Bay of Quinte Fishing

The Walleye Capital That Runs on a Schedule

Ask most anglers about a great walleye lake and they picture steady action on 2-pound fish. The Bay of Quinte plays a different game. Its biggest walleye don't live here at all. They live in Lake Ontario and migrate into the bay each fall.

That migration is the engine behind Quinte's fame. Starting around mid-October, big open-water walleye follow schools of baitfish into the bay. They stay through winter until they spawn in spring. These are old, slow-growing fish. Many are 12 to 15 years old, and some push 20.

The result: a real shot at a 10-to-12-pound walleye, with fish over 15 pounds caught most years. One charter group boated a 12.5-pound walleye on a single November trip. Nearby Napanee even calls itself the Walleye Capital of the World.

But Quinte is more than one fish. The bay stretches roughly 100 kilometres in a "Z" shape from Trenton to the open lake near Kingston. Along the way it holds largemouth and smallmouth bass, northern pike, jumbo yellow perch, crappie, and panfish for the kids off almost any dock.

This site is your plain-language guide to all of it: the species, the seasons, and the launches, charters, lodges, and bait shops that make a trip easy.