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Publisher       John Whyte
Editor              Wil  Wegman
Contributing writers
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It's all over but the crying
Love At First Bite!  by Ashley Rae

I headed out for my third ice fishing trip of the year on Saturday morning. Myself with friends the Quinte Ice Fishing Team, and a few others hit the ice at sunrise for what turned out to be a beautiful day. Our first location was in Napanee, at -1° C with slight winds and approximately 8 inches of ice - it began. Some fish were landed right off the bat! I marked more fish than I had ever seen on my flasher. The screen was entirely lit up at times in the bottom 6 feet and it drove me crazy that they would not bite! They would stalk my lure but no hits as they were feeding on baitfish.

I was alert and trying to figure out ways to get them to commit - nothing. The other guys landed 9 fish for the morning and then it was decided to hit another location. The fish were not those aggressive 'Bay of Quinte' walleye we know and love!
We headed for lunch and then took off for Belleville. The sun was shining and I barely felt cold. This time we cut through 18 inches of ice with 15.5 feet of water below. I used a perch-coloured Macho Minnow rigged with a live minnow.
I finally marked a walleye that meant business. She followed up and hit like a train! Seeing fish all morning on the flasher screen was a tease and to finally pull one out of the ice was a sweet victory! I only caught one fish that day but I had such a blast anyway! It's fun to see everyone else catch fish. One of the guys even pulled a nice sized Sheepshead out of the ice!

I feel very fortunate to have been introduced to ice fishing this year. Winter is normally something I want to be over, but when you find something to do in those long cold winter months, you will start to enjoy it as I have, and bass season will come a lot sooner! Thanks to Jeff, Paul, Ryan, Joe and Ian for getting me hooked on those Bay of Quinte walleye!



The Last Truck in the Parking Lot
As the sun sets on another bass season and the first skim of ice starts to form in the bays and we surrender to the tweener season, we reflect on what an incredible fall it was, particularly November. I can't recall a November with so many perfect days. I spent the last two days of the season with Ontario Pro's David Chong.and Strike Kings own Mark Kulik on Lake Simcoe. The later part of the month might have been the best smallmouth fishing I can remember with fish after fish from 4 to 7 pound range. I was showing off a new blade bait with good success but I was getting schooled on more than I wish to share. Floater suits were the attire but their was a few days that sweaters were overkilll. We fished in depths between 25 and 50 ft. depending on the time of day and how much cloud cover there was.

Chris Atkinson with a big dark wild laker
Parry Sound Wild Lakers by: Christopher Atkinson

It was Super Bowl Sunday and we were on the 400 highway headed for Parry Sound and a chance at a little winter live release laker action up in Big Sound. Historically the Great Lakes had been home to one of the largest populations of wild lake trout found anywhere in the world, but by the end of the twentieth century the only remaining populations were in Superior and in Big Sound on Georgian Bay. The Ministry of Natural Resources in the later part of 1980’s decided to try and protect this fragile remaining population of native lake trout that had not been lost due to commercial over fishing, lamprey predation or loss of genetic diversity due to interbreeding with inferior hatchery fish.

The ministry and numerous concerned citizens came together and created a plan which included numerous sanctuaries in the area to protect valuable spawning areas and populations. The winter harvest season was pushed back to February 8th and a one line maximum was set for both summer time and winter time fisheries. Finally, a one fish limit with a 24 inch maximum size limit was put in place meaning that all fish in excess of 24 inches had to be released to grow old and spawn. Ministry test nets are now showing lake trout showing up in this fishery in excess of thirty pounds which are far larger than 24 inches!!
    Full Story..

Head South For April Smallies - but not too far south

For bass anglers the early spring just adds to the anxiety as the  June 27th opener is still months away. But there really is no reason to wait if you’re willing to spend a little time on the road. Three Barrie Bassmasters, Bill Walker, Kal Vaisanen, and John Whyte couldn’t stand it any longer so on April 2nd they purchased New York fishing licences online, loaded up the boat and headed to Lake Erie to fish the U.S. shore. Bass season is open all year as a catch and release fishery. The Canadian side of Erie openh on the 4th Saturday in June. Full Story