I fished with Pierre, Mike & Terry today on Magog for smallmouth bass. The day started slowly but once the sunshine broke through and the temps rose, the fish began to come alive. Jerk-baits and slower moving soft plastic flukes accounted for the bulk of the fish with a few coming on jigs and grubs as well. Water temps rose up to 57 degrees by days end but with the warmer temps coming in the next few days, it should pick up as well. All in all a slightly tougher day than usual, but a great one never the less!

After a day of trying something different on another lake with little success and almost frostbite from the cold north winds, I was back on Memphremagog with my buddy Scott. This was an interesting day to say the least! The fish were very lethargic in the morning, as we had to work really hard for each one we caught. What I did see however was that the fish were larger than usual. It seemed like we were finally getting into some of the larger females rather than the smaller males that we were seeing lately. The day started out with little to no wind and bright sunny skies, but a little on the cool side with temps in the 30’s. Water temps were 51 degrees and stained from the high north winds and rain we had experienced the past few days and fishing was slow. Scott was fly fishing and casting clouser patterns on a sinking line to inactive smallies in deep water and once the water warmed up, crushing them too. I was throwing jigs and running jerk-baits, but only catching on the jigs. These fish were really lethargic! By jumping to various spots on the lake, we managed to get into 75 or 100 nice smallies up to 4 pounds during the day. A typical day for this time of the year, but a long time in the making with all the cold weather lately. All in all a great day on the water!!

I was back, again today on Memphremagog with Christiane & Tim for more football like smallies. Once more, the weather looked dismal as we were seeing all kinds of clouds in the area. The air temps were around 54 degrees when we began our day and winds were from the N/NE at 10 to 20 knots, putting a pretty good chop on the water. Our first area saw water temps a little over 52 degrees as Tim locked up on his second cast. Christiane was soon to follow and the games began. They were both throwing deep diving, suspending jerk-baits over 20 or more feet of water and drawing the smallies up from the depths. I was fishing a 1/8 oz jig tipped with a Fin-s bait and working the depths as well to take even more reluctant fish. We worked several areas that had deep water close by and caught bass in every one before the mist & rain finally arrived. It was a cold rain and I knew this wouldn’t be good for the fishing as the water temps were already too low for this time of the year. The deep jerk-baits were definitely what we needed as both Christiane & Tim continued to catch smallies on a regular basis. It wasn’t easy in this rain & wind to feel the hit, but we managed to endure the weather and stick it out until after 4:00 PM when we just called it a day. Overall, we managed to get into around 75 or more bass weighing up to 4 pounds. All in all a pretty good day by anyone’s standards under these circumstances!

I fished with my wife Christiane today for numbers of smallies. With this being our anniversary weekend, I knew the bass would bite. Memphremagog was our lake of choice and it was a good one! Around 50 smallies were caught today up to 4 pounds from as shallow as 8 feet of water to as deep as 30 feet. The conditions were pretty respectable with overcast skies and very little wind from the north. Water temps were up to 51.5 degrees and the air temps went as high as 60 degrees. Christiane hooked up on her first cast and was into a nice smallmouth bass of close to 3-pounds. She also ended the day with a beautiful bass as we doubled up before we headed to the boat ramp and called it a day. Overall, a great day of fishing for five hours on the water! I hope it continues to get even better in the days to come!!

Tim & I hit the water again today, but this time we were on another lake in pursuit of a trophy. Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t in our favor as we fished all day in overcast skies and cool air temps of no more than 52 degrees. Fortunately for us, the winds were light but from the N at 5 to 10 knots. The last time I was on this lake, the water temps were as high as 49 degrees, but today the best I could find was 48.5 degrees. To say the fishing was tough would have been too kind. Actually, it sucked! I didn’t expect miracles, but even the lakers weren’t cooperating very much. There were about a dozen hits from lake trout, but only 1 managed to come aboard. By 4:00 PM we had enough and decided to take off the lake. With this water temp, the only thing that’s really biting on the lake is trout and even they aren’t cooperating too much. With more rain in the forecast for the next couple of days, things will be getting worse before they get better. There is light at the end of the tunnel however as next week has sunshine and temps in the 70’s in store for us. I can’t wait!!!