David & his wife, Barbara joined me today on Lake St-Louis for smallmouth bass. He was strictly fly-fishing and wanted to get into some of those football like smallies he had heard so much about. The weather was going to be picture perfect today with sunny skies and light & variable winds. Air temps were to reach into the upper 80’s with water temps around 78 degrees in some areas and 74 in others. It took a while before David hooked into his first bas on a fly, but it was a real beauty that went over 3 pounds and the skunk was finally out of the boat. He had another one over 4 pounds that just overpowered him and buried itself in the weeds only to eventually pull the hooks free. Too bad too, because it was quite a bit bigger than he first fish and definitely photo worthy! The next spot saw us struggling once again as there were many fish just cruising the area not too interested in his offerings. One of the largest bass actually inhaled his fly and unfortunately broke him off on the hook set leaving us with a limp line. Several more fish actually came up behind the fly and just turned away seeming uninterested. A change of flies only had similar results with the exception of another 4 pounder that actually ate the fly and broke him off again on the hook set. This was not turning out to be a lucky day and misfortunes were becoming commonplace. Several more lookers and quite a few cruises were seen, but we decided to try another location and see if our results could be better. Every location we tried seemed to have similar success with the fish even taking the fly in and immediately spitting it right back out. David brought a school of fish up from a submerged crib and they did exactly the same thing too! He did manage to entice one of them though and finally hooked into another bass of about 3.5 pounds. This time the fish was landed and released after a quick picture, unharmed. This was to prove to be the only bass taken from the area and after several frustrating attempts at the flies, we decided to move on once again. Similar results were had in every other area with limited success. Only a few more fish were landed and they were all on senko’s! With this being the kind of day we were having, we tried a couple more areas and decided to call it a day. If we could have only hooked up with 10 % of the fish we saw, it would have been a great day. I guess they just weren’t in the feeding mood today and that was all day long!

Warren & I were back on the lake once more today, but this time Nathan also joined us. It had actually cooled off a bit overnight, and the morning air wasn’t unbearable to fish in. It started off a little slow as we only had a handful of pickups in the first area and I thought we should change locations rather quickly. The next area didn’t produce too much better, but the fish were a better size with a couple of them going 4.5 pounds. Every time we relocated, we hooked into a few bass, but never the quantity I expected until later in the afternoon. I decided to try a few areas I hadn’t touched in years and see what might happen. Apparently it was the right choice, because this was where we were to spend the remainder of the day, catching instead of just fishing! Senko’s fished slowly on long casts accounted for about 95 % of the fish landed today with a few others caught on slowly dragged tubes. We were forced to call it earlier than we wanted to as we were monitoring the weather in the distance for quite some time. We always seemed to be in the right area with the thunder and black skies away from us in the distance. We could see rain falling several miles away but with the W/SW winds at 10 knots or so, it just stayed away. Eventually, it just looked too bad to chance it anymore and we gave in! By the time it was all over, there were probably close to 30 bass landed with many 3 pounds & better. A rather tough day, but we definitely made it work!!

Warren & I were on Lake St-Louis today and endured the scorching weather one more time. Thankfully, there was actually a little wind but it was less than 5 knots from the S. Water temps were as high as 79 degrees and the air temps felt like 100 with the humidity. It didn’t take long for us to get into fish and Warren was landing smallies from two pounds to 4.5 pounds on senko’s. Rocks with a mix of weeds in shallow water were where we contacted these fish and most of them were really aggressive. With these water temps, even the 2 pounders fight like champs! We hit several more areas during the day but never actually got into them like we should have. All we did was pick a few here and there until Mother Nature showed her ugly side and had us heading back to the dock. Both of us decided that the thunder & black skies we were having only meant it was time to go. In the course of the day there were probably 25 bass landed from various areas on a mix of lures. A pretty decent day and nobody got hurt!

I had the pleasure of fishing with Scott & his son, Zane today on a lake for smallies. They were vacationing in the Thousand Islands area of New York and decided to take a trip to Canada to try their luck at some of our great bass fishing. The weather was a carbon copy of yesterday with maybe a little hotter temps making it almost unbearable once again. Water temps were above 75 degrees and the smallies were all over the place, just cruising the waters we fished. Senko’s were to be the ticket once more and we really needed only one rod apiece to entice them into biting. One of the first fish of the morning was a long, 20 inch 4-pounder that fell victim to a slowly moved bait. We had seen several fish even larger but were unable to get their attention and had to settle for just a few fish around here. Once we changed locations after catching only about 6 fish or so, we began to hit them pretty good. Both Scott & his son, Zane were fighting a bass almost every 5 minutes and it was great! The weather was hot and the action was even hotter as we boated probably close to 40 fish today by hitting all the high percentage areas in this region of the lake. Fish of nearly 5 pounds were caught along with many 3.5 to 4 pound average sized ones too! This was a great day that could have been exceptional had we monopolized on all the fish that actually hit our baits. There might have been as many lost as there were landed today!!

Today I hit a local lake for smallmouth bass with Britt and had a blast. The weather was brutal with the air temps reaching almost 90 degrees but with the humidity, it felt more like 100. Water temps went to almost 75 degrees as well and with no wind present, it was a scorcher. It didn’t take long for Britt to lock up on a smallie around 4 pounds on a senko slowly moved across a rocky shoal. This was to continue throughout the entire day as we picked up fish everywhere we went. Most of the bass were in the 3.5 to 4 pound range, but there were many over 4 and closer to 5 pounds as well. Britt was a tournament fisherman from the south and had no problems adapting to the northern smallies. He even landed a few largemouth up to 3 pounds in some of the same weedy, rocky areas that held the smallies! By days end there had to be at least 25 bass caught with very few missed and lost. He had been looking for a trophy to hang on the wall, but would have to settle for a number of high fours and no fives today! A great day nonetheless!!