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.