Poll for Quinte Fishing Series

[Dave Hircock]

I only fished it randomly over the years but can say I won't fish an event if the lake is open because I choose not to run it therefore fishing for about 5th at best. I have never understood why the series has struggled so much with this issue? The bay has a ton of water, lots of room to fish both.

[BenClapp]

I would have to agree with Neil, if it is going to change than largemouth only would seem the logical choice. The QFS has yet to try "bay only", and the first largemouth only field had 75 ish boats (with help from the bass champs tournament). Currently the first two tournaments and the classic are largemouth only, so why not the entire series?

Ben Clapp

[JohnWhyte]

I haven't fished the Quinte series but would love to do a couple of events. But I personally would not enter an event that was open to the lake. I love fishing smallies on Lake Ontario but it really doesn't make any sense these days spending $400+ on fuel and dragging fish back countless miles for a tournament with these kind of payouts never mind considering the health of the fish. The bay is massive and has great largemouth and smallmouth fishing. Winner of the OBF Qualifier second day was smallies in the bay and the Johnstons weighed in 26.50 pounds in the bay so they are there. It offers an equal opportunity for everyone regardless of boat size.

To me, allowing anglers to run to the lake is a waste of a great fishery.

[MattClapp]

2012 CSFL had 77 teams on Quinte with NO limits to species or location.
2013 CSFL had 51,37 teams on Quinte after imposing 'Bay only" (and has had between 35-29 teams ever since).

Given the above, I don't understand why QFS would consider 'Bay Only' as an option? An unbiased poll should have investigated other options.

[JohnWhyte]

2012 CSFL had 77 teams on Quinte with NO limits to species or location.
2013 CSFL had 51,37 teams on Quinte after imposing 'Bay only" (and has had between 35-29 teams ever since).

Given the above, I don't understand why QFS would consider 'Bay Only' as an option? An unbiased poll should have investigated other options.

Matt
Do you think the reduced field was because of the restriction? I fished those events and most that I talked to said they would rather not have to run. As for the reduced fields since then, there has been reduced fields for every series on Quinte and everywhere else. Not sure if its from the lack of interest by locals or simply like everywhere else, all the options for other tournaments.

I think it would be interesting to see the ratio of locals fishing the Quinte series compared to those that used to travel and have the expense of staying. There are just so many options now and tournament anglers just can't afford to add more events to their schedule. If there is a conflict in dates they are likely to choose closer to home.

Personally I would love to run to the lake but not from Belleville.

[tylerzimmer]

so matt .... question ..... how come opening weekend the bass an hour gets 200 boats! and the next day gets 75....... anyone that thinks bay only would get less boats has a horrible understanding of how to make this series better....btw i know for a fact CSFL used to get 80-120 boats on BAY ONLY(really good numbers) for years if you want to bring up numbers.... the 30 boats that like to fish the lake are not close to the 120 that could be there for bay only!

[Jimmy Looi]

I have fish QFS for more than 5 years now and only fish the Lm/Sm event maybe 2 or 3 times. I chose not to run to Lake Ontario because of fuels and equipment cost. For the last 3 or 4 years I only fish the largemouth events. I would fish more events if is bay only, even if is Lm/Sm.

[JohnWhyte]

I have fish QFS for more than 5 years now and only fish the Lm/Sm event maybe 2 or 3 times. I chose not to run to Lake Ontario because of fuels and equipment cost. For the last 3 or 4 years I only fish the largemouth events. I would fish more events if is bay only, even if is Lm/Sm.

I think you are in the majority. There is the other side of the coin. Some of the guys that fish the lake have a much harder time competing in the bay. It's easy to drag a drop shot past 100 fish in deep water but when you need to be versatile and well rounded it becomes much tougher.

[MattClapp]

Matt
Do you think the reduced (CSFL) field was because of the restriction?

Its hard to gauge because CSFL changes their format so often, but I feel its a factor to the now ~50% less than what it was a few years ago. Note; my csfl dates above are not correct; csfl.ca 2012 results omitted 'bay only' on results.

As for the reduced fields since then, there has been reduced fields for every series on Quinte and everywhere else.

QFS has been less affected and had pretty consistent entries. For QFS during same approx period (last week july, smallmouth allowed)


2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
49 46 56 53 43

I think it would be interesting to see the ratio of locals fishing the Quinte series compared to those that used to travel and have the expense of staying..
..

Agree! QFS's gradual decline is more complex than what can be inferred from a (biased) 2 question survey.

Personally I would love to run to the lake but not from Belleville.

Me too! Change the location.

[JohnWhyte]

Do you know of any tournaments that have based in Picton?

[Craig Butler]

I have fished both the Quinte Series and the CSFL the last few years on Quinte and I think it's best to compare apples to apples and oranges to oranges.

The Quinte Series entry #'s are consistently higher when the lake is off limits. From a business stand point, seems simple.

Now whether to make in 'Largies Bay Only' or simply make it 'Bay Only' is another question.....lol

[kendoner]

Hold two Bay only tournies and two Lake open tournies and pick the one with the highest turnout. Seems pretty simple to me.

[AricStoner]

Hold two Bay only tournies and two Lake open tournies and pick the one with the highest turnout. Seems pretty simple to me.

The only problem I see with that is the actual Dates used to host each. I've noticed (as with several other tours on this and other bodies of water) that the turnouts seem to be at their highest earlier in the year (when the fishing is typically better than in the dog days of summer). Probably accounts for part of the reason (among others) why the QBC gets such a great turnout. I think you would almost need to have 2-3 seasons rotating the dates for each format to get the most accurate averages.

I heard that part of the reason they have a Bay only LM event close to opener almost every season was through angler consensus that it was preferred to leave the later spawning lake fish alone for a couple few extra weeks. I could be wrong on this as it was admittedly only hearsay from having this conversation with others.

At any rate I think a number of variables come into play with this. I've personally always like the idea of a Tour, any Tour to rotate their dates, lakes and venues. Not a huge fan of monotonous schedules that have little change. It only tends to breed local experts and most the field never really gets the opportunity to learn and grow as anglers. Part of why I haven't returned to the Kawartha's to fish a series since the demise of well we know who they are. Not that they aren't bad tours to fish, just got tired of seeing the same thing over and over and over again. But that's another issue altogether!