July 18th
Was out at Darlington yesterday and fished all day from 6:00 am until 5:00 pm and we went 11 for 12 fish. We boated 1 brwon trout, 4 rainbows and 6 chinooks with the heaviest chinook being at 20 lbs. The fishing seem to really come on in the afternoon there and we were fishing in 120FOW and our baits were from 30 - 60 feet down. We were marking alot of bait fish and you can see the larger fish around the bait fish everytime we dropped our lines to the same depths we had our rigger snaps go off. There were many boats there using planer boards and we felt that we were quite successful without the boards. If you are wanting to fish for browns then I would recommend that you use planer boards for greater success.

Wellington is still not have any sign of chinooks in the area from all of the reports that I am receiving. You can still fish for rainbows and browns there and it shouldn't be too long and the chinooks should start to show up. Tomorrow I will be heading out for largemouth bass and will report back on that trip. Have funa dn have a great weekend.

July 13th
Forgive me my fisherpeople for I have sinned, it has been five days since my last fishing confession. Today I was out fishing all day long first we headed down the 401 to Bomanville this morning and we were on the highway at 4:30 am. There were quite a few boats at Darlington heading out for the great King Salmon and I ran into Dave Chatterton (Fish Finder Charters) and they landed a 31 lb chinook that right now is the largest from Darlington. Yesterday a 35.46 lb. salmon was landed on Wayne Andrews boat from Port Credit. Wayne does well from Port Credit and it is nice to see one of his customers on his charter with the big fish that just might win the truck in the salmon derby. The first day of the second week of the derby has posted 5 salmon over 30 lbs. That is huge for this year and we expect that there will be many more large fish entered in the next few weeks. I have not received any reports as of yet from the Wellington area and I will check tomorrow with some of my friends to see how they did. At Darlington we were 2 for 4 landing one chinook just under 20 lbs and released it as it did not make the leaderboard and we kept a nice rainbow trout. Most of the boats in the area were landing fish and I am not sure if there were any large fish taken that would make the leaderboard.

When I returned to Belleville at approximately 5:00 pm I hooked our boat up and my wife (Laurie) and I decided to head out to Point Anne to see if the walleye are biting. We ran into a couple of our customers there and they reported good fishing and the walleye bite was on even though it was a bit breezy and choppy out on Big Bay, perfect for walleye fishing. Well I got out fished again by Laurie and good thing I brought her along or I would not have had any walleye for dinner. Laurie landed a nice 3 lber. which was perfect for dinner for the two of us. I on the other hand had a couple of perch hit my line and also landed a 2 lb largemouth which was released.

We might be heading out tomorrow evening for some more walleye fishing and then Tuesday back to Wellington checking for salmon and Wednesday back to Darlington.

July 8th
Today we again fished off of Scotch Bonnet and there were only 6 boats out in the area which made it easy for navigating. The bait fish that we located yesterday and today are not in great numbers and the larger fish that were following the bait fish were rainbows. we did hook a couple nad enjoyed watching them jump out of the water and we released them all. You can get a good pile of rainbows just south of Scotch Bonnet in 95 FOW and they are from 30-60 feet down. We have yet to locate any Chinooks in the area as of yet. I still feel that it is early for them in the Wellington area and I have yet to hear of any size coming out of the Wellington area. We are going to give Wellington a rest for a few days and launch out of Darlington on Sunday hoping to get into some 30 lb plus Chinooks. Darlington and Bluffers has been producing Chinooks in the 28-30 lb range all week. We will then be back at Wellington hoping that the chinnoks have moved into the area. Presently there is not enough bait fish in the area to attract salmon. Last year we marked huge pods of bait fish and this year so far we have yet to discover those pods. The cormorants seem to find them closer to shore in 30-40 FOW. When we saw a huge flock of cormorants we decided to go over and see what they were diving for and it was bait fish and in small numbers. As stated before usually the salmon show up just after they hit the Darlington area etc. They will be here soon enough and the water temperatures have warmed up enough that there should be some action real soon. We have friends of ours that will be launching out of Wellington on Thursday and hopefully we will get a more positive report from them.

July 7th
Salmon fishing was sort of slow today as well. We were fishing south of the Scotch Bonnet again and this time we marked a lot of bait fish with some impressive hooks around the bait fish. The salmon were not that active today and our fish finder had more activity on it than normal. The chinooks should start showing up in great numbers and in the next couple of days I'm sure there will reports of getting some large ones. We were pleasantly surprised to day as we were fishing in 120 FOW water and decided to run a couple of lead core lines with spoons on them and we landed a good size walleye. The walleye could not be released as it had the hooks in deep and the gills were damaged as we reeled him in.

July 6th
Salmon fishing was sort of slow this morning, the day was picture perfect with amny boats out working around Nicholson's Island and Scotch Bonnet. We counted 15 boats in that area and decided to get away from the crowd and head south approximately 5 miles and fished in 220 FOW and we had our riggers down ranging from 40-90 feet. We managed to get into some coho salmon and lost a good one at the boat due to my error, and we also got a brown trout and a rainbow trout.

Last night we went out and got into some good topwater bass fishing before dark adn then trolled for some walleye. The bite seemed to be on and we landed a couple of walleyes in the 2 lb range and kept them for eating. We will be back out again in the morning for salmon and hopefully be able to find some Chinook's which seem to not be in the area as of yet. We have only a couple of reports of chinooks being caught and their sizes are small and the bait fish are beginning to show up which means the chinnoks will follow them in.

July 5th
Bass fishing is at an all time high here in the Bay of Quinte. The numbers are great and there seems to be no shortages of both largemouth and smallmouth bass. There are many reports of huge jumbo perch in the area and I am personally heading out this evening to give it a go for perch and walleye. The walleye bite is spotty and the sizes vary from 1-4 lbs. Hay Bay area still seems to be producing well and so is the Telegraph Narrows.

The Toronto Sportsman Show Salmon Derby starts today and will go until August 23rd. I will be fishing the tournament daily until the end and will report our success and which lures we are using and at what depths. We will begin fishing the Scotch Bonnet and reports are that coho salmon are being caught there as well as some brown trout and rainbow trout.If you are heading out be careful and watch the weather reports, Lake Ontario can get rough at times.

June 23rd
Took the day off yesterday from everything and had a family day out fishing. My wife and both of our boys enjoyed some quality time fishing and just having fun. We launched out from Herchimer and headed towards Big Bay. We trolled around Grape Island and I hooked a large sheephead and our youngest lad Hunter (9 yrs. old) hooked a nice largemouth bass in the 2 lb range and we released it immediately. Hunter is still upset with me that we didn't take a picture of it and he finally understood that we had to release it right away. I did promise him that we will be out on July 1st Canada Day and target bass so that we can get some pics of him with his catch. We were trolling with erie dearies and CC Shads and both produced well. I then switched to rapala husky jerk and pulled in a couple of small walleyes in the 14"-16" range. Walleyes are getting alittle bit more difficult to get and our tip is to fish in deeper water and you will mark alot of fish and be more successful, we were fishing in 23 FOW.

June 18th
The bite seems to be favourable in many areas and anglers are getting some nice eating size walleyes. Hay Bay and the Telegraph Narrows are still the big producers where walleye being caught are between 14"-20". Most of the walleye are caught on spinner baits dressed witha worm and some are now reporting successes with the CC Shads. Within the next couple of weeks after I am done shooting in the Nationals I will be out targeting rainbow and salmon and will report on a regular basis for those that are hunting for cohos, chinooks, rainbows and browns. Some of our customers have been calling in regards to charters out on the Bay and also in regards to salmon charters..............I do not charter and I do have on occassion have those that charter meet their clients at our store (due to the fact that it is very accessible from the 401). I will make available charter information for those that are interested in the services of charter. presently a good one to go with is Scott from West Lake Willows he seems very knowledgable of Lake Ontario as well as the Bay of Quinte. If you are interested in Scott's services he can be contacted on his website by clicking on here.

For those of you coming up this week and weekend and require accomodations the best place that we have found locally is Park Lane Motel on Dundas St. here in Belleville. The person to contact there is Lorraine and her number is (613) 962-5394 and I have received great reports from all of the anglers that stayed there during the ice fishing season. If you are coming up to get some of the tasty walleyes here in the Bay of Quinte enjoy the weather which seems to be co-operating, have fun and drive safely getting here.

June 11th
It was a quiet weekend in the area with only a few boats out on the water. It seems the gas prices are showing its crippling effect it is having on the economy and many out of town fisherman are staying put and reduced the amount of times they are coming to the Bay of Quinte. The fishing lately has picked up and reports from the locals are encouraging as they are boating many 1-3 lb fish with the odd one in the 5-9 lb range. Most of the fish are being caught along the weed beds and they are using some crankbaits retrieving them slowly over the weedbeds and most are using spinners with worms. Our boat has been out the last couple of days with friends of ours and they are boating fish in Long Reach area and Telegraph Narrows. They will be out again to day and I am still not able to make it with the training I am going through however I am hoping to get out next week before I leave for a few days. The weather has been favourable for walleye fishing so if you are thinking on coming down to the area the bite is on.

June 6th
It is going to be an extremely HOT and humid weekend coming up and for those of you coming intot he area for some walleye fishing well you are hitting it at a good time. The walleye have been very aggressive this past week and I am sorry to say that I have not been able to get out and fish. Presently I am training for the Canadian Trapshooting Championships that are taking place in 3 weeks and my fishing time is limited. I am hoping to get out this Saturday evening. Musky opens as well this Saturday good luck to all of those anglers in pursuit of the majestic musky.

A local angler, Shawn Wright has been kind enough to submit a fishing tournament report that he has organized and it definitely seems that they have done extremely well. Their tournament consists of 1 walleye tournament and 4 bass tournaments. Shawn has expressed to me that these tournaments are more for the everyday angler (not professional anglers) who enjoy fishing and do not have expensive bass boats. Sounds to me like this is a great tournament to be in. Here are the results of their walleye tournament and it definitely does tell us that they are on to a great spot for walleyes.

1st Place - Kelly Shire & Shawn Wright - 13.3 lbs.
2nd Place - Chris Maybe & Gene James - 11.8 lbs.
3rd Place - Damon Wright & Don Wright - 11.3 lbs.

Congratulations to all of the winners and best of luck in the next tournaments.