I had the pleasure of fishing with my buddy Warren today and his son Jonathan. All I can say is “Kids Rock”! We were fortunate enough to have great weather, regardless of what the weatherman had forecasted. Sunshine and occasional cloud cover was what we were faced with along with temps in he 70’s. With the humidity and lack of wind, it felt more like the 80’s. Water temps were in the low 60’s around 63 at best and the fish were a bit lethargic. Tube jigs dragged slowly across rocky points and shoals accounted for the bulk of the almost 100 smallmouth bass that we caught today. Soft plastic jerk-baits also were responsible for many bass when we were covering water. The bite wasn’t fast & furious, but by slowing down the pace we were able to monopolize on these fish. By the end of the day, Jonathan had managed to land 66 of these bass himself up to 3.5 pounds. He wasn’t really happy, he was ecstatic! Taking a kid fishing is a great thing to do and we just don’t take the time quite enough. What a great day with close to 100 bass caught & released!!

My friend Jay & his wife Kim were my guests today on Memphremagog for smallmouth bass. We began the day in heavy clouds and an extremely low ceiling of clouds and it stayed with us all day long. Air temps climbed into the low 70’s and the water temps were at a maximum of 61.5 degrees at best. There was virtually no wind until late in the afternoon when it began to blow at 5 to 10 knots from the W/NW, but soon died off shortly after. Top-water zaras had the fish fired up, but most of the strikes were short ones. Kim was hooking up with bass on a soft jerk-bait and was up almost 10 fish by the time Jay actually landed one. She definitely had the hot hand today as she managed to land more fish than either one of us. Women & kids always rule! The weather looked pretty gloomy all day long and threatened thundershowers & rain throughout the day. We were fortunate though and barely had a sprinkle until the end o the day when it began to rain. All in all a great day with tough conditions from the overcast skies. Over 50 smallmouth bass up to 3.5 pounds were caught with at least that many or more lost and missed.

Well, the weather actually got worse and we had rain and heavy rain most of the morning while on Memphremagog. Water temps were barely above 60 degrees and the air temps maxed out at 59 degrees. Fortunately, the winds were almost non-existent and the fish were on fire. Bobby and Francois fished with me and we caught most of the 75 or more bass on soft jerk-baits and top water baits like zaras. Some of the fish also were taken on tubes slowly dragged across the bottom. I found that the smaller males were in the shallower water while the larger females were still in deeper, adjacent waters and harder to get into. The off shore structures held the more aggressive fish and better numbers of the mid to larger sized ones as well. In the 6 hours of fishing we had multiple hook ups and many more lost bass, which should have totaled over 100 fish for the day. With the next few days calling for similar weather, the fishing should be wet and good. If the sun shines, it will be great! I’m hoping for sun!!!

I fished with a couple of friends Alain & Ben today on Memphremagog for smallies. The weather started out with sunshine but soon turned to overcast skies and later, light rain. Air temps were in the low 60’s as were the water temps. Some areas actually had 58 degrees due to the winds from the west. We had a decent top-water bite this morning but once the rains began to fall, the fish disappeared. We also caught fish on soft jerk-baits and tubes. Overall, it was a rather slow day with about 25 bass caught. I hope the weather picks up soon too!

I was back on a trophy lake with Herm & Craig once again today for smallies and had a blast. It started out a little slow with the water temps around 51 degrees at best and the winds from the N/W at 5 to 15 knots. Air temps went into the 60’s but with the winds, it felt more like the 50’s. Fortunately for us, the weather called for sunny skies and that would definitely be a plus! It took quite a while before we actually hooked into a fish after several follows and missed strikes. I thought I would try something completely different when we couldn’t hook up and switched to a football jig with a spider grub. I had a fish on, in the first 5 minutes and unfortunately, lost the 4.5 pounder at the boat when the hooks pulled free. Shortly afterwards, I had another and found a 5.5 pound smallmouth coming aboard. Another fish or two showed signs of interest and I was changing tactics completely. Craig was now throwing a tube jig & Herm was also on a spider jig! Craig was into another fish not too long after and the games began. These fish were close to the shallower water that they should have been in, but were actually out in deeper water adjacent. Herm also caught a good fish of 4.5 pounds on a spider jig and we all had some sort of action in the next few hours. Several good fish were caught up to & over 5 pounds and then I hooked into what I thought might have been my personal best. I eventually landed a fish that measured 22 inches by 16 inches and she weighed in at 6 pounds 10 ounces. I actually thought that it was over 7 pounds when I first saw the big female pulling line from the reel and was a little disappointed when we weighed the fish. Craig managed to also get his personal best a little later and this one weighed 6 pounds 4 ounces. Two over 6 pounds in one day is a rarity, and we were just happy to see them. Craig caught several others up to and over 5 pounds before we called it a day and headed off the water. Overall, there were about 12 to 15 bass landed today and they were all huge. This was not a typical day and we were thrilled to have caught as many large smallies as we did. A great day to say the least!!!