Ed & James joined me today in hopes of similar results to yesterday. We met up around 7:30 once again and hit the lake not long after. Winds were out of the NE blowing 5 to 10 and sunshine was present when we got to our first spot. The water temps hadn’t fallen much and were right around yesterdays, when we arrived. Ed was on a spinnerbait and James was tossing a jig so we could determine what the fish wanted. Although Ed did have a solid hit and a push or two, it was James that drew first blood. He locked up on either his first or second cast and it was on! I soon netted the smallie and immediately released it. Unfortunately, he expected a pic but I knew better. It was only 2.5 pounds and I told him it wasn’t photo worthy! He thought it was big as he was use to catching pounders from his lake and couldn’t believe I had thrown it back so quickly. I told him that I wanted to release it fast in order for him to get a bigger one right away. The next bass was of similar size and went back immediately as well. I think he was a little disappointed, but that all changed when he set into the next one. This one was well over 4 pounds & definitely photo worthy and now he knew what I meant! Although he did have a tough time bringing it to the net, we finally managed to get it aboard and the camera came out. I also put it into the livewell for double shots later and now had both of them throwing a jig. Obviously the bass weren’t interested in chasing baits down with all the goby minnows in the area and jigs were the ticket. They weren’t hammering the fish with the chop on the water but they were picking at them pretty good. In the next hour they managed to have several chances at quality fish and landed about 50% of them. I’m not sure if it was the new moon or the wind direction, but these fish were acting a little different than usual. We pulled the plug here and relocated to another section in hopes of a better bite. As with the first spot, James was locked up immediately after we arrived and it started all over once again. Ed was throwing a spinnerbait in hopes of an arm jolting strike and he wasn’t disappointed. The four pounder was a blackie and nearly broke his wrist on the set! What a smashing strike and we both got to witness the attack as it wasn’t 20 feet from the boat. After landing this one, all Ed wanted to throw was the blade for more rude hits! James was quite content with the jig as he too was getting into plenty of fish all over this flat. Most of the fish were in the three pound size but several were pushing 4 and even higher in the next couple of hours. As with the day before, I decided to move around a bit and hit a couple of areas that had both locking up on almost every cast for a while. Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end and this place turned off almost as fast as a light switch. Ed had hoped to take home a walleye or two so our next stop was to be in an area looking for gold! Dragging jigs along the weed edges had us hooking up but they were all smallies. I think there were a couple of walleye on but we never got a confirmation, as they came unpinned before the boat. James did however save the day when he landed a beautiful slot fish just over 20 inches. Ed would have to settle for just one today as we shifted into bass mode once more and headed to another area nearby. We spent the last hour or so hooking, losing and landing some others and had a blast doing so. Although they weren’t the large ones we had hoped for, 3 pounders are always welcome. By 5:00 we decided to call it a day and headed back to the ramp. They had caught loads of bass today and oh yeah, a couple more sturgeon too! With only one walleye, Ed would have to have plenty of side dishes along with the fish tonight as he was feeding a family of four. I’m sure we could have gotten into more of these golden treats given the time but everyone was more interested in catching the powerful smallies instead. Next time out we’ll have to spend more than 30 minutes in order to succeed! Overall, a great day for fishing!!

I hit the water this morning around 7:30 with Peter, in hopes of showing him just how great our freshwater fishery was. He had only fished salt water before and was in for a real treat, as the smallies were just on fire! The cool morning air would soon give way to warm & later hot temperatures, with almost flat calm conditions. This would mean that the dog pecker knats would be out in full force, just tormenting the daylights out of us! Water temps were to reach a high of almost 70 degrees and although I hadn’t been on the lake in a couple of days, I knew they would be active. I started Peter out with a spinnerbait in hopes that he would feel how hard the strikes were. With only a couple of pushes and one short hit, it just never happened. I even tried him on a topwater but despite a couple of boils, he never hooked up. I was forced to resort to the tube jig and on his first cast, he was locked. For almost two hours, he would continue to feel the raw power these brown bass possessed and battle many, many more. Fish up to almost 5 pounds would be the largest but the 2 to 4 pounders were plentiful and he just kept hooking up. When they slowed down here, I relocated to another area and he continued the catching. Although this was completely different to him, he caught on pretty quickly with the jigs and managed to land loads of bass. Oh yeah, even another sturgeon! With the sun high by afternoon, the fish really took advantage of this and both bait and predator were active. Each time we relocated, it took but a few casts to connect with the fish and it was game on. Some of the areas were holding just a few and others were loaded. We just had to keep moving until we found the sweet spots and once we did, hammer time! I decided to try something different and ventured into the mid range areas with rock bottom and it was loaded too. I think Peter had 5 fish on in as many casts and landed all of them! Although not everywhere was like this, there were many places that were and we concentrated on these ones for the remainder of the day. With very few exceptions, there weren’t really any dead periods through the day and 5 to 10 minutes between fish was about all he had to wait. The conditions couldn’t have been better today allowing us to cover any and all areas I wanted. We even took a break in the afternoon to try a little trolling for pike & walleye and succeeded with both. All in all it was an excellent day and one Peter would remember for his first experience, fresh water fishing!!

I took a road trip this weekend and met up with Alain & Cindy on a distant lake, searching out fall smallies. An arrival time of 8:00 A.M. had us hitting the lake almost immediately afterwards. With flat calm conditions and a light misty rain falling, I thought we were going to just crush them. However, with the water almost 70 degrees, it seemed a whole lot more like summer than fall and I had to make adjustments regularly. A topwater bite was present but not a great one! Fish were attacking but only a few of them were actually eating. Most were just slapping at the baits looking like they wanted them out of their way. Poppers, Zara’s and prop baits all had similar results and this forced me to make a change, quickly. With Alain now on a senko, I decided to have Cindy throw a jig to see if we could get an attitude adjustment. It worked and now both were hooking up often. Unfortunately though, most fish were of the smaller size and of a two pound average. I continued to throw a topwater knowing that I could at least find the fish and hopefully one of them could throw back and catch it. We fished big bays and searched for weeds that were holding plenty of bait. Each time we changed areas, all of us began with surface lures, looking for quick bites. Cindy remained on a prop bait and managed to get a reaction every time we shifted spots, but unfortunately not all ended in hookups. Her best fish of the day was to come on this lure and now she was beginning to enjoy fishing with it! Alain’s best was to come on a buzz bait in between two weed beds when we spotted some surface activity. Although we covered plenty of water today, the results were pretty much the same. We never really got into a great active area with the exception of an open water shoal. This place was surrounded by over 100 feet of water and topped out around 12 at its highest point. Surface lures had a feeding frenzy going on but most fish were under a pound and not really what we were looking for. We tried going down, but ended up getting snagged on every cast and decided to leave all together. Rain was falling off and on and except for our lunch break with sunshine, it was a pretty dark day. We never really got into anything great today and only had a fish here and there, all over the lake. I think tomorrow will need even more adjustments and I’m ready, willing and eager to get started. Plenty of action today but not the quality bites I expected!! The second morning had me toying with the idea that by fishing the deep edges of weed beds, I would find the bigger fish. This didn’t work in the first area and I ventured into the 8 to 12 foot flat adjacent with sparse weeds. Jigs were now being thrown and we had a nice wind allowing a pretty good drift & drag approach. With Alain’s son Jean Francois along today, we had an extra rod in the water and hopes were pretty high. Despite a few fish on the surface, most bites were coming by slowly working the jigs right on the bottom. Multiple hookups were had and many fish were being landed until another boat moved in on us. I wasn’t surprised to see this as it’s almost a daily occurrence for me. What I was shocked about however, was that it occurred on this lake! I’ve probably grown accustomed to dealing with other nearby boat traffic and had them just keep fishing. The whole time we were landing plenty of bass and the other boat never hooked a single one! This must have really frustrated them and after almost an hour of punishment, they just left. We too, soon relocated and were now fishing another area of similar bottom along a weed bed and once again hooking up. Tubes were definitely the ticket and I planned on staying on this presentation for the remainder of the day. Oh there were a few areas that top water was used but not entirely. We would always resort to the jigs and finesse the bulk of the bass with this technique. For some reason, the other end of the lake wasn’t producing very well and after spending a lot of time looking for fish there, we ended up back where we began. The last couple of hours were spent slowly dragging jigs along the bottom and more bass were once again landed. Even with other boats around us, fish were being hooked and many more were landed in the time remaining. I wanted to get a jump on the traffic and pulled off the lake around 4:30 to avoid the rush. The two days spent here made me realize that the best is still yet to come. Despite the color of the leaves and some of them falling, autumn hasn’t arrived yet. It seems that the water will have to cool much more in order for the bigger bass to start feeding shallow. I may just have to get back to the lake again in order to take advantage of some of the biggest fish of the year. By then, everyone will have closed up their summer cottages and we should have the lake entirely to ourselves. Sounds like a good plan to me!!

Hugues & Steven were looking for big bass and I had just the place for them to catch. We hooked up shortly after 8:00 and hit the water almost immediately. Although the weather was a little sketchy with overcast skies and showers expected, we were optimistic. Water temps were around 68 degrees and the air temps were about the same when they made their first casts. I had one guy covering water with a blade bait and the other working a jig slowly over the area, just to see what they wanted. Nothing seemed to be working but Steven did have a follower with the spinnerbait that didn’t really want to commit. We shifted gears and tried another similar location with the same results before opting for deeper water nearby. By the looks of the sonar, there were fish all over the bottom in 20 to 30 feet and we dropped the lines down expecting to get bit. All they hooked up with however were plenty of rocks and I soon pulled the plug, but not before hooking up myself. Ironically, I had foul hooked a walleye of close to 4 pounds and it fought like a champ. It just goes to show you that when they don’t want to eat, they just shut down. We were on plenty of fish but it seemed like they were all tight lipped down there. The next move had me positioning the boat on a really deep breakline, with one guy on a jerkbait and the other on a jig. Steven wasted no time contacting the first bass of the day when the lure was crushed on a long pause. I expected other followers but was surprised to see that she was alone. I slid the net under a fat four pounder, shot a few pics and released her back to the water unharmed. Amazingly, this was to be the only fish caught from this area and we moved on once again. The next place had several fish fall victim to the presentations, but they were all on the smaller size. Several of them were even green bass and not the jumbo smallies we were after. By moving around slightly and adjusting the offerings, I was able to hit a pattern that did get their attention however and now they were hooking up. Unfortunately Murphy was by our side and almost everything went wrong! By slowly working worms they managed to get bit but between slack line hook sets and tangles, they all got off. A couple of them were in the five plus range and it was really getting frustrating. When you’re searching for big smallies, multiple shots at these giants aren’t plentiful and you really need to take advantage of every chance you get. I gave an example cast, instructed them on how to be patient and got picked up. I explained that the current might have a bow in their line and all slack needed to be removed and then set the hook. I knew this was a big fish and passed the rod to Steven immediately. He got to feel the raw power of these smallies in current and struggled to get her to the net several times. Eventually I was able to get this fish of over 5 pounds aboard and felt relieved that we finally had one. Several pics later, she was released and we went right back to the fishing. Conditions weren’t exactly perfect with winds and rain but we somehow managed to get right back on the horse and it didn’t take long before the next bite. This time Hugues was ready and patiently waited before setting the hook. Finally, a solid hook set! He was officially locked up as a four pounder went sky rocketing, totally pissed off. This time he would be landing the fish and a relief fell over him as he saw it in the net. Another photo shoot and then right back to the lake with her before we repositioned and started all over once more. Although there were still fish in the area, this was to be the last one landed and eventually we pulled the plug and called it a day. Tough fishing to say the least but now they have a better understanding of what hunting is all about. These trophies require a finesse approach when they aren’t feeding and today was a perfect example. Both Hugues & Steven saw the results and although they had several missed chances, they were still happy with their results. Overall a tough day at best but one that held many shots at the monsters!!

Adam & Monique were with me today all the way from Arizona. They were celebrating their honeymoon and staying in the Laurentians for the week. With both having a love for fishing, they decided to hook up with me for a day of phenomenal bass fishing! Conditions seemed perfect with a warm morning air and higher temperatures to come later in the day. Water temps were still hanging in above 70 degrees and I knew the fish would bite! Our first stop had several missed hits before they began getting the hang of everything and keeping them pinned. Monique was hooking several big ones and had high fours in the boat before Adam got to experience his own. Women & kids always rule! In just a couple of hours, they had multiple doubles and so many hookups that they made it look simple. The fish were active and they were taking advantage of their hunger! When things slowed, I relocated to another section of the lake in hopes of similar action. We weren’t disappointed as hits were had almost immediately after we arrived. I had Adam throw a spinnerbait to try & find the active ones and Monique continued to drag a jig slowly over the hard bottom. As with every day on the lake, it just wouldn’t be complete without at least one sturgeon. Today was no different, as we managed to bring a couple to the boat again! Adam even hooked up on a rather sluggish fish with the blade bait and I was soon netting a beautiful walleye, within the slot. I think he was surprised to see it come in, but not as shocked as the fish. Too bad for the fish too as she was going to be the appetizer at dinner tonight! Instead of being stuck in traffic heading back up north, I proposed that they stick around here to eat and wait out the rush hour mess. It wasn’t too difficult to convince them as the walleye before would be a real treat! Back to the fishing we went and catching they did, as every location we stopped in had great results. By mid afternoon the air temperature felt more like summer and were hovering around 80 degrees, really sending the fish shallow. Bait fish were on the move and so were the bass. A few of the locations saw bass busting both perch as well as small shiner minnows. They were active and chowing down on anything that looked edible! This would be a trip that they would remember for several reasons and fishing would be second to none! Somewhere around 4:30 we shut her down and called it a day. It was one of the easiest days I had in a while and Adam & Monique got to experience smallmouth fishing at its finest. They both had personal bests many times over and battled fish all day long. Oh yeah, dinner was great too!!