Jeff joined me this morning and it was looking like a great day on the water! I began by searching an area right at the start for sturgeon but was unsuccessful at locating any numbers. Not to waste any more time, I decided to head to open water for some smallies.

With overcast skies and occasional sunny spots, I made my way over to a shallow, rocky flat hoping for a few big bites. The wind wasn’t helping much as it was out of the east and messing up the current we were fishing. The fish ended up positioning themselves in different areas, but I eventually found them. Jeff hooked a smaller one casting a swim jig while I was fan casting open water with a more aggressive presentation. It was a tough early bite with the moon having just set and I soon realized that we were going to have to fish slower.

Jeff tried a bunch of things including a spybait, but most were unsuccessful. At one point I had him toss a topwater to an area that usually holds good ones and he did manage to hook into a couple. The first one crushed the bait but the second one had it in the top of his head. This showed me that they didn’t really want the lures and it was time to change to the soft plastics. At one point, we were just using the current to drift the baits with barely any movement. This gave us several more fish with the dead weight pickups. It was looking like it was going to be a slow down kind of day!

Our next spot was a little deeper and we were going to be casting drop shots for hopefully bass & walleye. Jeff nailed a bass almost immediately, but we never caught another fish. A few missed bites was all she wrote! Time for another change again!

The inactivity of everything was definitely visible as I barely saw any fish or bird movement. Usually the sturgeon are jumping everywhere but I could count on one hand the number of fish I saw breach. It was going to be a struggle for a while just to get a few bites!

I decided to try steep breaks and different lures to see if we could bring anything up. When this failed we moved up on the shallows again and began covering water. This too failed and Jeff began to slowly work a drop shot instead. To give you an idea of how inactive the fish were, after casting he answered a text without even moving his line. When he was done and started to reel, he felt weight and set on what turned out to be the best fish of the day. Thinking we might be on to something, I began making a few adjustments for the balance of the area we were fishing.

Unfortunately, our day was about to be cut short when he received a phone call and some bad news! Not to get into details, we packed everything up and headed back to take out. Unforeseen circumstances had us pulling off the water early.

The bite may have been slow this morning, but Jeff was enjoying catching bass on a new body of water. He generally fishes the upper St. Lawrence, closer to Lake Ontario and was quite familiar with river smallies. I’m sure that if it had of been anyone else in the boat today that the results would have been different. Too bad about the short day but it was the right thing to do!

Sylvie & Gilles treated their grandson, Olivier to a birthday fishing day on the water and boy did he have fun! We met up just before 11:30 for their afternoon of fishing. He wanted some pike so we headed to an area and trolled him up some good ones. I had also hoped for a walleye and we were rewarded by a really nice over as well. Things were going as planned but now he wanted to change spots and catch something else. Off we went for some smallies!

After a long run to an area, we fished it for the remainder of the day. Here he got to boat several smaller bass and a few pretty good sized sturgeon. It wasn’t fast & furious but the fish were around. We could see all kinds of bass just cruising but the lake was flat and the sky was bright. Add to that the lack of current and there was barely any movement at all. They just didn’t want to bite!

Despite the short half day, we were able to give the little guy a birthday present that he will remember for quite some time. He managed to catch 4 different species of fish and never lost interest. I think he could have gone the entire day and still had power to spare! All I know is that this was one of the best presents he could have received from anyone. You have to love grandparents as they get to spoil their grandchildren, anyway they can! I have a feeling that I just may see them again!

August 14^th 2019

Dave and his children enjoyed an interesting morning on the water today, catching a bunch of fish. They were also joined by their grandfather, making for a real family trip! Too bad Mother Nature didn’t want to cooperate though!

We headed out in a pretty good NE wind, ruling out any possible drop shotting. Wind against current doesn’t work when you’re four fishing! Although I did give trolling the area a shot, the amount of floating weeds made it almost impossible to keep the rods & lures clean. One bass in the first 30 seconds and nothing for the next 20 minutes had me making a drastic, long run. We were off to another area to try & catch some pike!

After a roller coaster of a ride, I finally set up and began covering the water in hopes of getting them some fish. It didn’t take long to see that this was the right move as several decent northerns were landed by all. Unfortunately it was cut short while untangling a little mess, when I shifted the small engine too quickly into neutral, to avoid a prop & line mishap. With the linkage popped out, I figured I would just fix it later when I was off the water. We were heading to cast for bass in another area quite far from this one now in hopes of catching some smallies!

The lake was still rolling and I had to take it slower than I would have liked, so as not beat everyone up in the process. Once we arrived, I gave a demonstration of what to do and realized I needed to start from scratch too! Little to no experience had them learning how to cast, but they caught on quickly. In no time they were hooking up and a good number of bass were landed. Zach was the last to set into a fish and it turned out to be the largest of the morning. He was casting like a champ and it was only a matter of time until he caught one. This was his reward for doing everything right and I soon netted his prize!

The morning had passed by quickly and I headed back to take out. Of course the wind had layed down considerably now and we were running in much calmer waters. Although it was still from the NE, it was definitely easier and a whole lot less bumpy!

Dave & his family enjoyed catching fish this morning but I think they really loved casting for the bass. I know Zach did because he was like a sponge, learning how to cast! Hopefully he will continue to pursue fishing and learn even more on his own, now that he understands the basics. Another good morning for fishing!

Adam & his son Zach were with me today and new to fishing. I decided to start by drop shotting an area in hopes of teaching them what to look for. About 15 seconds into the demonstration, I reeled down on a good 18 inch walleye and my demonstration was complete!

We spend almost 2 hours drifting various lines in big waves and a light rain before trying something new. They had caught a bunch of bass & walleye and lost even more on the strikes. It’s normal for more fish to be lost than landed when you’re new to the sport!

Our next area had them casting soft plastics for the cruising smallies and Zach was on fire. He slammed the hooks to a bunch of fish and had a blast catching them. With a little coaching he became quite good at detecting the subtle bites and caught more fish than his dad. Adam still managed to land a few of his own but seemed to lose more than he was catching. Not having fished much before, it was expected! Regardless he still was having fun and enjoyed seeing Zach hammering on the fish!

I had decided to go back to drop shotting for the last hour or so in the day, hoping to get them a few more walleye to bring home. Unfortunately the winds had died off completely and the bite was tough. Despite struggling with the walleye, they did however manage to land several more bass. Unfortunately they missed about as many as they boated! The bites were absolutely terrible with the lack of current and there was almost no movement at all. We were almost done, when Adam brought to net the last bass of the day! Always nice to end on a high!

Plenty of fish were caught today with even more, either lost or just missed altogether. The weather didn’t help either as it started out cool and lightly raining in big waves and was followed by sunshine, heat and flat calm conditions. Both Adam & Zach experienced all different types of fishing today and caught throughout it all. Being relatively new to the sport, I think they did quite well. Overall it was a very successful outing and I look forward to fishing with them again, sometime in the near future!

Brahm & Sam were with me for the morning trip and due to the big winds, I didn’t run too far! We focussed our entire time drop shotting flats for both walleye & smallmouth. Between the two of them, they managed to bring 4 nice keeper eyes home as well as land many more fish. Several nice bass were also boated and as always, plenty of fish were lost or entirely missed!

The afternoon saw Dan & Ken out with me as the winds intensified. We made a pretty long run to get started and they managed to land some nice bass on our first spot.

I tried to fish another place off the main current after, but soon found out that it was next to impossible. It was like being in a washing machine! Waves from two directions along with a heavy current made for some difficult fishing and we opted to just give up here.

We were forced to make another long run further away from the start in hopes that we could fish there. I set up on a shallow flat and we bounced around in two & three footers the entire time! Fortunately there were fish here and they caught as many as they could keep pinned before adjusting our location once more.

Our final area had plenty of fish as we soon found out and at one point it was almost every cast. Although not huge, they were quite aggressive and it made for a great finish to the day. Dan did however hook into two of the biggest ones, but unfortunately equipment failure caused them to get off!

The run back to the ramp was a little longer than usual with big waves causing me to slow down for the ride. We ran back in 3’s and 4’s most of the time and with the waves too!

Between the morning trip and the afternoon one, many fish were caught and lost making this a pretty good day all around. I wasn’t sure last night if I would even be able to get out today, but Mother Nature allowed me to and we got the job done. Another great day of fishing!