Opening day finally arrived yesterday and I hit the water with great anticipation. With no clients, I decided to scout the water in preparation of their arrival on Saturday. It’s always tough with one line in the water but I managed to eliminate plenty of it and finished the day with two short lakers. Definitely a lake change in the future! This morning found us launching on Massawippi instead of Magog, with plenty of others too! There must have been close to 75 boats on the lake when we arrived. We set out on the water and I decided to get clear of the crowds, searching for a quick bite. Well, it didn’t happen as several hours passed before the planer board finally went back. The lead core had locked up on something and our skunk was about to leave. Scott reeled in a brown trout, somewhere in the 2 pound class and the livewell was fired up. High fives all around! With two riggers and one board in the water, we had all the upper zones covered and this fish hit at 12 feet deep. Water temps were ranging from 39 degrees all the way to 50 in some areas and they all had plenty of bait. With almost flat calm & plenty of sun, warming water was inevitable! I did try running the fly lines for over an hour but soon found it too difficult with all the other boats around. Trolling in a straight line was hard enough let alone zigzagging all over the place. We had taken a break around 11 o’clock and fished the flies till almost 12:30, before we went back to the riggers and lead core. Not long after we set the lines back, one of the rods began to bounce. A fish was on the slider and technical difficulties ended in its loss when the star drag mysteriously went loose. Several hours later we finally had a real hit when the deep rigger popped and John was officially into his first trout. As with all lakers, the fight was quick and I soon slid the net under a 21 inch fatty. This fish had bulges in its stomach from all the smelt it was eating. As with earlier, high fives all around again and back to trolling we went. It was getting so hot out that the guys were taking advantage of the heat and basking in the sun. So much so that talk of taking a dip was being thrown around. I personally thought that they were just joking & said they were nuts. Well, it wasn’t long before I pulled the lines and stopped the boat for the “Polar Bears” to take the plunge. I’m pretty sure that they were the only crazies on the lake that did this today. Almost as fast as they were in, they were out! There was no time for swimming as 50 degrees definitely feels cold when your core temp is almost double that! It was getting on in the day and I wanted to get a few more fish before we called it, so we ran back to where the action was. I barely had time to get the riggers in the water and one of them fired. Scott was on the rod quickly and managed another lake trout just over 20 inches. It went into the livewell with the other two fish and back to trolling we went. Although I was marking plenty of bait and hooks, we weren’t getting any more hits and an hour later we decided to pull the plug for the day. This was to be a lucky day for the fish as neither wanted to take them back home. A few quick pics and back to the lake they went. Overall it was definitely a day full of excitement and one to be remembered. I don’t think I’ll ever see anyone take a swim in April, ever again. That is of course, unless they’re back next year!

Welcome to another year of great fishing! Trout & salmon will be the first targeted species on lakes like Memphremagog & Massawippi in the Eastern Townships. Fly rod trolling and long lines off of planer boards will be the most used presentations for these aggressive biters. Downriggers set fairly shallow will also be used to take numbers of lake trout and occasional browns & bows. If the winter was any indication of water levels this spring, it’ll be high and cold for the start. Perfect conditions when searching for these cold water fish! Pike & Walleye will be the next season to open in Mid May and it should also be great. Higher water levels to start will surely aid in the post spawn feeding. Numbers of 50 fish days will surely be the norm with many outings even exceeding. All day action can be had as the fish are on the feed! The final species of bass & muskie opens mid June, completing this “Multi Species” group! From this point on, many days will see 3 or even 4 of these warm water fish being caught. Although bookings have begun for all these fish groups, there are still plenty of available openings. For anyone interested in experiencing some of the best fishing around, feel free to contact me for dates remaining. I look forward to hearing from past and new customers alike and can’t wait to get started fishing, another phenomenal season!

Darren was back for what would probably be his last kick at the can this season. We decided to go all in and were on the water shortly after 8:00. The weather was pleasant with the morning temps already in the 40’s and expected to rise into the 50’s by afternoon. Light SW winds of 5 knots along with the sunshine, made for an almost perfect morning. Water temps were around 46 degrees and the fish should be biting! Darren had a quick confirmation as the first of many smallies soon came aboard. It was one of those quality ones in the 4 pound range and hopefully not the last. In the first couple of hours there were many more fish landed with several 4 pound ones as well. Although it was good, it wasn’t great and I hoped it was just a late start for these bass. We moved around plenty covering water in the process and managed a few more hookups. It wasn’t until later in the afternoon, under slightly more miserable conditions that we zoned in on the mother load. It had started to rain and the winds had increased to 10 to 15 knots from the west, causing the fish to really turn on. In fact the remainder of the day was unbelievable with fish after fish getting hooked and they all seemed big. With the waves and rain, these bass went into a feeding frenzy for a couple of hours. Once the winds diminished, it slowed and now we had to work for them once again. The wave action had really helped the fishing by increasing the current flow. Unfortunately, someone had turned off the water and now we were back to very little movement again. We slowed down the presentations and only managed a few more bass, along with a couple of decent walleye. By 3:30 the rain had let up considerably and after one more quality bass, we called it a day. Darren had finished his season off with a bang. He had landed more big fish today than all the previous trips combined. Even the weather had cooperated for most part making this an almost perfect day all around. Hopefully it will continue allowing me to get back real soon!!

After an excellent walleye start to this week, Douglas joined me today and kept it going. We decided on a 9:00 AM meet just to let the morning frost dissipate, before heading out. The weather was to be unseasonably warm today with temps to top out around 60 degrees. Sunshine and absolutely no wind would also join the day making it picture perfect! Water temps were hovering around 44.5 degrees and stable from the previous couple of days. Doug was in for a real treat with November conditions like these! We began by trolling a couple of baits along a drop and had our first rip in less than 5 minutes. He was officially on the board with a nice 19 inch walleye and definitely having fish for dinner tonight. With flat calm & sunshine, I knew our trolling window would be small. We kept at the troll for the first hour or so, and had limited action with only one other fish brought to net. We did have a few short rips that just ended in silence signaling that we should switch up presentations all together. I immediately pulled the plug and we went to casting jigs along the same break, hoping for better results. After missing a couple of strikes, Doug was tight to a real nice walleye and shortly after, in the net. He managed one other fish with the jig a little later, but it turned out to be a snagged sucker and we had a laugh. I wanted to try another area nearby to see if there were any other walleye interested in eating, so we reset the trolling lines and covered water. We must have gone close to an hour before one of the reels finally screamed and another walleye was locked up. Although it wasn’t the best conditions for trolling, we did manage to squeak one out and were happy to have done so. With the sun high and water visibility gin clear, we went to a drop shot & hoped for better results. In the last couple of hours there were about 6 more eyes brought to net but it was a tough bite. Although I had been marking them all over, they just weren’t very interested under these conditions. They would probably be biting much better just before dark but we weren’t hanging around to find out. Somewhere around 3:00 we decided to pull the plug and called it a day. Despite the difficult fishing, we had managed to land about a dozen good fish and he was taking a few of them home for dinner. As far as the weather goes, who could ask for anything more? Flat calm, bright sunshine and temps above 60 degrees don’t happen too often in November. It was just a perfect day to be out and catching fish was a bonus! I had been out the previous four days as well with similar conditions and loved it! There had been many fish caught with plenty of large eyes released as well. The run back to the ramp was absolutely beautiful as the mirror calm water was like glass with no other boats around. This would go down as probably the most pleasant fall day ever spent on the water and Douglas got to experience it. He would remember this one for a while!!

I was back on the water this morning with Darren & Leslie, just hoping for an easier day. At least we weren’t facing giant winds this morning and that was a bonus! We met up around 9:00 and dropped the boat in immediately after with high expectations. It was crisp, but the sun was out and there were no winds when we started making it quite comfortable. Almost immediately after we began, someone was locked up. Darren had hooked into a nice smallie and it was just the first of many for today. Leslie was soon to follow with a few of his own and both were on the board. We were drop shotting areas that should have been holding bigger fish but for some reason, they were smaller than I had expected. I decided to move around slowly having them cast different zones in search of the bigguns. Leslie managed to find a small area that started producing on almost every cast and they were better quality. We remained here until they actually got smaller and moved once again. It’s usually like that every where you go as the bigger ones tend to eat first! Plenty of mid sized fish were hooked in the first few hours before I decided to make a longer run to a place I hoped would be better. We weren’t disappointed as this was to be the zone with the largest ones of the day. Water temps were way down to 42 degrees and a slow approach was needed to get these fish to bite. It wasn’t fast & furious but by dead sticking in some areas they were able to pick up more bites. Fish of all sizes were hooked into here but Darren had the biggest bites. Unfortunately out of a possible 7 real heavy fish, he was only able to keep one of them pinned. We realized that based on the size of the landed one that all the others were giants as well. For whatever reason, it was not meant to be and they won! The activity level was definitely slow under these water temps and it wasn’t a surprise to see so many fish just barely eating today. In all the places they fished, some sort of activity was had. Although there was a brief period mid day that had the bigger ones sort of aggressive, it was still a slow bite. We finished off the day in what I dubbed the day care! There were loads of fish in this deep water but most were on the smaller side. It had plenty of action on almost every cast, but small. A few larger ones were mixed in but they were rare. We hung in as long as we were catching but eventually finished off on Darren’s last fish. Throughout this day there was loads of action by everyone and many fish were caught. Both Darren & Leslie had also slammed with a pike and walleye a piece! The weather would have to be the winner though as the heat from the sunshine had us removing clothing during the peak of the day. It was really pleasant not to be so bundled up and very comfortable fishing under these conditions. A perfect ending to a great day on the water!!