The Land Down Under
July 7, 2023
Luke was in, all the way from Australia and looking forward to some Canadian fishing. Being from down under, he was accustomed to salt water fish, but not so much freshwater species. Hoping to tick a few off his bucket list, we headed out for another scorcher of a day.
A light wind from the south west actually felt good as we ran to our first spot, but I knew it wouldn’t last. Lately the lake had been flattening out each day before noon. Just around the time it gets really unbearable! Either way, we were going to catch fish!
Soft plastics were used to entice a few bass from this area, but not the numbers I was looking for. It looked like it was going to be another tough bite as the fish were acting strange already. We spent about an hour in this area with a handful of bass to show for our efforts before relocating. Hopefully we would fend better in the next place we fished!
An offshore rock shoal was where we headed and it didn’t take long to see that there were actually fish here, to be caught. Numbers of average sized bass fell victim to more soft plastic baits as we covered the flat, hooking up frequently. Once it slowed, I moved over to another one and we continued to do the same. When it slowed down again, I decided to show him another technique and headed to some deeper water to vertically dropshot. I hoped that some bigger fish had moved offshore to catch.
It didn’t take long to hookup, but the bass were on the smaller side. We drifted a bunch of rocky areas and the best we could do were a few average fish, with some more of the little ones as well. Time to move shallower again!
I covered plenty of water and more of the average fish were caught, along with a big sturgeon. Luke had never actually seen one of these before and was happy to land it for a few pics. We went back searching for more smallies right after the release and found plenty of others just roaming around. A few of them actually hit the baits but most were just happy to be cruising the area. I had noticed that the current flow was way down and thought that this might have something to do with the lack of active fish. Everywhere we had been today seemed slower than usual and the water had a color to it as well. Regardless, we were catching some fish and continued to change spots frequently in order to increase our chances of hooking up!
At one point in the afternoon, I decided to switch to a troll, to try and get Luke another species. I showed him a technique I had for pike and fortunately it didn’t take long to get him one. He couldn’t believe that this fish ate a lure like it did and had seen enough after just one! We immediately switched back to bass and relocated once again!
I ran to another shoal in a different part of the lake and although we saw a bunch of fish here, they were also difficult to catch. Once again, the lack of current had these bass just cruising, but not very interested in eating. We did manage to get a few, but it wasn’t easy! We jumped to a couple of other areas nearby with similar results before stopping on one final spot to finish off the day.
Our last place saw water temps above 80 degrees with some active fish. It was more productive as far as getting bites but the fish were smaller in size. We fished here for the remainder of the day before calling it quits. It was so hot out now with no air flow and we were done!
Despite the difficult conditions today, we still managed to catch plenty of fish. I would have liked to see some bigger bass but we had to settle on the average sized ones instead. Luke was quite happy with the results though and the fact that he caught 4 new species of fish from freshwater, made it great. He had also landed several perch too! He will go back home to the land down under, with a better understanding of some of the Canadian fish and will have ticked a few more off the bucket list! It was a pleasure spending time in the boat with Luke today and catching a few fish as well. Cheers mate!!
