This was to be a day off, but I thought I would head out anyway with Mike & my wife, Christiane. We decided to make it a mixed day and Mike was going to try & get Christiane into her first Muskie, while I promised him some big bass. The weather had taken a turn for the worse with last night’s cold front and we weren’t too sure what was going to happen. Temperatures were in the 60’s most of the day with a cold N/W wind of 15 knots. We were in cloud cover for the entire day until the last 30 minutes when we were ready to leave. The water temperature had dropped a couple of degrees and was as low as 68.5 in some areas. By the time we finally got fishing it was after 10:00 AM and we trolled giant pieces of lumber to see about a muskie bite for a few hours before going for smallies, without a touch. The bass weren’t much better with only 3 fish actually taking tubes and senkos, almost 4 pounds apiece. We did however see plenty of giants in the area with a few looking like they were in the high fives or even 6 pounds. After total frustration, we hit a couple of other areas without any success and went back to trolling for muskie. It took about 5 minutes into the troll and one of the rods fired hooking up with a small muskie. Christiane finally landed her first ever skie! It may have been small, but it was what she wanted and she could finally say she caught one. We were sure that another larger fish would be taken and trolled for about 2 or 3 hours more without a touch and called it a day. Not the best fishing day, but a productive, pleasure fishing trip nonetheless!!

I had the pleasure of fishing with Bruce, Pat & Buzz today on Lake St-Francis for big smallmouth bass. The weather wasn’t too bad, but the winds were quite strong! They started out blowing from the S/W at 15 to 20 knots and switched to the W, blowing even harder at 20 to 30 knots in the afternoon. It was warm, but the temperatures fell towards the end of the day with a cold front moving in for the evening. Water temps were above 72 degrees in most areas and the air temps were in the 80’s most of the day. Buzz drew first blood on a spinnerbait with a snakelike northern of about 4 or 5 pounds. Not what I really wanted to see and quite disappointing too! Bruce managed to hook into a few smallmouth on a jerk-bait a little while later and things were looking up. Pat eventually got into a really nice bass on a spinnerbait, only to have it come unpinned at the boat in the 3 footers. On his very next cast, he hooked into what was to be the largest bass of the day and it did make it into the net. This fish wasn’t only long; it was fat too, going an honest 5 pounds minimum. We threw it into the livewell for photos later and continued fishing. A few more fish were gotten into on tubes and spinnerbaits and several others lost when they just ripped line from the reels and never got on. This line ripping happened a few times during the day to Pat and was really starting to become frustrating. Eventually, one of those line rippers actually got the hooks and Pat fought another 4 pounder. These fish are really strong and nothing like the bass he was accustomed to landing. They really beat him up! After a few more missed smallies and some mishaps with equipment failure, we were nearing the end of the day. I really wanted Buzz to hook into one of these fish on steroids and not just have them follow his baits like they did all day. Right at the end, he finally got a chance and slammed the hooks to one, on a senko. It damn near broke his wrist as the fish never even moved! It did however go airborne and throw the bait back at us almost instantly. I believe that one was in the high fives if not six pounds! It would have been a nice way to end the day, but instead we only got to see what could have been. Oh well, that’s fishing! Overall, it was a tough day, but there were many chances at big bass and several decent sized ones caught. Pat would have had the top honours with the 5 pounder he had taken earlier in the day. Way to go Pat!

I headed up north today with Warren & Mike to try a smaller lake for smallies & muskie. It proved to be a good choice as there were some huge bass taken, mostly on tubes. The weather looked a little dismal with overcast skies, but the temps were way up there! Water temps were about the same as all the other lakes I had been on lately with the highest going just over 70 degrees. A little wind from the SW increased in the afternoon and eventually started blowing around 10 to 20 knots. Thankfully, it felt great as the air temperatures climbed into the 90’s with some sunshine causing it to be another scorcher! In all, there were about 15 bass caught with most of them being 4 pounds or better and a couple over 5 pounds too. There were only 2 small muskie caught up to 36 inches, but a couple of others were also hooked into and lost as well. Points and deep weeds were where most of the bass came from and by casting way out to deep water; we were able to take advantage of the big biters. In about 7 hours of actual fishing, we fended quite well on a new lake. All in all a great day on the water!

What a scorcher day on the water! It’s hard to believe that we’re into September and the temps reached 90 degrees today on the lake. I fished with Andre & Jim for smallmouth bass and roasted with the high humidity in the process. The lack of wind didn’t make it easy either as we worked for each & every bite we had. Hats off to the weatherman for a perfect forecast of 10 to 15 knot winds from the south!!! A few of the areas had schooling bass and if you weren’t fast enough to take advantage of the followers, they disappeared right back to the depths they came from. Getting them back wasn’t all that easy either, as they remained down in their sanctuary and didn’t want anything to do with us above. Most of the fish caught today came on tube jigs and senko’s. There were a few bass that either followed or were lost on spinnerbaits and crankbaits, but with the flat water and sunshine, most refused to take aggressive baits. This was definitely a day of finesse fishing! There were a few bite offs from either pike or muskie on tubes and Andre lost a pretty big walleye of around 8 pounds at the boat when the fish just came unpinned. Plenty of areas were tried and most produced some sort of activity, but not what I had expected with the 10 to 15 knot winds and all!! Oh well, I guess they’re only as accurate as their equipment tells them to be! No pics today!

I fished with Alain & Cindy today on Lake St-Louis for smallmouth bass and just crushed the big ones! The weather called for winds from the N/W at 5 to 10 knots but felt more like W/NW at 10 to 20 knots with stronger gusts. The air temps were warm, but not warm enough for a T-Shirt, with the cool northern breeze. With sunshine all day, it allowed us to see all the areas we were casting to very well. This was to be an advantage as both weed and rocky shoals were what we were targeting today. Alain drew first blood with a smallie of 3.5 pounds on his second cast and another one shortly after. Cindy was soon to follow me, with a good one of 3 pounds on a tube immediately after I caught one over 4 on a tube as well. Things were starting to look up as we all were hooking into really good bass. It slowed a bit and I relocated to another area where Cindy began to just crush the fish on tubes. She was definitely getting the hang of these jigs as she hooked several more good ones again. Alain hooked into one on a spinnerbait and brought up a school of big bass while fighting the fish. Cindy took advantage when I told her to throw into the group and missed two others before she hooked up on another 4 pounder. These fish were on fire and so were we as everyone was hooking up regularly! Once it slowed, I decided to try getting out of the wind and ran up the lake to what I thought was a slightly sheltered area only to find out the wind was blowing hard here as well. It didn’t really matter as both Cindy & Alain continued to hook more large smallies on spinnerbaits for the next few hours. Alain even hooked into a rather large Northern Pike that measured well over 40 inches and turned out to be the largest fish of the day. There were a few bass that were in the high fours and maybe might have weighed 5 pounds if we were to have actually put them on the scale. We took a number of pictures and released all the fish back to the lake where they belonged to fight another day. I thought I would give a couple of other areas a try and with limited time left in the day, moved on. A small walleye around 2.5 pounds was caught and another jumbino smallie missed, but that was all for this area. One more spot before we called it a day and a couple of bass up to 3 pounds caught here, before Alain hooked into something big. It turned out to be probably the largest bass of the day and might have gone over 5 pounds. One more quick pic and back to the depths she went unharmed again. By days end, there must have been 25 to 30 bass landed with the majority of them 3.5 pounds or better and many in the 4-pound range caught. There also was at least 10 to 15 others either lost or missed that we saw, making this a possible 50 fish day, in the perfect world! The fall weather is coming and the fishing should only continue to improve in the coming weeks. I will definitely be taking advantage of the spectacular fishing ahead. This was just the start of what’s to come!!