This was Takeshi’s last day and I wanted to make sure he had a great one, so we went back to where the numbers were! As usual, the same baits were producing in all the usual areas and he was into fish almost instantly. Jigs were the ticket in the morning and eventually the other baits brought up fish when the air got warmer. The water temps remained pretty stable with 67 degrees being about the norm. The water level however had risen causing a little more current and more active fish in certain areas. I guess the rain had been enough to bring it up and it became a little more stained than usual. When we found cleaner water it was better fishing! I think the fish were able to see the baits a bit better and from further away. We live welled the better bass during the day for a photo shoot near the end and he just kept catching. Once more, Tak was into fish practically everywhere we went and I was glad we chose this body of water on his last day. I offered him a shot at another muskie and he was quick to respond with a yes, so we packed up and relocate once again. I wanted to have the lines in the water for the moon and began trolling plugs around 4:30 PM. We went right through the rise without a strike and I was beginning to lose faith and then it happened. The deep rod fired and the reel screamed signalling a taker. Unfortunately, as fast as it ripped, it also went silent. Damn, it’s gone! I really hate it when that happens as this one took plenty of line as well and there’s no reason that it came off. I guess that’s just fishing! There wasn’t to be any more hits in the next 15 minutes and it was time to go. This would have been a great way to end his trip to Canada for smallies with another big ski under his belt. Oh well, there’s always next year! Today’s total count had to be another 75 or more fish day with plenty of quality bass landed as well as lost. “Five days go too fast”, he said, “next year 10”! I can’t wait!!

I thought we would try another lake a little further away and got on the road before daylight. This was to prove to be the wrong choice as we launched in barely 36 degrees and heavy fog. Thank god for GPS! The sun would eventually show it’s face and warm up the air enough to be able to fish without gloves, but the fish were barely biting. I covered shallow, mid range and eventually deeper water trying to find the mother load without success. The best we could do was a 4.5-pound largemouth that Tak managed to catch on a spinnerbait! We got into some decent smallies, but without any wind, they were difficult to detect. Instead of hitting the jigs, they were just picking them up and the line was going heave before you knew they were there. Tak lost a good one of over 4 pounds at the boat that he didn’t even know had his jig! I realized that this wasn’t going to get any better and decided to switch lakes once again to try and salvage the day. This was apparently the right choice as he got into fish immediately! By the time we began fishing here it was after 1:30 PM and we had some ground to catch up. Tak threw a crankbait in one area and began catching fish between 3.5 & 4.5 pounds immediately. I think he caught about 10 bass before we switched spots and it continued once more. In every place we fished he was locked up almost immediately on jigs, crankbaits or jerkbaits. We fished till about 5:30 PM and then called it a day. In the 4 hours we were there, I’m sure he landed close to 50 smallies up to almost 5 pounds on a variety of lures. I sure wish we had of come here first as it would have been a blood bath!

With a break in the weather and sunshine, I thought we would head back to where we ended our day yesterday and see if we could score again. It was a little nippy this morning, but with no wind and sun I knew it could only get warmer. The water temps on this lake were barely 54 degrees and the air temps were around 45 and climbing steadily. No wind allowed us to troll easily as we covered water for almost 2 hours without a touch. That’s muskie fishing I told him and we reeled in the lines to try for smallies. I slid into the first area and as luck would have it, spooked a big muskie of at least 45 inches in the shallows. I’m sure he had been feeding on the bass in here, as we never moved a single fish. I jumped to another area nearby and on Takeshi’s first cast with a jerkbait he locked up. He also brought in a school of smallies with this fish and I took advantage with a tube and also hooked one. Doubles are always good when you are into schooling fish! Tak released this fish and immediately was locked up once again on the very next cast. This one was just bloated and crapped all over my carpet when he brought her aboard. I don’t think she was 20 inches, but she looked just like a football with that girth! We took a couple of pics and let her go so that he could get back to casting and immediately was tight lined on the very next cast. These fish were either really stupid or just hungry, but I wasn’t going anywhere as long as he was hooking them. Another big fatty and a few pics and back to business. Eventually, the school became wary of his jerkbait and he began to have more followers instead of takers. He did manage to persuade some of them into eating the bait, but they definitely slowed down. Time to hit another area and lock up some more! The same thing happened in this spot as he caught a few before they developed lockjaw and just swam around looking. We could see the huge fish just cruising, showing absolutely no interest in anything we had to offer. Tak tried drop shotting right in their faces and all they did was swim the other way. I think they had fed heavily before and by the looks of them, they were just plain full! We saw plenty of other fish all along this area just cruising as well, including lots of sturgeon up to 4 feet in length. The sun got up high and it warmed enough to be able to get into T-Shirts with absolutely no wind at all! The water was barely moving in the current areas we were fishing and this shut the fish right down. I tried other spots later, as well as trolling for muskie again, but nay a taker showed any interest. We caught a few more bass up to almost 5 pounds during the rest of the day, tried unsuccessfully at muskie once more and then called it quits. Tough day on the lake with quality fish, but not any quantity!

Day two of Takeshi’s fishing trip and we awoke to the sound of rain. It was to be a real wet one and we didn’t care! It rained all day long with only a couple of small breaks in the weather allowing us to remove the hoods from our rain gear. This year I actually had a client ask me if fish bite in the rain! My reply was that they were already wet and didn’t care, so yes they bite in the rain! Today was definitely the proof as they bit all day long once more. Although we had to endure this misery, at least Tak was hooking up regularly on everything he threw. Most of the fish were a little lethargic and seemed like they were locked on the bottom, so tubes were the best choice again. There weren’t as many fish caught as yesterday, but under these conditions, I think he did pretty well. We also left this water and travelled to another lake in the afternoon and lost some valuable bass fishing time. I wanted to see if I could get him a Muskie and he was all for it! He had seen some of the pictures of these fish caught lately and wanted to catch at least one of his own. With this low cloud cover, I knew we would be pressed for time and that we had only a small window to accomplish the task. We trolled for about an hour in different areas without even a single rip. I was just about to tell him to bring in the lines and then it happened. The outside rod fired and the reel began to scream! I yelled, “Fish” and he quickly grabbed the rod as I reeled the other line in to avoid any unnecessary incidents. He couldn’t believe the strength of the fish on this heavy tackle as it continued to scream out more line. I thought he had a giant by the way she was acting and then it went airborne. She must have cleared the water at least 3 feet way behind the boat and in the dim light I thought he might have fouled a sturgeon. Fortunately for us, it was the real deal as we caught a glimpse of this beast alongside the boat. I quickly locked the boga onto the fish and cut out the hooks. No sense chancing an accident, as every one of these toothy creatures is a potential trip to the hospital! As I brought the muskie over the rail and into the boat, Takeshi’s eyes lit up! “Big Fish”, he said! We took a few quick pics and returned her back to the water unharmed. As it was now getting darker, I decided to call it a day and head back to the ramp. He had had another great day and this was the icing on the cake. Along with the 75 or so smallies he caught up to 4.5 pounds, this 45-inch muskie definitely made his day! We had accomplished what we had set out to do and all were satisfied!

For the next five days I was going to be fishing with Takeshi, all the way from Japan! He had made the trip a few years ago and wanted to come back, but fishing the Bassmasters had made it too difficult and had to wait longer than expected. He had travelled in alone this time, so I offered him a stay at my place to cut the expenses and he gladly accepted. We began the first day on a local lake in unseasonably warm temperatures that climbed to the upper 70’s by days end. It felt more like Florida than Canada, but we weren’t complaining! I had been having incredibly good high fish days lately and didn’t expect anything to change while he was here. Water temps were still around 58 degrees and sunshine greeted us all day long. A light breeze from the SW caused a ripple on the clear water and helped with the bite. Tak caught fish on just about everything he threw, but tubes were the best lures of choice. He did manage to get into a number of quality bass on both crankbaits and jerkbaits and this allowed us to cover water better. Sometime in the mid afternoon, he locked up with a real beauty on a crankbait and I knew this was what he was looking for. It was in the high fives and went 21.25 inches in length. It was a real football with an enormous girth as well! This fish had been holding in shallow water right on a drop off and nailed the crankbait as it passed by. What a beauty! We travelled all over the water and every place we stopped today produced fish. I’m sure that by the end of the day there were at least 100 smallies landed and plenty of others lost too. Even with the “Jet Lag” he was suffering from, he managed to beat on the fish pretty good. All in all a great first day of fishing!