Three Rivers Gang
July 4, 2023
Vissess, Martine & Stephan were with me today, all the way from Three Rivers! We headed out in flat calm conditions and began by trolling. Without any wind, it was difficult to keep the lines clean, due to all the floating grass weeds. It was more like capellini than weed! I didn’t remain at this for very long as constant cleaning was needed to ensure any chance at a bite. We did however manage one bass and another pike before I just gave up completely!
Our second spot wasn’t great but at least a couple of bass were landed and a few others missed. We once again moved on, ridding the boat of those damn dog pecker knats as well and headed to a deeper area. Drop shotting was on the menu and I attempted to set up on a few rocky flats. With very little current to go with zero wind, it wasn’t easy. We spent over 30 minutes in a couple of places before switching back to soft plastics and the shallows. Slow fishing once again with limited hookups and we were off to another section of this waterway!
I stuck with the shallow water and headed to a spot that was producing recently, I was shocked to see the water color! It was quite milky looking and visibility was almost zero. Despite this, they gave it a whirl for about 15 minutes before I just pulled the plug. It just didn’t look fishy anymore!
I really needed to get something going and decided to try trolling again. I had an area close by and set the rods. quickly. Or should I say rod as I never got the second one in before the first one fired. They were into a nice walleye and it took all of 30 seconds to get the bite! After a few pics it was released. It was way over the legal slot size for Quebec!
For the next hour or more we continued trolling and managed to put many other fish in the boat. Although mostly pike, it was still fish and that made for a productive period for a change.
The heat was getting to everyone, so I decided to make another move and switch it up again. We headed to an open water shoal and I had them casting once again. Soft plastics allowed several hookups and plenty of smallies, but only for one guy. Martin had the hot hand and he put on a clinic for a while! I also noticed the water clarity was terrible here and there was virtually zero visibility once again! I decided not to continue fishing the entire area and instead made another move back to a spot we had fished earlier. Zero bites and 20 minutes later we were forced to move again!
They went back to dropshotitng on the next place and unfortunately only one bass was landed from here. A few missed strikes were had but it also didn’t look good. Water temps had climbed to 75 degrees but I knew that was only surface and didn’t really care. The air felt like 95 however with zero wind!
With limited time remaining I opted for a shallower area and had all three casting a dropshot due to the lack of current. In the last hour there were many more walleye caught but all but one were short. It didn’t matter however as they weren’t harvesting anything today! By 4:00 we were done and headed back to take out.
Today was quite interesting to say the least! We covered lots of water and they used many techniques to get bit. Although it was tough, there were still plenty of fish caught on this scorching hot day. Between the forest fires up north and the heat & humidity, it was brutal. Oddly enough, most areas of the water still remain on the cool side for this time of the year. Adjusting is the name of the game and I am constantly making the necessary changes to ensure that everyone has a good day. Now all I need is some wind to get rid of that damn floating grass! I’m sure there will be many more days when it will be blowing again!!
