Ed & Jim joined me today on a local lake in hopes of catching a few quality smallmouth bass. The weather definitely wasn’t in our favour, as we left the dock in dark skies and heavy winds. It was blowing at 10 to 15 knots and expected to reach 25 sometime during the day. There were showers & thunderstorms also in the forecast limiting our chances at a great day, but hopes were high nevertheless! By the time we reached our first spot, it wasn’t looking too good as light rain began to fall & the winds were blowing harder from the S making casting difficult. Ed began by throwing a spinnerbait & Jim threw a senko hoping for a quick bite but Mother Nature had other ideas in mind. It was difficult to control the line & direction let alone feel anything bite, but we pressed on looking for that first hit. The senko drew the first strike & Ed hooked up on a decent fish when he put the spinner bait down. This began a series of good fish before Ed decided to pull out the 5-weight fly rod hoping to hook a few smallies on a clouser. It didn’t take too long after I positioned the boat in order to ensure everyone’s safety and casting before he was locked up. They were both hooking into good fish now and well on their way to an excellent day with three to four pound fish on a regular basis. A few of these bruisers exceeded 4 pounds & pushed the 4.5-pound range showing both Jim & Ed the quality & potential of this lake. During all these fish being caught we were hammered several times with weather changes from bad to worse, but still fished through the heavy downpours. Fish do bite in the rain! Around 3:00 P.M. we thought the approaching storm might make us run back to the dock when we were hit with a monsoon like rain that turned on the bilge pump many, many times. Luckily for us, 20 minutes later it changed to only a light rain as we continued to fish. There were wind shifts from the S to S/W to W to W/NW that eventually went back to the S/W during the day, keeping me adjusting boat direction constantly. Many more fish were hooked & landed during all of this before we finally called it quits at 4:30 P.M. There was another storm approaching and we had seen all the rain we could handle for one day! Over all, despite all this misery, they must have landed at least 30 or more smallies with the bulk of them being real quality fish. I believe we finally won one against “Mother Nature” & overcame all that she had to dish out today!

I had a couple of days off so I decided to take advantage of this and go pound some chrome on Lake Ontario with Mike. We hooked up with Greg, a friend and hit the water early Wednesday morning in hot pursuit of the King Salmon! Water temps were 68 to 69 degrees where we were and the waves were pretty big with all the storm fronts that we had, but the fish were on. It rained plenty during the day and blew so strong that we were in average 4 footers with the occasional 6 or better thrown in for laughs. On the first day we landed a total of 36 fish up to almost 30 pounds with the bulk being 20 plus. It was quite an experience to get into all those fish and we have the bruises to prove it. The rod butts really put a strain on the gut when you’re trying to get back 4 to 5 hundred feet of line that just went out like a rocket. “What comes off must go on “ was the phase of the day! By 5:00 P.M. we had just about enough of this pain and headed back to regroup in the morning. Day 2 was almost the same with lighter winds and rain as well, but the fish were still hitting. We managed to land about 18 salmon in a few short hours and got off by 11:30 A.M. in order to get back to Montreal at a decent hour. We both had clients the next day and needed our rest after battling all these angry creatures. Some of the fish were a little smaller today, but we still had a double header that put 2 fish of 23 or 24 pounds in the boat at the same time. I only kept a few smaller fish to give to friends and all the rest were released to fight another day. All in all a really tough 2 days of fighting chrome monsters that just beat us up!! What a hoot!

I was sure glad to have the day off yesterday, with all the rain that fell and headed back on the water today with Satoshi. He was in from Japan visiting family & wanted to fish for the day, for smallmouth bass. We unfortunately were faced with cold front conditions after yesterday’s weather & had 20 to 30 knot winds from the W/NW. We also had a major drop in air temps & lost about 20 degrees, with a high of just 70 today. Water temps didn’t fall too badly, but with the wind they muddied up terribly. This was going to be a tough day all around! I had Satoshi throw a spinnerbait due to the tough conditions & I threw a senko so that I could pass off the rod, in case of a pick up. He landed a couple and lost a few more due to the hook sets, but they were not big fish. I had several pick-ups & he managed to land a few of them as well. A couple more decent fish were taken on tubes by Satoshi before we shifted to another area. This was even more in the wind & boat control was really tough here, but we did get into some more fish. They really weren’t very aggressive & needed a lot of convincing in order to eat our baits! We tried several other spots in hopes of finding schooling, active fish, but only managed a few more fish doing so. The winds were really bad on one spot we tried & it felt more like “Lake Erie” than St-Louis! Eventually we went back to where we had the most success & slowed down more. Satoshi continued to throw the spinnerbait off & on and had a big muskie eat it at the boat. We saw the whole strike perfectly & for a short time he was able to fight the fish. Unfortunately this was short lived as the fish jumped next to us & literally broke the spinnerbait at the bend in the arm. All he was left with was the blade & where the line connected to it. This fish was at least 45 inches and would have gone around 18 to 20 lbs. We got back onto the senko’s & Satoshi was into bass almost dead sticking them over the rocks. I knew the fish were there & slowing down while fishing was really working. The last couple of hours had the best landing ratio with Satoshi getting into bass up to almost 5 pounds. Despite “Mother Natue” we did overcome the conditions to land close to 20 quality smallies on this windy day!

Richard & Ian fished with me today & how we go them! We began on a rocky shoal & Ian lost a 4-pounder on almost his first cast with a spinnerbait. I thought I would try a senko & immediately was picked up! Ian took the rod & slammed another big fish in the 4-pound class. That was all I needed to see before everyone was throwing senko’s. Both Richard & Ian were into fish, constantly boating 3 & 4-pound smallies & losing others as well. We moved all over this flat & were picking up fish in every area fished. The winds were non-existent making this type of fishing a simple method for all the bruisers in the area. This went on for several hours before we moved to another spot due to the bugs & scorching sun. It had to be over 80 by 10:00 A.M. with unbelievable humidity! We caught a few more smallies & a walleye on tubes here before we ran for largemouth. Unfortunately this didn’t work out, but Ian learned how to pitch a jig into real heavy cover. Back to the smallie area we went towards the end of the day & were faced with 15 to 25 knot winds from the S/W. This wasn’t easy, but we did manage a few more bass on senko’s before taking photos & heading back. This was definitely a better day than yesterday with about 25 quality bass caught up to 5 pounds!

Max joined me today for what was suppose to a half-day of fishing, but turned out to be the full day instead. It was another scorcher with temps above 90 & no winds until very late in the day. We trolled once again for a few hours looking for some walleye & pike but were only able to land a few smaller ones. Eventually we went for smallies & caught only a couple, but saw a few cruisers. Largemouth were what we targeted afterwards & even they were difficult to get into. There was one really good fish over 5 lbs & a couple of smaller ones caught, but that was all. One more stop before we were to take off the water & Max landed a few more smallies. The fish were definitely off today for some reason, but we still had a good time!