July 1st 2018

 

Well Canada day definitely brought out the boats today, with this most likely being the hottest day I’ve fished in years. With the humidex reading it must have reached 100 degrees! Thankfully I was under the roof, as we trolled the entire time we were out. Tino was back with me but this time we were going to do a little 101 for pike & walleye.

I headed to the first spot hoping to teach him how to locate these fish by covering water. I set one rod deep and the other mid and began the search. I was looking for bait and fish marks and noticed plenty of big hooks that I was pretty sure were not what we were after. There were several sturgeon jumping around us as we made our way along and this was definitely what they were. Although we did mark other smaller fish, we never had a reel fire. Time to move shallower!

I had switched up the baits and moved in some, marking plenty of fish as well as bait but again, we still didn’t have any takers. I did however see all kinds of nymphal shucks on the water indicating a recent hatch and wondered if they had fed all night. It wouldn’t be the first time this has happened with the lake looking like an all you can eat buffet!

We pulled the lines and completely relocated to another area much shallower, in hopes of our first strike. I once again switched the baits to something that wouldn’t run as deep and searched this flat thoroughly, without any luck. Again I was seeing signs of the empty shucks on the surface and noticed a bunch of mayflies in the boat. There had definitely been a substantial hatch recently and we were feeling the effects from it. Time to make a big move!

I ran a long way to a completely different section of the lake and was sure we would get into fish here. First task was to raise the roof as it was starting to get real hot! Once again I set the lines at two different depths and started the search for the toothy ones. About ten minutes in, one of the reels fired and we finally had our first take! It wasn’t a big pike but it was a sign that they were here. I kept trolling the area and shortly after we had another reel go off. I knew the plan was starting to come together! This too was another pike but a much better one than the first and released after a couple of pics. Tino was finally starting to see what was needed in order to catch fish from shallower water. He had trolled before but only on deeper bodies of water and for trout & salmon. This was a completely new method for him and he was starting to see why he hadn’t been very successful on his own.

Over the next several hours the temps got considerably hotter as did the fishing. We were now into both pike and walleye regularly and he was even starting to reset the rods after the fish were landed. There were also a couple of nice keeper walleye in the livewell for him to bring home tonight. He saw how effective this trolling could be and realized how productive a proper presentation over active fish actually was. He was definitely learning new tricks and techniques!

I wasn’t thrilled with the number of walleye that had been landed and wanted Tino to get more of them instead of the pike. He had caught a lot, but only two eyes so far! I tried to move over to a deeper edge but noticed all kinds of tree branches in the water. In fact the debris from the trees was just incredible! The winds last night must have been intense nearby because I couldn’t even troll this area! I had to go back to where we had been and kept catching more pike. I eventually slid away from the pike zone in hopes of a few more fish for him to eat. As I got a little deeper and after many more northerns, one of the reels fired with what we were after. He brought to net another nice keeper walleye and put his third fish in the livewell. This would be more than enough for him and his family to eat! I reset the line and switched the baits again to work even deeper water in this heat. I thought that they might have dropped off their feeding flats and took refuge in the cooler depth.

It didn’t seem to matter where we fished today, we just couldn’t seem to escape the northerns! It was nice to hear the reels scream but with zero wind and scorching heat from the sun, we didn’t want to leave the comfort of the top. I probably could have fished slower by drop shotting but we needed the shade and kept at the troll.

I fished a bunch of areas that I hadn’t this season and on one of them, Tino landed a nice smallie. He also had another good fish on from here that was either a small or largemouth, but it threw the hooks. I made a few passes here and fired both reels simultaneously, landing only one of the two fish. This was about the 2nd or 3rd double of the day, but the first one where a fish came off. This was also the last bite we actually had in the amount of time remaining. We pulled the lines, downed the roof and headed back to take out.

I was surprised to see only one trailer in the lot but was about to find out why! Turns out they barricaded the entrance while I was on the water to celebrate July 1st activities in the park. It was a shit show of epic proportion getting out! They even told me I would have to wait till midnight in order to leave. Not happening! I managed a tight turn leaving that had me running over the sidewalk just to make it by the posts for the bicycle path. I pay for this launch but they can close it anytime they want, nice!

Despite the difficulties at the start and the end of today, the middle part was great. Tino had learned several new trolling techniques that will benefit him in the future and boated plenty of fish in the process. This may have been the hottest day I have ever spent fishing with temps near 100 degrees but we survived. I can’t wait to get home to the cool comforts of my air conditioned home. Might even take a dip in the pool, but probably not!!

June 30th 2018

 

The last day for Neville and Tony was an interesting one, to say the least! We weren’t sure if or where we would be able to fish with the winds expected. I just had to wait and see in the morning, for what we were going to do. They were forecasting over 40 knots and at that force, it really doesn’t matter what direction they were from!

I picked them up close to the ramp and headed down to the lake to find it absolutely flat calm. Unbelievable how these weather forecasters can be so wrong, almost all the time! We were going fishing and nothing was going to stop us now!

I decided to fish for smallies to get the day started and almost immediately, Neville was tight to a nice one on the fly. It was going to take the jaws of life to pry that rod from his hands now! He followed it up with a few more a little later and with zero wind, it was easy to see why. He was catching fish the way he preferred and doing a pretty good job tool. Tony was throwing soft plastics and picking up a few fish as well. He even managed to get his very first sturgeon on a jig when it accidentally got fouled hooked.

We had been fishing for a couple of hours and had a bunch of bass landed when I noticed that the weather was about to change. According to the radar we were going to get hit with some sort of a storm and I didn’t want to stay where we were. I immediately went to a safer area to wait it out!

Prefrontal winds kicked up pretty good as we made our way into shallower water. This turned out not to be necessary as we found out soon after. We were all in rain gear and it barely sprinkled in the next 30 minutes. Eventually it passed and so did the wind, so I decided to have them fish the area we were in before leaving. I guess it was the right choice as two nice largemouth were landed. One was the regular way over the weeds but the other was a little bizarre. Neville had failed at skipping a bait under tree branches and actually was in the tree. When he tried to lift it out, a huge largemouth just grabbed the bait and took it down. I told him to keep pressure and used the electric motor to crash into the tree and rescue his catch. When I grabbed the fish I couldn’t believe how big it actually was. It was huge! Let’s just say he got lucky as anything could have happened.

After all the craziness, we headed back out to where we were before the fake storm hit. It was now time for Tony to start catching several nice bass on soft plastics. He must have put four or five decent fish in the net in the next 30 minutes. Neville on the other hand was back on the fly rod and only missed a couple of strikes. We made another move not long after, trying a couple of other places with similar results before relocating again. Although Tony did manage to lose a couple here, we decided to head to the area we fished yesterday in pursuit of more bass.

The winds had increased quite a bit now and were blowing 10 to 20 knots from the SW as we ran. This was going to make fishing a whole lot tougher! Even worse for Neville as he was going to fly fish for the bass!

I wanted to see if the fish were still here and unfortunately managed to hook a couple when searching the area. Tony also caught a few on soft plastics and Neville hooked up twice on a fly. It was definitely tough but apparently doable! We remained here for almost an hour and boated several more decent smallies before leaving. I had hoped to get Tony into some pike & walleye and decided that trolling was the way to go. We packed everything up and headed to where I wanted in 2 & 3 footers once again.

Once we arrived I knew the rough water was going to help and before I could get the last rod in, one of the other reels fired. Neville reeled in a small pike and I reset the rod looking for more. They both hooked up quickly gain with Neville catching a walleye and Tony getting his first northern. These winds had the fish really fired up and I was sure we were going to pound on them good. Unfortunately the wind layed down and we lost the bite too. It was a really strange day for weather, but I decided to stick it out despite the nearly flat conditions.

Several more pike were caught but I was unable to get Tony the walleye he had wanted. We were running out of time as I had to have them back at the dock by 3:00 so that they could get to the airport for their flight. I pulled the lines and called it a day!

There overall fishing for the three days had been great with a variety of species being landed. Smallmouth were the main goal and they boated a bunch! The others were just a bonus as Tony had never caught any of the ones he landed before. I’d have to say that this worked out just great with a little luck from Mother Nature on the final day. What could have ended in disappointment turned out to be the icing on the cake with Neville’s giant largemouth. It was the perfect end to a perfect fishing trip!!

 

June 29th 2018

 

Day two for Neville & Tony was a little different with the conditions. We didn’t have flat calm like yesterday but rather a strong SW wind gusting over 20 knots at times. In fact, depending on where we were on the lake, it felt more like a straight west in some areas. Fly fishing was going to be tough!

I decided to hit the same starting spot that had produced well for them yesterday. With expectations high, they began casting hard baits, in search of their first strike. Unlike the day before however, many casts were made before Tony finally hooked one. Too bad it threw the hooks on the jump! His second fish was almost immediately after and this too ended with the same results. He was starting out just like the day before by losing fish again! His luck changed however when he finally put the third one in the boat. Neville wasn’t as fortunate as Tony but eventually this all changed. Between the two of them, there were about a half dozen fish landed here with a bunch of missed strikes. Tony did however land his biggest fish of the trip so far, making up for the lack of bites. Time to move!

I had wanted to try an area further away but wasn’t sure about the wind direction. When I arrived, I realized that it was blowing directly on us and we were forced to fish in big waves. It didn’t matter though as the fish were here! Tony hooked up on almost his first cast, once I positioned the boat. He was on fire again today but Neville got in the game quickly too and they even had a couple of doubles. These fish were really active unlike the first spot we fished and hammering their baits. So much so that Neville decided to try the fly rod again. With the electric motor I was able to hold him in position allowing him to cast properly to where the fish were holding. If someone hooked up I just hit the anchor button and went back to net their fish without moving from the spot. I love this feature and don’t know why I never change sooner!

With Neville only managing one small bass and one really good one on the fly and Tony slowing down on his catching, I decided to move to another area in hopes of more active fish. What I thought should be holding plenty of post spawners turned out to be only having a handful of medium sized males. We also hit another area nearby and found it to be almost the same. Although there was only a small percentage of what I expected, at least they were larger ones and Tony brought to net a good fish. After another long period with only a few more bass, I decided to move once again. This time however Neville wanted to try for largemouth and I headed to where I knew they were.

We went in really shallow and once we were deep in the weeds it was like a furnace. With very little wind to help us, it was just a scorcher! They saw all kinds of wildlife along with a ton of gar but the bass were almost nonexistent. It was also a challenge for them to cast their baits and not hook the weeds. Tony finally managed to land one decent largemouth but that was the only one. We covered plenty of water, but we fished way too fast for what we needed to do. The water was 75 degrees and I’m sure the bass were tucked deep into the pockets, requiring more of a flipping & pitching technique. After about 45 minutes, we pulled out and went to another area for smallies once again.

I realized that the wind was more of a west blow when I arrived here as I was once again forced to use the anchor feature on the electric motor to hold them in position. With a SW wind we would have been protected, but we weren’t! This didn’t stop them from hooking up though and a number of good bass were landed from this place. Neville even managed a couple more on the fly and had several follows from others. With little time remaining in the day, this was going to be the last place we would be able to fish. I repositioned the boat multiple times allowing them to properly fish the entire area. They caught a good number of bass from here on a variety of soft plastics, before we ended the day.

Although fewer fish were taken today, the size seemed to be better. Neville even managed to pick up 4 of his fish on the fly rod and the balance on a variety of other baits. I think Tony still had the numbers overall once again however but Neville didn’t mind. According to him, one on the fly is worth 5 on the spinning rod! It’s definitely more of a challenge at this time of the year and one he was willing to try. In the end, they were both satisfied with the outcome of the day and that’s all that counts!!

June 28th 2018

 

Neville & Tony flew all the way from the U.K. to fish for 3 days here in Montreal. This was to be the first day of their trip and I wanted to get them started with a bang. We were going smallie fishing and it would also be the first time I targeted them this season as well. I hoped they would bite!

I picked them up on my way to the launch and we arrived right after 7:00 eager to get started. I also had another couple of clients scheduled to fish as well that I had to once again send out with Don. When we were all ready, out we went to search for the smallmouth!

The skies were looking a little threatening, but as luck would have it, the rain gear wasn’t really necessary. We set up in the first spot and I instructed them on what to expect. Tony began on a crank and Neville was tossing a blade bait to a rocky area looking for that first bite. Several casts later, Tony was into a bass and loving it. Unfortunately on the third jump, it threw the hooks and that ended quickly. A few casts later he was locked up again and this too was over just as fast. He needed to finesse the fish with the tiny hooks and after a little explanation, the third time was the charm. He had been horsing them and pulled the hooks from the first two but not the third. This one was to eventually make it into the net and he finally caught his first ever smallmouth bass! It didn’t take long for me to switch Neville to a crank as well and soon they were both getting into fish.

After the action slowed from numerous fish being landed, I decided to switch them over to soft plastics. This should give them both several more bass with different presentations. I quick demonstration had me locked up on the very first cast, showing them that it definitely worked! Once again, they began hooking many more smallies from this same spot. This went on for a while and Neville decided to try his luck with a fly rod. I had brought a couple along and was sure he would be able to get into fish this way as well.

Tony continued tossing soft plastics, hooking up once in a while but Neville wasn’t having much luck on the fly. Although he did manage to hook into one, it came off when it took to the air. He finally switched back to the spinning rod and was into fish in no time!

Eventually this slowed as well and I gave them jigs to try for a few more bass. Although they were hooking the bottom frequently, they did get a few others before we just pulled the plug completely on this area. We had fished it for almost two hours with very little down time. Yuup, it was loaded!

Our next spot was to be an open water flat that I wasn’t sure what to expect. They did manage to hook up a few times, but it wasn’t really on fire. Thirty minutes later, we were on the move again. They both had chances and boated a couple of decent smallies, but I just wasn’t feeling like there were many fish here.

I was going to target the bass a little shallower now due to the post spawn and decided to hit a couple of points that I knew. Although one didn’t produce more than a few fish, the other was pretty good and there was plenty of action. Tony seemed to be doing better from the back of the boat however and not for any particular reason. They were both throwing the same thing to the same spots and he just had the hot rod today!

With Tony not ever having caught a largemouth, I thought I’d try a spot nearby and see if he could land at least one. Well it didn’t take long before he brought a chunky post spawn fish to the net. We had to take several pics of his catch to go along with all the other shots of the smallies earlier. Both of them were throwing soft plastics over weeds and Neville finally hooked into another decent fish as well. Unfortunately it had swallowed his bait but with a little surgery, I had it out without injury.

With only the two largies being caught, I decided to slide to another rocky area for more smallie action. Neville was having a hard time getting bit but not Tony. He was putting on a clinic from the back of the boat again. Although not very big, they were all decent fish and he was thoroughly enjoying himself.

With time not on our side, I decided to hit one final area in hopes of hooking them up several more times. It was here that Neville finally got his wish as he managed to catch a couple of giant perch and one really nice smallie on the fly. Tony was still pounding fish but this time he was in the front of the boat with Neville fly fishing from the back. He needed more room and it was much safer too! I had wanted to end around 4:00 but the action was so good that we finally finished 30 minutes later.

This was a great start to their trip and they both got a taste of what the next two days should hold. I will be concentrating on the bass but also doing a little trolling to get Tony some pike & walleye. These are two more species he has never caught and I need to tick them off his bucket list. Who knows, maybe I’ll get him a musky or even a sturgeon too! All I know is they will be landing many more fish in the next two days to make this the best fishing trip they can possibly have. With a little luck, maybe ever!!

June 27th 2018

 

I had a double today with the morning trip being a group from Toronto. Whinny’s gang hooked up with me shortly after 7:00 and we headed out on the water minutes later. With 4 people, I would only be trolling again!

I set the lines and it didn’t take long before we were into fish. The first one to come board was a nice walleye, but it was too big and had to be released. Pike and walleye were consistent for a while until things just slowed. Time to make a move!

Although I didn’t travel far, I did switch depths and was now looking for fish in slightly shallower water. With lures changed I began the search! Once again it didn’t take long before they were back into fish and everyone was reeling in their share of quality pike & walleye. Fortunately there were only a couple of overs and they did manage to get one keeper. For a change, they were happy with just the pike!

With the exception of a couple of short dead periods, the fishing was pretty good this morning. They all landed plenty of pike and lost a number of other fish as well. Unfortunately they only managed to take one keeper walleye back with them as most were too big and released. They did however bring a few of the better pike home and thankfully they knew how to filet out the Y bone. You might say they left quite satisfied!!

Ahmed’s group this afternoon consisted of his wife and 4 sons. I needed the help of Don to take a couple of the guys and I took the rest. Although a little late in arriving, we were still able to get going by 1:30.

I decided to try an area that I hadn’t fished in several days, hoping for good fishing. It all looked good on the sonar but the water temps were crap! It seems like 67 is the number almost all over the lake lately and It really needs to heat up! Regardless, I dropped the lines in and began the troll.

After almost an hour without even a sniff, I decided to move out further and changed up to deeper diving baits. This too was a bust and I had one last small area to check before making a big move. I trolled over this place and never had a reel fire. We did however manage to bring a large perch and a keeper walleye aboard though. Time to go!

I had been hoping not to have to run to this spot, but desperate times deserve desperate measures! I was back in the area from this morning and began trolling over some of the same water. Well I guess it was the right move because in the last 90 minutes, they managed to land a good number of pike and a nice keeper walleye. This made the run all worthwhile!

We had all decided to meet back at the dock by 5:00 and I started to slowly pack up, 15 minutes before. Just as expected, one of the reels went off and a heavy fish was attached. Too bad it was short lived! As I passed off the rod, it came unpinned and was gone as fast as it hit. We almost ended the day with a bang!

Today was definitely a long one with the two groups but well worth it. A good number of fish were landed and plenty lost by both gangs. In the end though, everyone had a good time and that’s all that counts. Both groups even managed to take a few fish back for their dinner tonight!!