Craig joined me once again today with his son Mitch and this time he brought along his other son Jared to sample some of the fish as well. We launched the boat and ran across the lake in flat calm conditions to our first spot to troll for pike & walleye. Air temps were in the 70’s later to climb into the 80’s and the water temps were about 73.5 degrees in most areas. Clouds soon gave way to broken clouds & sunshine as we made our first pass along the weeds. It didn’t take long for the reel to fire and Jared was into the first northern of the day. Mitch soon followed with another decent pike before Craig got into a nice walleye around 5 pounds. We tried different passes in and around the weeds but only managed a few more fish in the next hour & decided to try for smallmouth bass at another location. This was to prove to be a better choice as one of the first bass to come aboard was a 20 inch, over 5 pound smallie that was just giant! Jared was the lucky one and after a few quick pics, she was returned to fight another day. We covered several areas with rock & weed and managed to get into plenty of average bass along with a few above average 3.5 to 4 pound ones before we called it a day. They had to be somewhere in the later part of the afternoon and we headed back before 2:00 P.M. in order to ensure their arrival. It was just as well as we had just about enough of the heat, humidity & “Dog Pecker Knats” and were ready to leave. Craig definitely had the hot hand this afternoon, landing many smallies on senko’s but Jared held his own on the Gulp baits too. Mitch struggled a little, but managed to get into a few of his own, despite all of the elements we were faced with. It was also showing signs of potential storms approaching, so we were unanimous in our decision. All in all a tough day with no wind, lots of midge and plenty of high heat & humidity to roast a turkey!!!!

Today I fished with Al & his son Anthony on a local lake for another “Multi Species” kind of day. The weather was a little strange with overcast skies & humidity most of the morning but later gave way to clear skies and light winds in the afternoon. Air temps were in the 80’s by days end and the water temps were once again around 73 degrees. We started the day trolling for pike & walleye and were immediately into fish within minutes. With the pike & walleye were a couple of bonus largemouth and a few smallies in the smaller size too. Anthony was the one manning the rods with his dad driving through all of this but he gave a hand when we were into doubles. It didn’t take long to get into the numbers as we landed 5 or 6 fish in the first 10 minutes and were well on our way to a great day. There was plenty of action as rods were firing off like popcorn! Although there were plenty of fish lost, we still managed to land over 20 northerns along with 6 walleye and several other perch & bass. At one point, Anthony was into a nice pike of about 7 pounds when another reel screamed and his dad had to take it too. This turned out to be a really nice walleye of about 6 pounds and completed a great double header. A few quick pics and back they both went to grow again. We trolled around for a while after catching fish here & there and losing others before I opted for a change of species. I thought I would take them for some smallmouth bass & ran to another location nearby. Here we were into a beauty of about 4 pounds on the first cast but unfortunately she came off when she took to the air. There were plenty of others caught & lost with the larger ones being lost until the end neared. Both Al & Anthony landed some decent fish in the 4 pound range in the last 15 minutes of the day making for a great mixes bag. By the time it was all said & done there had to be close to 40 fish caught and a great time was had by all!!

I had the pleasure of fishing with Leonard and his grandson, Erin today for their annual fishing day once again. The weather didn’t look great when we headed out so I suggested that we start by trolling for pike & walleye in order to get Erin into some fish quickly. It took less than 5 minutes and he was fighting the first northern pike of many more to come! Skies were quite overcast and the clouds were very low looking like it could rain any moment. It wasn’t the rain that concerned me so much as the chance of thunder & lightening. Winds were non-existent for most of the day and blew about 5 to 10 knots later in the day giving us a great day to troll. Water temps were about the same as they have been for a while at 73 degrees and the air temps reached almost 90 degrees with high humidity. The morning troll was a little slower than I had expected with spurts of action every now & then but when the sun finally came out later on, the fish came alive. Erin was reeling in northerns hand over fist and even landed 5 walleye as well throughout the day. Most of the pike were in the 3 to 5 pound range but there was one big one that topped the scales at over 7 pounds making for a real happy camper. Although there were lulls in the day, there was plenty of action to keep Erin happy with over 40 fish being landed before we called it a day. By 3:00 P.M. we decided to get off the lake and head home due to the skies looking pretty eerie. As luck would have it, while we were at my house, they let lose with thunder & lightening along with a heavy rain. It’s all about timing and we left at the right time! An excellent day on the water with Erin having the best day of fishing ever!!

Scott & his son Zane joined me today on the water and oh, how we pounded the smallies! The weather was a little bit of everything, except there was no wind at all. This might be good for some people, but I prefer it when it blows. The “Dog Pecker Knats” were a real pain today and drove us crazy. The air temps reached into the 70’s and the water temps were about 73 degrees in most areas. We had sunshine for a while in the morning, followed by clouds in the afternoon and eventually a light sprinkle. Tubes and senko’s accounted for almost all the fish landed today and they were bigguns! We had a slow start with only a few fish caught in the first couple of hours, but eventually they started to come alive. The afternoon saw one area produce only quality bass for almost 2 hours, 4 pounds or better with the largest topping five. Both Scott & his son Zane landed these beasts hand over fist at one time and the followers with them were incredible. The bass were obviously feeding as we were seeing the hooked ones cough up minnows while fighting. We were trying only for large fish today and it was definitely working out well. Each area we hit had some fish on it and 18 to 19.5 inches were the normal lengths with very few fish on the smaller side. By the time the day was over there had to be about 25 smallies caught and the best 5 fish stringer for any tournament would have gone probably 23 pounds or better. Too bad we weren’t in a tournament today as it would have been tough to beat. All in all a great day for real trophy smallmouth!!

Today I fished with Fred on a local lake for smallies and oh how it was tough! He wanted to catch some bass on a fly rod and that’s always a challenge after a high pressure has arrived. We had thunderstorms and electricity in the air last night along with heavy rains causing a poor change in their attitude. It wasn’t that they weren’t there, just that they wouldn’t eat! Our weather today provided us with bluebird skies and tremendous winds from the W that switched to the N/W afterwards. They were also blowing at 15 to 25 knots making for an interesting day to fly fish. Air temps went into the 80’s and the water temps remained around 73 degrees as usual. Our first area proved to be an aquarium as all we could do was watch big fish swim around and not even think about taking the fly. We moved to another area and had pretty much the same thing except that Fred was able to catch a few of the small & medium ones cruising in the area, but not the real giants. He did have a few of them look like they were going to attempt to eat only to have them swim away. We stayed on this spot for a while catching a few here and there before we had enough and opted for another area further away. This didn’t work out too well as the winds were coming from the S/W here and blowing even harder causing the water to stain up really bad. I knew we wouldn’t get anything under these conditions but attempted it nevertheless. After about 15 minutes we shifted gears and decided that it was time to try some trolling for pike & walleye. This too didn’t work out too well as we caught only about 6 or so along with a smallie of about 13 inches and decided to return to our starting area before calling it a day. To our amazement, it was even windier than earlier making it even tougher than the morning to cast a fly. I really had to provide the perfect boat control in order for Fred to be able to cast without taking one of us out! He had several followers once again, but it seemed that only the little ones were eating the fly. Every time he hooked up, there would be another bigger one just following the fight right to the boat with it. Eventually he hooked into a real beauty only to have it take to the sky and throw the fly right back at us. We were both beginning to think that it wasn’t going to happen and then another bruiser decided to inhale the fly and he was finally locked up with the largest bass of the day. I wouldn’t say that it was a beast, but under the circumstances, it was quality! After a couple of quick pics before the release and we were on our way back to the ramp calling it a day. This was definitely a tough one, but all in all we were both satisfied with the end results!!