I fished with Craig & his son Mitch today on a local lake for a multi species kind of day. We started off casting Gulp baits on jig heads as well as senko’s and caught a few smaller bass doing so. Several larger fish were seen roaming around and a couple of them were missed on the hook set too. Weather was decent with temps in the 70’s and water temps were around 72 degrees with a light S/W wind. During one of the hook-ups, a couple of bruiser smallies were following as usual and a gulp tipped jig thrown into the middle managed to hook one of the four pounders for an honest double. Both Craig & his son Mitch had several chances at fish and managed to get into some of them before we shifted to another area nearby. Here they both landed a few more and once again several others were also missed. Eventually after hitting another area again, we opted to troll for walleye and pike. As luck would have it, the first fish to come aboard by Mitch was another smallie that fell just short of the 4-pound mark. We eventually started hooking into walleye and pike, but nothing big. They were all less than 5 pounds at best and I began covering water in hopes of finding something larger. This was not to be however and we eventually quit to try our luck at a few more smallies before we ended the day. Craig hooked up on his first cast with the jig and I told him that it was bad luck! It was quite a while before he had another strike let alone land another bass, so I wasn’t lying. Mitch on the other hand was having just bad luck by losing several more fish either by having them come off or just by the hook set. Either way it was tough to see so many bass not come to the boat and we finally called it a day at 5:00 P.M. and headed back to the ramp. This was definitely a mixed bag kind of day as there were smallies, pike and walleye caught in the 10 hours spent on the lake. It was rather tough fishing, but we had a great time nonetheless!!

I fished with Terry today on a local lake for smallmouth bass. We had a slow start once again with the water being muddied up due to the strong S/W winds blowing ad 15 to 25 knots. Air temps were in the mid 70’s and the water temps were almost 73 degrees in most areas. Our run was through 3 footers to our first spot and as usual, the boat cut through it like butter. I thought I would start Terry out with a spinnerbait due to the fact that he had never caught a smallmouth before. Being from the south, he had caught plenty of bass, just not smallies and was anxious to get into them. Unfortunately, only one bass hit the spinnerbait before I switched him over to Berkley Gulp Alive on a 1/8 oz. jig head. It was then that he started to hook into some of the better smallies and was feeling the strength & power of the mighty bronzeback. Senko’s were also working on some of these fish as well, but the bite was slow during the off times. During the peak times of activity, he managed to get into plenty of quality-sized smallies as well as a few of the medium ones too. We could see some of the larger fish swimming around but they weren’t interested in even the Gulp as we casted in frustration. At one point I think we made a dozen casts and had hits from 10 fish, landing about half. As usual, the better fish managed to get off either when they took to the air or as they neared the boat. There was even a couple of bonus walleye caught on gulp! This was also a first, as Terry had never caught a walleye before today. We hit several areas catching fish just about everywhere before we called it a day around 5:00 P.M. The storms had escaped us to the north and we were lucky to have been able to last as long as we had, fishing all the while. Overall, it was a pretty good day with about 25 fish being landed and plenty of others lost too!!

Mike & Cleo joined me today on a local lake for smallies and got em good! We ran from the ramp in 3 to 4 footers and sliced through them like butter to reach our destination. Nothing runs like a 621 Ranger! Water temps were 72 to 73 degrees and the air temps were about the same with humidity. I had both parties begin with spinnerbaits to see if we could get into some active smallmouth, due to the waves and strong S/SW winds blowing at 15 to 20 knots. There were a few smaller than average fish taken, but I wasn’t satisfied! I knew the potential of this area and wanted more! I switched Cleo up to a tube and pointed him in the direction needed to take the bigguns, but he once again came up with just average sized smallies. We were now seeing a few of the larger fish moving around in the stained water & I knew it was just a mater of time before they would hit. To my amazement, they refused the lures again and even the senko’s I was throwing were only enticing the smaller ones to eat. I think all the rain & wind from the night before had shut them down and I really had to make a drastic adjustment in order to salvage the day. I wanted big fish & there was nothing more frustrating than seeing them & not catching! Well, for anyone that hasn’t tried “Berkley Gulp Alive”, they are definitely missing out! I save this stuff for the really tough days and this was one of them. I re-rigged one of the rods with a 1/8 ounce jig head and a minnow bait and handed it to Cleo to try. It didn’t take too long before he had a couple of fish landed and one was over 4 pounds. Immediately after, I rigged the other rod and gave it to Mike to use and he to began catching fish as well. In fact, he landed a post spawn bass that would have been over 20 inches and also went 4 pounds or better. If it weren’t for the fact that it was skinny, it might have been closer to 5 pounds. The remainder of the time on the water was spent catching instead of fishing and there were fish of all sizes coming aboard consistently now. By the time we were ready to leave, they must have caught 15 or 20 bass up to and over 4.5 pounds in a few short hours. As this was only a 4 hour outing due to Mike having to get back to work in the afternoon, it was pretty good nonetheless. With the aid of the Berkley product, we were able to turn this so, so day into a great one by making a few minor adjustments!!

After taking a few days R and R on Lake Ontario fishing trout & salmon, I was back on the water once again for more smallmouth action. I was to fish with Taylor & Matt today & promised them the biggest smallies of their lives. It’s not too hard to guarantee this when you have the quality of bass like we do and I wasn’t worried about coming through. Taylor had been given this as a birthday present several months back and his mother had contacted me to make all the necessary arrangements beforehand. Unfortunately he had a major mishap that resulted in a broken leg only a couple of weeks before the scheduled fishing day that could have caused him to miss out. Fortunately though, he was willing to go nonetheless! We began our outing in warm, humid conditions with air temps of 65 degrees. Water temps were almost 72 degrees where we concentrated and the winds were out of the N/E at about 10 knots. The forecast called for the day to worsen and I didn’t want to take the chance of fishing open water later, so we began way out in the middle of the lake. I wasn’t sure what level of aggressiveness they were in so I had them throw spinnerbaits to begin. Apparently it wasn’t what they wanted as I tested the area by throwing a tube and hooked a couple of decent fish between 3.5 & 4 pounds. A change was made and now Taylor was throwing the tube while Matt continued with the hardware. The first bass to come aboard from Taylor was an honest 4-pound plus fish that was the largest smallie of his life. I had to change up Matt as well when I saw this and he too was soon into some jumbino’s as well. We fished this area and others nearby for quite a while catching more and losing some before we ventured to another distant spot in the rain. It had begun to rain off & on and was just miserable with the humidity. The winds had increased as well and were now blowing more like 20 knots with some stronger gusts at times. I knew we were into the major and suggested that Matt throw the spinnerbait again hoping for some aggressive hits. He had caught a 3.5-pound smallie earlier that nearly tore the rod from him and gladly accepted. It wasn’t long before he let out a yell when another tried to repeat the violent attack that he had felt and this time the fish was closer to 5 pounds. I love it when a smallie beats up on a fisherman! He managed to get this and one other in before he lost a really good one when it took to the air. Taylor also lost two good fish before he landed his best of the day on a tube. If this fish didn’t go 5 pounds it was 4 pounds 15 ounces and certainly well worthy of a great picture. We tried a couple of other areas and managed to land one more fish over 4 pounds with another missed fish on a senko. Taylor had definitely struck out on this one as he swung 3 times and had a piece of the fish on every try. We eventually saw the fish and it was another biggun as we went over the area he had been hit. The day ended in the rain but they had a great time both learning and catching huge smallies throughout it all. I think there were at least 15 or 20 fish that were landed and many, many others lost in the process. Overall a great day for real big smallies!

Alain & Andrew joined me today on a local lake in hopes of catching some quality bass. We began the day with strong winds and high humidity. Air temps were in the 80’s and water temps were almost 73 degrees pretty much all over, where we fished. The winds were blowing from the S/W at 15 to 25 knots making the ride a little bumpy. The fishing started out a little slow at first with only a few smallies hitting our baits and the smaller ones being landed. Some of the larger 4-pound plus fish were seen just roaming around and not actually hitting the lures until I went to the senko’s. Here they managed to actually bite a few of the baits and soon after some of the larger ones were being caught. I think the activity level of the fish was really down from all the wind and rain we had experienced lately and the water colour wasn’t the greatest either! We moved around a bit with Alain catching a few good fish on the crankbaits and Andrew getting into a few as well, both on spinnerbaits and senko’s. I eventually opted for a more active fish and tried trolling for a while hoping to get Andrew into some pike & walleye. The winds were blowing pretty good in the area we were trolling causing the rolling waves to run about 3 footers. Add all the floating vegetation and I was constantly clearing the lines from all the weeds. We did manage to hook a few pike & one walleye but eventually gave up with all the headaches we were having and went back to casting for smallmouth. I tried several off shore areas that should have been loaded only to find absolutely nothing on any of them. I finally decided to go back and hit the shallows due to the high water and late season we had been experiencing when I stumbled on fish right away. I never thought that they would still be shallow and was glad we had gone in looking! For the rest of the afternoon we either hooked & landed or lost smallies up to & over 4 pounds but we saw all kinds cruising the fishing area as well. A slow presentation was definitely what they were looking for and the senko was the bait of choice. One more stop in the area we began our day proved to be a good choice as both Andrew & Alain landed several more quality smallies there as well. Overall a tough day, but a learning one that will aid me in the next few weeks to come until we actually get our long awaited summer.