I fished with Richard & his son, Max again today on a local lake for bass. The weather began in the high 60’s but ended in the 80’s by days end. The winds started from the N/E blowing at 5 to 10 knots and eventually swung around to the W at 5 by afternoon. Clouds & occasional sunshine greeted us with mostly cloud throughout the day. The smallmouth bite was really off in the morning, so I decided to teach Richard how to pitch for largemouth bass in thick cover. It didn’t take him long to get the hang of pitching the flipping jig into heavy vegetation. The bass were tight to cover and nothing else was working for us so we decided to continue this for a while. I think there were about a half dozen fish caught and a few others missed by utilizing this technique. Sometime in the early afternoon, we decided to try for smallies once again and Richard hooked up on a big bass on a current break. Unfortunately, it came off before he had a chance to fight it or long. We did manage to get a pretty good look at her though and concluded that it was in the mid 4 pound range. Max hooked into the next smallie of over three pounds and it put on quite the aerial display for us with many a jump. There wasn’t much time left before they had to head home, so I decided to try a couple of areas that had been producing big fish lately in hoped of a few huge bites. Richard got into only one fish in each place, but they were 19.5 inches or better putting both of them in the mid to high four pound range. The day wasn’t fast & furious, but it did produce some pretty good fish and one new technique to add to Richard’s bag of tricks.

We were back on the water again today and got a slightly earlier start than yesterday. The weather called for showers and thunderstorms moving in sometime in the afternoon and we wanted to get in as much fishing as we could before we got hit. Our first area didn’t produce a single fish so I relocated quickly to some offshore areas and we were into bass almost immediately. I believe the first fish was a 4.25-pound smallie taken on a senko! This was a good sign and things were beginning to look up as we got into more fish not too long after as well. Most of these fish were 3 pounds or better with the largest one weighing 4 pounds 12 ounces. We were getting closer to that 5 pounder! The only thing working was the senko with all the calm water and overcast skies. Spinnerbaits, jerk-baits and tubes all scored a big zero until after lunch! Lee finally hooked into a nice smallie on a spinnerbait, but the fish broke the lure when it went airborne leaving him with an empty line. After trying a couple of other nearby areas without any success, I thought we would hit an isolated rock flat in the middle of nowhere that I hadn’t fished in over 2 weeks. Hopefully, we would get them there! Without a GPS mapping system, this place is virtually impossible to get to and I like it that way too. It only took a few casts to see that this was the right place to be as a big fish swirled on the senko and left a boil on the surface. Lee locked up on another 4 pounder and had a hard time convincing it that the net was the place to be. Shortly after, we saw a real big fish that had wall hanger written all over her and we both thought she was about to take his senko when a three pound fish came out of nowhere and inhaled the bait. Lee set into this fish and we were both a little upset with the end results. We tried to get into the other fish for a while, but with no luck. Lee did manage to land another fish over 4 pounds a little while afterwards, but not the beast we were after. Just before we were about to hit another spot, Lee threw a spinnerbait across the rocks and as luck would have it, locked up on her. This battle lasted all of about 10 seconds as she went airborne and threw the lure on the jump. We both got a good look at her actual size and realized that she was at least 5.5 pounds or more. That was the fish we were looking for! Disappointed, we relocated to another area not too far away when the winds finally began to blow about 5 to 10 knots and the sun made an appearance with them. They were blowing from the wrong direction, but at least they were blowing! I stayed on the senko and Lee remained on the spinnerbait casting to weeds and rocks in the wind. He had some action almost immediately when a 4 pounder crashed into his lure almost ripping the rod away from his grip. With the winds and sunshine I knew it would light the fish up and wanted to take advantage of this while it lasted. We covered the area rather quickly and got several hits and hookups before the skied darkened and the sun went away. The winds also died almost completely and we were left with similar conditions once again. Unfortunately, there was also a storm brewing and we were down to the wire. Thunder was happening in the distance and I knew it wouldn’t be too long before we got hit. A few more fish were landed up to 4 pounds once again and we had to leave. Lee didn’t get his wall hanger, but he did get to see her. I told him I would let him know just how much she weighs when I get her next week! There were definitely closer to 25 bass caught today with the average being 3.5 pounds or better. It was a good day with the conditions we were dealt!!

Today I was on another nearby lake for smallies with Lee. He had brought his wife to Montreal for their anniversary and decided that he would fish for a couple of days while they were here. She tagged along with us while on the water, but never really fished. Lee was an experienced bass fisherman & tournament angler but for largemouth. He was looking for a wall hanger of a smallmouth and hoped to have a reproduction made from something above 5 pounds. The conditions weren’t exactly perfect for what I wanted to do, but I figured it could be done. With no wind, flat water and overcast skies, it was going to be slow fishing. By fishing with senko’s and tubes, we were able to pick up fish every once in a while on almost every area we went to. Without a doubt, the senko’s were what worked the best as most of the fish were caught with these baits. Lee did however manage to catch a really long and skinny bass on a tube that went 20 inches. He also managed to get a few on spinnerbaits that almost ripped the rod out of his hands when they hit. By the end of the day, there were about 15 to 20 bass caught up to 4 pounds, but nothing in the mountable size range today. As I told him, the wind and sunshine really help in getting these big bronze beauties and we had the exact opposite today. Hopefully, tomorrow would be better!!

I was back on Memphremagog again today, but this time with Alain, Claude & his son Alex. With a serious fog delaying us from running far, I just ran to a close by waypoint and we began to fish. The air temps were in the mid 40’s and the water temps were barely 70 degrees with very limited visibility. Claude scored the first fish on a jerk-bait, but unfortunately it was a perch. Alain managed to get into a nice smallie on a top-water bait and it was a three pounder. I had several perch as well and even doubled up on a jerk-bait on one of my casts with two of them. Finally, I got into a 3.5-pound bass and managed to land it a little while later. I even found an area that I had been looking for the week before and this time did it in the fog. Unfortunately, we didn’t catch anything on it though and went back to the off shore weed beds where the fish were. It took about an hour and a half before the fog lifted and we were finally able to move down the lake to other areas and fish. Based on the previous two times on the lake the week before, I knew we would have to fish slowly with jigs if we wanted to be successful. I concentrated on the outside of weeds in slightly deeper water and we picked a fish here & there throughout the day, but nothing big. The weather actually turned out to be a beautiful day with air temps reaching almost 80 degrees and sunshine for the remainder of the day. With no winds, we were able to cover lots of water comfortably, but not too effectively. The fall isn’t here yet and the fish are still in a summer pattern on the lake but there is still too much food for them to eat. With all the perch around the weeds, the bass look more like springtime spawners rather than summertime feeders. With the day getting on a little, I decided to run back to the weeds where we began to see if we could get into a few more before we called it. I demonstrated a cast to Alex with a spinnerbait and locked up on a nice fish of over 3 pounds immediately. I really thought we were going to get them after that, but was disappointed to only see perch afterwards. Alex caught another small bass and we finally called it a day. There were plenty of fish caught today on a variety of lures, but most of them were on the smaller side. All in al it was a really nice day to be on the water and we all had a great day!!

After a not so great day on the water yesterday due to even stronger N/W winds, I was glad to see the lake calm down. We still had the N/W winds, but they weren’t any stronger than 5 to 10 knots at the worst. Most of the morning, there was only a ripple on the water and this made it easy for both my wife Christiane and myself to cast. Skies were sunny with intermittent clouds shadowing the water we fished The air temps reached 70 degrees late in the afternoon and the best water temps we found were on the windblown side of the lake at 72 degrees. I thought we would continue to throw jerk-baits and Christiane hooked up not long after we started. I was sure she had a smallie and that it was a biggun! Line peeled from the reel as I chased the fish down with the electric motor trying to get a closer look at what she was into. When I caught a glimpse of this thing I saw what looked like a 7 or 8-pound smallmouth bass, but eventually realized that it was only a freshwater drum. This was the first time one of these drum ever attacked a hard bait like the jerk-bait, but it was the largest one too, of almost 12 pounds. Shortly after this fish was released, I hooked into a smallie of 4.5 pounds and Christiane had a couple of others slightly smaller on tubes as well. We moved around a bit looking for other large bass and Christiane got into another biggun. It definitely went over 5 pounds and into the livewell for pics later. The rest of the day we moved around hooking into a fish here and there and eventually hit one area where we had several fish on, only landing about half of them. I think with the warmer weather on the way, it will only get better in the days to come. The shallows will once again heat up causing everything to become active once more and 25 to 50 fish days will return. We didn’t crush them today, but we did have a great time with about a dozen or so fish landed and several others seen, or missed. All in all a good day and nobody got hurt!