Norm was back once again today to tackle more of those giant brown bass. We hit the water around 8:00 and were into fish almost immediately. With the sun out the air temps of 34 degrees didn’t feel quite as cold and the non existent winds made it even better. We weren’t expecting a much warmer day with the high expected to only reach 40 degrees, but we were pumped. It had been a week or so since Norm was out and saw Allison land the giant that he had been looking for and he wanted his today! Back to the current breaks we went and we began by throwing cranks t to see if we could entice a few of the more active big ones to bite. Several followers were seen and a few of the medium ones actually did commit but not the ones we were looking for. With the water temps below 50 degrees, I decided that we would have to slow down if we wanted to monopolize on them and began throwing jigs. It was definitely the ticket because for the next few hours it was just insane. There were so many fish landed that we just lost count! Bass ranging from 2 to over 4 pounds came aboard, but none of the really bigguns were contacted. It wasn’t until later in the afternoon that a couple of fish over 5 pounds were caught and a few even larger lost. Like all days out lately, there were fish on each and every spot I stopped. This was great because when the sun disappeared earlier and the winds kicked up from the N/NE, it got quite a bit colder. The only reason we didn’t complain about the cold was because we were catching fish. That alone will keep anyone warm! We fished until about four and when the bite slowed, decided to call it a day. Norm may not have gotten any sleep the night before, but he was definitely on his game today. He’s still looking for an honest weighed six pound smallie but he will take days like this anytime. Visions of smallmouth will be dancing in his head tonight!!

Scott & his dad Tom fished with me today for another unbelievable day of catching. We hooked up around 8:00 and were on the water not long after in slightly below freezing temps. The sun was out though, making it feel a little warmer and there was little to no wind as well. The high forecasted for us was to be a chilly one at only 38 degrees max but this time they came prepared. Tom hooked up first but it was only after he had missed 3 strikes on consecutive casts before. A nice chunky 3 pounder had fallen victim to the slowly moved jig and I knew there would be plenty more. It was to be another one of those days where we caught fish all day long in each & every spot we fished. Both Scott & Tom were into bass ranging from 2 to over 5 pounds frequently and loving every minute of it. They even had some bonus walleye today that would be invited to a cook out back home. Somewhere late in the morning, the sun turned to overcast skies but the fish kept biting. At one point it even looked like we might get snow, but fortunately for us, it never happened. We must have fished a dozen areas today and concentrated on the current breaks and edges to monopolize on the aggressive biters. They were there and they were hungry! Although the crankbait bite really wasn’t the ticket like a couple of weeks before, by fine tuning the presentation we were able to have the same results. This river system has all the right ingredients to produce fish right up until ice up and I’m going to be there to test it too. By the time the afternoon neared the end it was getting quite a bit chillier and we decided to call it a day. They had caught more bass in one day than practically their entire season and everyone went home satisfied. Scott had treated his dad to another day on the water and another successful one too! Although they had a long drive back home I don’t think they would run out of conversation along their way as the day would provide plenty of things to be remembered!!

I was back on the water today with Darren hoping for better conditions than I encountered yesterday with my wife, Christiane. We were still in a pretty good wind but it had switched to the west and was now blowing 10 to 20 knots. Air temps were around 40 degrees and expected to rise into the upper 40’s by days end. The winds were also supposed to decrease and be light by the afternoon and I was praying they would be right. I believe it was on Darren’s first cast that he hooked one of the largest bass of the day and soon had a 5.45 smallie in the net. Nice starter fish! We were working a little slower with jigs and found the fish to be in a negative mood for most part. We almost had to dead stick some of them into committing! Several good ones were persuaded into eating and within the first couple of hours; Darren had landed plenty of quality bass. We fished depths from as shallow as 5 feet to as deep as 30 feet with the better fish coming deep. Everywhere we stopped to fish, we caught some bass. I really don’t think there was any lengthy period of dead time during the day, just lots of bass. The afternoon was equally as good as the morning and the weather was even better with the decrease in winds. It was still a little cool out, but the sunshine was a welcomed change as I had been fishing in the rain & clouds lately. We stuck it out until almost dark with the change of the clocks last night and called it somewhere around 5:00. Darren had boated lots of fish and some really big ones today and was kind of glad he had come alone. He didn’t have to share the bass with anyone and had managed to have the best day of his season, so far this year. I have a feeling he will be back! What a great day to be on the water!!

I thought we would try & beat the bad weather coming in so Christiane & I headed out for a few hours on a local lake. Unfortunately, the misty rain greeted us before we were even able to get to the boat ramp and it wasn’t looking good. Winds were light but expected to increase up to 30 or 40 knots somewhere around noon with even stronger gusts. We definitely had our work cut out for us today! Fortunately, the air temps were well above seasonal with the warm southern air and were in the upper 50 degree range. Water temps were still around 51 but leaves were posing a problem in the current when we casted. I believe Christiane’s first 3 casts all produced bass and we realized why we had come. I knew that we could still catch plenty of fish before the weather took a turn for the worse and we kept casting. Somewhere after 1 o’clock, the winds really began to howl and it became more difficult to fish. We were still catching fish, but it wasn’t easy! I decided shortly after that we were going to cut it short and head in. When it stops being fun, I quit! Although we may have only gotten 3 or 4 hours of fishing in, it was still worth the effort as we both landed a bunch of fish up to 4.5 pounds. Trying to take the pics became next to impossible at the end so we just released most of the fish without recording the catch. We really would have liked to be able to continue fishing today but safety comes first and as the winds increased so did the waves. We ran back to the ramp in 3 to 4 footers safely and called it a day. Overall a successful one nonetheless!!

After a day of rest I was back on the water with Les, searching for those footballs once again. With the weather overcast and the air temps to reach the upper 40’s I was sure we would have a good one. We began in a misty rain that had us in the clouds and without any wind at all. Around 30 seconds into the drift the first bass of around 3 pounds came aboard and I knew we were going to get them good. This was new to Les but it didn’t take him long to get the feel for things. He started to differentiate between bottom type, weeds and even fish hits within minutes and began to hook up. The bass may not have been the quality I was hoping for but it was action and that’s all that mattered. We were into plenty of 2 to 3 pound smallies with an occasional bigger fish from time to time. They were biting a little funny and dropping the baits before we locked them up causing us to wonder what we needed to do to change them. We even foul hooked a few under the chin and outside the mouth making me think that they weren’t really interested. At one point I thought Les finally had a good one only to find out at the boat that he had foul hooked a carp of around 6 pounds. We shifted locations several times and caught fish in each and every one we stopped at. There were even a few small walleye caught! At one point in the afternoon it felt like they had shut off the current as we were barely moving. If this had been a river in the states I would have thought that they shut off the flow at the dam. With the lack of current we also had a lack of bites and decided to call it a day. Although we hadn’t managed to find the big ones today, we had still managed to get into a bunch of fish. Unfortunately, we had also missed plenty! I think our ratio would have been a 40/60 split with the fish on the better end of the scale. Overall though, we were still satisfied with the outcome of this day and as Les would say, “it sure beats working”!!!