After a hateful day of rain & thunder showers yesterday I was back on the water with Hugues & his family this morning. They were on vacation & wanted to spend the day fishing for whatever wanted to bite. We launched the boat in fairly decent conditions as the air temps were in the 70’s and water temps were 73. Winds were out of the S/W at 10 to 15 knots and a good roll was on the water. As with most windy days, the floating weeds were once again going to be a problem and frequent cleaning of the rods was needed. Although it was a little slower than I was expecting, we did manage to land a decent smallie of close to 4 pounds and three walleye a little smaller. We tried casting a couple of areas for bass and only had a few follows and missed opportunities before I decided to make the long run to calmer waters. Hugue’s wife Carole and his other son Etienne decided they had enough and we dropped them at the dock before travelling to greener pastures. Hugues was fishing a spinnerbait and Olivier was throwing a soft plastic when we began fishing the new area and a few bass just hammered the blades. About 5 or 6 decent smallies up to almost 4 pounds were taken here before another relocation was in order. This was to prove to be the right decision as it didn’t take long before Hugues was into smallies on the blades once more. I managed to convince Olivier to switch to the blade as well and he too soon began hooking up. We were fishing quickly as a storm was looming in the distance that threatened to shut us down. You could tell that the fish felt it as well as they were in full throttle just crushing the lures. I tucked in closer to the main shore when I felt the rain begin and then came the thunder. It really didn’t take me too long after to make the decision to call it quits when I saw the first lightning bolt strike. Not a big fan of electricity when on the water! The shoreline was blocking the full system and as I rounded a corner to cross the main lake, I realized that I should have left 5 minutes sooner. It was a wall of water and headed straight at us! “We’re going to get wet” I said! At one point I was running solely by GPS as we crashed through the main system and eventually passed right through it to a clearing. We weren’t quite so lucky when we arrived at the ramp and found another boat attempting to take out, blocking the only spot available. If I hadn’t needed to wait over 10 minutes, we would have stayed dry. Unfortunately the storm caught up with us and when it was our turn, it was just pouring down on us again. The ramp became a river of water and the auto bilge was working overtime! Along with this monsoon were the swirling winds as well and we were glad to be off. Overall we had to cut the day a little shorter than we had wanted, but the fish had cooperated in the last couple of hours. This will definitely be a day to remember!!

Wow, a day without trolling today! Darren & I hit the water by 7 and were casting for smallies almost immediately with reaction baits. I knew it was going to be a real scorcher and without any wind, “Dog Pecker Knat” central. Air temps would surely get into the 90’s and the water would also rise above the already 75 degrees that we had. Jerkbaits, spinnerbaits and eventually soft plastics would account for all the bass today until I broke out the top-water baits. It’s not common for me to report a top water bite but today the floating vegetation was almost non existent allowing surface action too. With the high humidity lingering the smallies were on fire everywhere we fished and best of all, the boat traffic was all gone. Yesterday’s idiots were all back at work and we practically had the lake to ourselves today. Of all the baits fished throughout the day, top water & senko’s both had the best results. The smallies were definitely active and our results were showing it as double headers were the norm. Many times I would have an explosion on the surface only to have Darren thrown back in with the senko and lock up immediately. It was a win, win situation and we were going to milk it for all it was worth. Unfortunately we had to cut the day short and headed off the water sometime after 2:30 in the afternoon. Darren had to be somewhere and we called it early after pounding bass all day long. I can only imagine what the total might have been if we had of continued even longer! Oh well, no disappointment had by us today!!

After a couple of not so great days with my brother in law due to the wind & weather, I was back out this weekend with Christiane hoping for redemption. We fished hard Saturday and caught a bunch of walleye & bass trolling before going solely casting for smallies. The weather was quite a bit better than the previous two days with sunshine & light N winds and the bite was definitely on. Although the floating weeds were somewhat of a problem keeping the lines clean, we still managed. Air temps went into the low 80’s and the water temps were almost 75 in most areas. Deep or shallow water didn’t matter as we caught fish in all ranges of depths today on a variety of lures and soft plastics. By 4:00 P.M. we had enough of the boat traffic and decided to call it a day. Tomorrow we would get an earlier start and try to beat all the recreational boaters that were literally all over the lake. Sunday began considerably earlier with us hitting the lake by 7:30 and into fish almost immediately. Smallies and walleye were being caught by trolling lures and the reels were firing. Best of all, I wasn’t being bombarded by pleasure crafts, yet! After catching a bunch of fish trolling we decided to go back casting lures for smallies once more and managed to get into fish immediately again. Christiane hooked into a mid four pound smallie that hit a jerkbait as soon as it hit the water. I followed up with a few fish of smaller size throwing a spinnerbait right afterwards and the fun began. For a few hours we were catching only big bass and they seemed hungry too. It was now early afternoon and the heat wave was definitely upon us but so were the boats. I went back to trolling and managed a few more walleye and pike and had a hard time with all the boats. At one point while fighting a fish, Christiane was nearly knocked into the lake when a big cruiser plowed 4 to 5 footers as it passed less than 50 feet behind us. The idiots were out in full force now! Not long after, another fool in a sailboat decided to tack right in front of us as it was passing by. It was so bad that I had to throw the motor in reverse just to keep from hitting them! This was it for me and we pulled the lines and headed in. There were too many retards for me to worry about on the lake now that the sun was out in full and I called it quits. As the last official day of the construction vacation I guess everyone was out. I’m sure there were more mishaps and I didn’t want to encounter any others myself! We pulled in the tangled lines and took the boat out of the water before something worse happened. Where were the water police today as most of them were drinking and driving around like fools? I can’t wait for Monday when the water is free & clear of all the crazies!!!

I had some free time so I decided to give my nephew a call and we hooked up for an early start to the day. Eric and I were to have a great time on the lake fishing for a variety of fish & catching them all. We began trolling for walleye and managed to put several nice ones in the boat for a dinner the following night with his father and both Christiane’s. There would be 5 of us and I knew we needed at least 5 quality fish so once we were done; it was time for the bass. The weather wasn’t perfect for fishing with a ton of floating weeds all over from the weekend traffic & high winds, but we managed anyhow. A short boat ride to the next area saw plenty of action with smallies from 2 pounds to over 4 pounds coming aboard regularly with soft plastics. Eric hadn’t used senko’s before today and although it took him a bit of time to get the hang of fishing with them, he really caught on well. Eventually he was picking up more fish than me & I was glad to see he was getting into them on almost every cast. These fish were larger than he was use to catching and definitely more than usual too! He even managed a personal best when he hooked up with a real bruiser of a blackie. At over 4 pounds it surely was one heck of a fight and eventually came to the net. We had to take a few picks on his cell phone in order to send them off to his fishing friends as they wouldn’t believe it! After a couple more on my camera she was released back to fight another day. This action kept going for a while and by 4:00 P.M. we decided to call it a day. Eric had caught more fish today than he was use to and they were definitely of a larger caliber too. He even managed two personal bests with a walleye of close to 5 pounds along with the big smallie. We had taken bass, walleye and a few northerns on this almost perfect day on the lake. Tomorrow may be a different story though as his father and girlfriend Christiane, will be fishing with us too. Michel hasn’t had a great track record with me over the years and the weather looks like it may just continue. Crossing our fingers!!

A “No Show” at the ramp yesterday morning had me furious that I couldn’t reach them just to let them know what kind of a jerk they were! Although I did send them an Email, it’s not the same as venting in person. Oh well, another person on my hate list! Today I had the pleasure of fishing with Scott, Shawn & Lorne once again for some rather large smallies. The weather was a little more pleasant today than it had been all week with complete overcast and a light drizzle in the morning. Air temps were to only reach into the 70’s and the water was remaining just below 75 as well. With an occasional light east wind, we were actually being pushed up current making any drift near impossible. We would have to cast for them today! I believe it was Scott that hooked up first and on a jerk-bait, but it was lost at the boat. Another few casts and he was into a three pounder and this one stayed pinned. I was surprised to see that each of these fish was flying solo and not accompanied by several others as they usually are. We weren’t able to monopolize on the followers as there weren’t any today. The schooling bass that I usually see were non existent! We would have to pick at them one at a time. The next area had Shawn tight to a real beauty of a bass and it soon came to the net. At over 5 pounds it was definitely photo worthy before being released. I just wasn’t seeing the volume of fish that I was normally and did a lot of spot hopping just trying to hook up. Lorne finally captured one of his own on a slowly worked senko and this was too in the 5 pound class. Many others were seen in this area but none of them were willing to eat as the current seemed like someone had just shut it down. Pretty much the same results were had on every location we fished today with an occasional fish hooked here & there. Shawn even managed to land a beautiful walleye of around 6 pounds while trying a deep drift. This proved to be next to impossible as the winds were slowing me down almost to a stop. We quickly abandoned this area as well after seeing some real giant bass just cruising all over with zero interest once again. I decided to try a better break along a main channel and finally had all the elements for a successful result. It was here that everyone had multiple hookups and landed plenty more big smallies. There were even several largies hitting within the same area and they were just a bonus on this difficult day. By the time it was all said and done we had turned a really slow start into a great end with just a couple of adjustments in location. Although many fish came unpinned, there were still quality fish up to and over 5 pounds that made it to the net and that’s all that mattered today!!