen those crank-bait hooks and get the camera ready for a fish of a life time as the fall walleye run on the Bay of Quinte is one of the best in North America. If you are looking to book my services this fall please call or email soon as space is limited. Follow this link for more guiding information. www.ezelo.com

Click on image to view in a larger format.

The fishing on Mississippi Lake has started to heat up with the larger walleye taking cranks. The best crank has been the Berkley Flicker Shad. The best tip for this time of the season is to try and pick it up a notch when trolling. I have been catching a majority of my fish when trolling around 2.5 to 3.5 mph. Remember to fine tune your cranks as they will run out to the side and also not reach their maximum diving depth at these quick speeds. You can view an article I did on my guiding site at: Cranky Cranks

Here is an image of me holding up a guiding clients fish caught this week while trolling cranks on Mississippi Lake. The fish was a chunky one and measured around 26″. It was released to be caught another day.

With the warm surface temps (78 F ) do not be afraid to pick the speed up when pulling cranks, this allows you to cover water and also add some crazy action to the cranks.

Those that like to pull spinners and crawlers should be looking at switching to willow leaf blades so you can keep your speed above 1.5mph during the summer on Mississippi Lake.

 

Well summer is fast approaching with the children almost done school and the walleye fishing is starting to heat up. I have been out on the water working all the kinks out of the new boat and spending quality time with my six year old son.  The image you can see is  a nice walleye he caught while bottom bouncing with a slow death hook and chunk of crawler. He was very excited to get his photo taken and it was quite the treat to watch him try to catch it out of the large 63″ live-well in the Tundra.

While out on a couple of lakes in the past few days I have noticed walleye are starting to spread out and suspended out to the side of structure. Soon the spoons, cranks and open water spinners will start to work as these fish continue to feed during the warm summer months.

Just remember, contrary to popular belief walleye do feed during the summer in bright sunlight and they may  only be a few inches below the surface when suspended out over deep water.

The fishing has been very good on Mississippi Lake with the walleye taking crawlers on spinners behind bottom bouncers. The water temp this week has jumped into the 70+ degree F so the fish are moving into summer locations and the weeds are starting to grow quickly.  Some heavy winds in the pat few days have really stirred up the shallows and mud lines have been a very good location to find some active fish. 

Boat Update: The new boat is on the water and running great, the engine(s) break-in went great with the 250 XS really hauling the Tundra along quickly. With a full load and live-well the boat will run at 61.6 mph, which is just fine for a 21 foot walleye boat. Still need to complete some of the final touches on the rigging by adding the rod holders up front for dead-sticking. The storage is crazy in this boat as the hole front deck is a rod locker and storage area. I have most everything in the boat and still have 2 completely empty storage compartments.

I hope to get out some more this week and will report back on the fishing in the area as the walleye bite should really start to heat up as the water temps rise into the summer range. Also it is a good time to try the slow death hook as the fish are feeding on May Flys.