I fished with Jacenty & Marco today on a local lake for smallmouth bass and what a day it was! We started out with beautiful sunshine and winds from the N/E at 5 to 10 knots and air temps about 60 degrees. Water temps were almost 65 degrees in some areas and slightly cooler in others. The cold nights are definitely beginning to chill the water, but the weeds are still healthy and don’t show any signs of decay as of yet. Unfortunately, the bass are spread out all over causing me to cover plenty of water through the day. This is not a bad thing though as I am finding plenty of fish by doing so! Marco drew first blood today as his first smallie went close to 4 pounds on a senko and put on quite an aerial show for us to see. Shortly after another slightly smaller and one more went to his credit before Jacenty started hooking up as well. We were seeing plenty of fish in the area that were 4 pounds or better, but had a difficult time getting them to bite and decided to try a little deeper for others more willing to eat. This proved to be a good decision as the numbers started to climb. Fish from 2 pounds to almost 4 pounds began coming aboard with tube jigs on a regular basis every couple of minutes. We had action! These fish were situated mostly in water around the 20 foot range with some even deeper and were hungry. Pass after pass dragging tubes over rocky areas were producing hook-ups on one or both of their rods as quick as they could get their lines out. This lasted for a few hours before it slowed and we were forced to try alternate areas nearby. Less fish were caught, but a few bigger fish came aboard including a nice walleye for someone’s dinner. Once the active period stopped, we hopped around trying to pick a fish here & there. Several more were taken, but it was slow. Just before we were to pack it in, I decided to try the deep water once more and instantly they were both locked up again. Several more drifts and a few more fish were hooked with Jacenty hooking up last. We thought he had a good one when it broke the surface only to find out he had hooked a fishing net that someone must have lost. Not exactly the trophy I had thought, but he did get to take it home! All in all a great day with at least 35 bass landed and plenty more lost up to almost 5 pounds!

Back on the water again today with Danny, Sam & Stephan on another local lake. The day was a total opposite of yesterday as the sun shined almost all day long. The air temps were once again quite cool as the north winds continued to blow. They were 5 to 15 knots at times and pretty chilly! Air temps never exceeded the mid 60’s and the water temps were around the same. I started them off with several different lures trying to determine the fish’s level of activity and found out that the jerk-baits got a reaction but the tubes were what some of them actually wanted. We drifted over areas and casted to spots that looked fishy only to come up with about a half dozen bites in a couple of hours. We saw plenty more bass that had no interest at all in our offerings and decided to try other options. Danny was the only one to land anything significant with one of his fish going over 4 pounds. « Good to be King » I told him, but that was soon about to change! In the afternoon we tried deeper water in pursuit of some of the larger smallies and could only come up with a fish here & there. I had them switch over to Senko’s as we moved slightly shallower and Steph was the first to rip lips with another 4 pound smallie. Sam also followed with another bass around the same size on a senko. Danny was soon about to feel the pain that he so easily dished out in the morning. Isn’t competition great! We stuck with the shallows for a while and had several hits and landed a few fish but I had to try the deep water once again. Dragging tubes and spider jigs in 10 to 30 feet of water had each of them getting the occasional pick up, but most fish were either missed or lost when they jumped. This day was to prove to be a tough one as 20 or so fish were actually landed with at lease that many more lost. There were even a few bite offs and a 10 pound northern landed as well as a couple of Muskie seen coming after the lures. Full moons and north winds are like the kiss of death it seems! It can only be looking up in the next few days, I hope!!

Ryan & his dad Mike were to fish with me today and we all hoped « Mother Nature » would be kind as rain was in the forecast. Overnight it changed to 40% showers and things were looking up! The drive to the lake saw overcast skies and occasional sun, but that was soon about to change as we neared the water. We had a cold wind from the north at 10 knots making the 64 degree weather feel more like 54 where we began our day of fishing. Water temps had dropped to the mid 60’s from 70 just a few days earlier scattering the fish all over. Senko’s were our first lure of choice and shortly after produced a few smaller than average fish for both Mike & Ryan. We fished throughout the shallower waters in 4 to 10 feet of water and hooked into a fish here & there before I decided to try the deeper waters nearby. This was to be a good choice as Ryan began to hook up with tubes in water 10 to 20 feet deep. Several of these fish were decent in size, but not exactly what I was looking for and I opted for even deeper water again. When we began to drag spider jigs in 20 to 30 feet of water, Mike almost instantly hooked into a better fish in the 4.5 pound size. This was to prove to be the largest smallie of the day but several others slightly smaller in size were both landed & also lost. There were probably a dozen or more bass caught & released with at least that number lost too! We were fortunate with the weather today as the only rain came in the form of a shower that lasted less than an hour in the middle of the day. By 5:00 PM we were ready to call it a day and I began to pack everything up for the boat ride back to the ramp. Ryan’s enthusiasm for fishing was incredible as he wanted more. I’m sure that if we had decided to fish until dark, he would have gone along with us. I continued to drift over some of the better deeper water weeds & rocks while he made several ‘Last Casts ». On about his third or fourth cast, he finally hooked up with something and had me scrambling for the net. A bonus walleye of close to 6 pounds was soon netted and placed into the livewell for their dinner. It’s really great to see kids with the love of the outdoors instead of just sitting at home playing video games on the computer & TV. Ryan’s desire & drive to fish will provide him with many more memories that will hopefully continue for the rest of his life. Hats off to his dad for starting him at an early age! At 12 years old, he already has excellent casting skills and learns everything shown to him quite quickly. I hope to see them both again, real soon!!

Once again I fished with John today, but had to opt for the St-Lawrence River because of the high winds forecasted for this area. They were gusting at over 30 knots throughout most of the afternoon and even on the river we had whitecaps! Any other body of water would have had us looking for sheltered areas in order to fish. The air temps reached almost 80 degrees and the water temps were 69 to 70 degrees in most areas. Sunshine and occasional clouds greeted us for the entire day and except for the wind, it was perfect. Unfortunately, the fishing wasn’t perfect! This was to be the day of the lost & missed fish as over 75% of the smallies were never landed. On John’s first cast with a spinnerbait, he had an aerial display from a 4 to 5 pound smallie that lasted until the second leap. A short while later, another huge bass did the exact same thing and came unpinned after the second or third jump as well. We moved around plenty on this day but only managed to pick a fish here & there with no real concentrations found anywhere. Several fish were either following our offerings or just nipping at them, but never really committing to the hooks. This was real frustrating as many of them were quality fish! We stuck it out as long as we could and decided to call it quits around 5:00 PM when we had seen just about enough. At the end of the day there were about 10 or 12 fish caught, but many more lost or just seen following! A tough day to say the least. I’m beginning to hate full moons!! No pics today, but here’s a few from last season.

Once again, John & I fished another day on another local lake. The weather was a little different than we had been use to lately as today was mainly sunny. The winds were out of the S/W at 5 to 10 knots creating a 1 foot chop on the water. The air temps went into the low 70’s and the water temps actually reached over 70 degrees in some areas. The fishing was a little tougher today as we experienced the full moon period. John still managed to catch close to 20 bass weighing up to 5 pounds on a variety of lures & baits. From spinnerbaits to tubes & senko’s, the bass still fell victim to his offerings. Shallow water of 2 feet produced some bass but the better fish came from 10 to 15 foot depths. Most of the deeper fish were the larger ones as well! All in all a pretty good day!