After a disappointing day yesterday due to hurricane like winds and pounding rain, we were back on the water again today with a vengeance. Craig & Herm were with me on a local body of water in pursuit of smallmouth bass and oh how they caught them! The weather had taken a 180-degree turn for the better with sunshine and temps that maxed out at 65 degrees in the afternoon. Water temps were barely over 63 degrees and had fallen from yesterday’s rain and the overnight lows we suffered from the cold front. The winds were strong from the NE and heavier gusts at times blew at 20 to 25 knots. This eventually died almost completely leaving us with light & variable winds. I believe that each & every spot we fished today produced multiple fish, hook ups and even a few triple-headers. I can’t remember how many doubles we had but there were many of them as well. Tubes were the lures of choice and most of the bass fell victim to them dragged in anywhere between 5 & 20 feet of water. Once we found fish in certain locations, we usually stayed there until the action slowed and then found another area just like it somewhere else. Some places yielded 20 or more bass before we had to move. There were a lot of fish in the smaller than average size of two pounds or so, but there were also plenty of bass 3 pounds or better. We didn’t catch any 5 pounders today but there were quite a few 4 pounds and a few in the high fours. These fish are just starting to move into the fall locations and with cooler nights ahead, will actually group up heavier in the next few weeks. Eventually, there will be better than average sized bass mostly in the 3 to 4.5 pound range with many 5 pounders caught each day as well. I can’t wait! Fall is a great time to catch both size and numbers of football like smallies that just gorge themselves, knowing that winter will soon arrive. Falling water temps make these fish more active and they usually feed all day long! Today was the first day this fall that 2 anglers exceeded 100 bass caught with many, many others lost. There will be lots more of these days ahead to come as well!

I had the pleasure of fishing with Wes today on a local lake for a real Multi Species type of day. We primarily fished for smallies, but had a variety of other species during the day as well. This trip was actually an early anniversary present that Wes’s wife had gotten for him several weeks ago. They were scheduled to come into the Montreal area for the thanksgiving weekend and she wanted to surprise him with a day on the water. Great wife! The weather was unseasonably warm today with the highs reaching into the upper 70’s and the skies were full of sunshine throughout the entire day. The winds were out of the SW at 5 to 10 knots at the worst of times and the water temps reached 66.5 degrees in some places as well. We began the day trying to get him a Muskie by trolling, but had no takers and decided to go for smallies around 10:00 AM. It didn’t take long before he was locked up on a jerk-bait and many more followed. Tubes were also accounting for some of the bass, but he stuck to the jerk-bait due to the violent strikes that came with throwing it. Every time he hooked up there were several others that followed and I was able to pick one here & there on a tube when this occurred. In one of the areas drifting tubes in slightly deeper water, the rod snapped tight and we were into another fish, that didn’t look like a smallie. It turned out to be a 20-pound Muskie and it was on light bass tackle! I was finally able to boga grip this creature and bring it aboard for a few quick pics before releasing her unharmed. Pretty good, we trolled for over 2 hours without a touch and hooked up while fishing bass! This wasn’t the end to the madness either. There was a big sucker caught, a 36-inch northern and a sturgeon as well. All of these were taken on tubes while fishing for bass too. We hit several areas in hopes of finding the mother load, but only encountered smaller pods of bass all over the place. Spinnerbaits were also taking some of the larger fish up to 4 pounds in practically no water, while casting to rocky shoals surrounded with weeds. The bass action went all day long with some lulls in the afternoon, but we caught throughout. I thought I would give the trolling another try for Muskie late in the day and managed to get him into a decent fish of 42.5 inches. When the reel finally fired, it was like music to my ears and Wes was on the rod almost instantly. It was on the long line and he had a great fight with this fish. A few quick pics and back she went unharmed once more! We hit a couple of other places for smallies before calling it a day and managed to get into them once again. All in all it was a tremendous day full of action and probably 30 to 40 smallies not to mention all those bonus fish too!

I was back on the water again today, but up north on a Laurention lake with Jay & Mike. Yesterday, Mike had fished with Jay for Muskie and had gotten him into a few giants. Today however, Jay was fishing bass and Mike thought he would like to join us as well. The trees were beautiful with all the reds, yellows and oranges and would make great pictures, if we caught some fish. Water temps were 62 degrees and some areas 63.5 degrees with a light chop from the SE from winds of 10 to 15 knots. The first area was a small hump that put Jay into the first fish of the day. That’s just bad luck when you hook up right away and time would tell. Mike hooked into a couple of beauties almost immediately after and the livewell was beginning to fill up for later pics. We tries plenty of areas, some old and some new, but never really got into them good. There were a couple of fish here and there and we had to work to get the few bites that we got. Mike even managed to get a small muskie of about 36 inches while throwing a muskie jerk-bait off one of the deeper points while we fished for bass. Tube jigs definitely worked the best today as every smallmouth bass that was caught, came from them. Jay even hooked another muskie from a dock that instantly had both Mike & I sure it wasn’t a bass. It came by the boat like a submarine and just let go. Usually, they just bite you off, but this time it let lose before I had a chance to even get the boga. We tried unsuccessfully for a while casting for Muskie and then switched back to smallmouth once again only to have limited action once more. Sometime after 6:00 PM we had just had enough and decided to call it a day. We took a couple of pictures of the fish and released them back to the lake. There weren’t a lot of fish caught, but the average size was really good. There was even one bass that measures 21 inches in length and would have gone in the mid 5 pound range for sure. All in all a pretty good day with quality bites!

Today, I fished with Darren on two bodies of water for both bass and Muskie. We began our day dragging tubes in current for smallies and had a blast. Although the fish weren’t the size I was accustomed to, they were a lot of fun. Most of the 50 or so bass were in the 2-pound size, but there were several over 3 and a few closer to 4 pounds too. Unfortunately, there were definitely more fish lost than landed today and we weren’t quite sure why that was. I tried changing the hooks and still managed to lose almost as many as did Darren. It didn’t really matter though as there were plenty of others biting the jigs almost instantly after you lost a fish. At one point, Darren brought up what we thought might have been a Muskie when we both saw a huge mass in the water behind his tube. It broke up in pieces that went in every direction as soon as he hooked one of the 20 or more smallmouth that were tightly grouped up. As fast as they appeared, they were gone and never to be seen again. Sometime in the mid afternoon, I decided that it was time to relocate to try and see if we could get Darren into another Muskie before we were done. Once on the other body of water, we realized just how sheltered were actually were when we were faced with 20 knot winds from the SE. There was probably a 2 to 3 foot roll on the lake and I thought we would score for sure! Not a boat in sight and everything to ourselves! We set the rods and began to troll several areas without any luck for about an hour and then the reel went off. Finally one took and Darren was tight to a good fight from a 42-inch fatty. A few quick pics and a good release and we were back trolling for more. More, more, more is my motto now and you can never get enough of these beasts. We gave it about another hour but never touched another fish and decided to call it a day. We had accomplished what we had set out to do and even 1 Muskie is a successful day. Add all the bass from the early part of the day and it was a great one, to say the least!

Today was my day off and I accompanied my wife, Christiane downtown for the CIBC Run for Breast Cancer. I was just there for support but she was participating in the actual run. They say that no good deed goes unnoticed and after today, I believe it’s true! Once everything was over and we were back home, there was still plenty of time left in the day to get in a few hours of fishing. I thought that we would see if we could catch a few fish and hopefully get her into a big Muskie. I had been having pretty good success lately and prayed that my luck hadn’t run out. The conditions were almost flat calm, except for lots of boat traffic as I began a troll for these toothy creatures. Within the first 10 minutes, one of the rods fired, but shortly after I got the rod out of the holder, it came off leaving me with only the lure vibration. I knew this had to be a big fish as it felt like I was caught on the bottom until the fish began a few headshakes. If you think that sucked, less than 5 minutes later the same rod fired again and this time I actually managed to pass the rod to Christiane before the fish rolled on the surface and also came off. We were zero for two and I really felt bad for Christiane as just about every other fish hooked lately, eventually came aboard. Talk about bad luck! We continued to troll for about another 30 minutes without success and then it happened. The reel started screaming and I knew this was a real big fish. Christiane had a difficult time handling this Muskie and could barely hold the rod up to control the fish. With a tight drag set, it’s all muscle to bring them to the boat and the morning run had all but wore her out. When she finally caught a glimpse of this fish behind the boat she freaked! It was enormous and at least 30 pounds, laying on the surface behind the motors. All of a sudden the fish began to roll again and gave her another battle that had her thinking it was also going to get off. Eventually, I was able to grab the leader and steer her closer to the side of the boat where I finally put the boga grip on this monster. I carefully slit it over the rail and into the boat and had to cut the hooks out due to their location and the fish’s mass. This fish measured 53.5 inches in length and I estimated it at 40 pounds. Not wanting to stress it out anymore than we had already done, I shot a few pics and then put her back in the water. I spent about 5 or 10 minutes carefully holding her before she was revived enough to be released. This was definitely a true trophy and the largest one to come aboard since I began fishing for them. I was glad that Christiane got to experience a fish of this size and told her that everything else from this point on would only be a disappointment. We took the plugs off the rods and packed in the muskie trolling for the remainder of the day. I wanted her to end it on a high note and told her that we would catch a few bass before we headed home. I guess we spent about 30 minutes catching close to 10 smallies and one overly large drum of close to 12 pounds before we called it a day. Total time fished today was less than 3 hours and one of the best, short days ever spent on the water!