John & I were back on another lake once more today and this time it was a numbers game! The weather was pretty much a replica of yesterday with overcast skies and very little wind until late in the afternoon. Air temps were once again in the mid 60’s and the water temps were also just below 70 degrees. No muskie today, but plenty of smallmouth as John got into close to 35 fish by himself. They were all sizes but the average would have gone over two pounds with plenty nearer three. The best ones were around 4 pounds and there were a few of them as well. Tubes accounted for only a small percent of the fish today as we switched over to Senko’s early in the day. The fish were on rocky areas surrounded by some weeds and feeding on minnows and crawfish. I guess the fall feeding mode has finally arrived! Another pretty good day of smallmouth fishing was definitely had today!!

I had the pleasure of fishing with John & Dave from California today on a local lake for smallies. They had just returned from a successful Caribou hunt in northern Quebec and were to spend a few days in Montreal before flying back home. John had fished with me last year, but it was the first time for Dave. He was in for a real treat! The skies were overcast and there was little to no wind present. Air temps reached the mid 60’s and the water temps were holding just below 70 degrees. Dave drew first blood with a spectacular leaping Muskie that he hooked on a spinnerbait. It would have weighed around 10 pounds and was his first one, ever! John just concentrated on the smallmouth and landed around 10 or so throughout the day. Most of the fish were in the 3.5 to 4.5 pound range with his two best surpassing the 5 pound mark. The quantity wasn’t there, but the quality definitely was! Slowly dragged tubes were the ticket today as the bass were really in a negative feeding mood where we were. By the end of the day, there were around 15 bass & 1 muskie boated and released. All in all, a pretty good day!

I took a road trip this weekend and had the pleasure of fishing with Jeff & Dave on a couple of lakes. The first stop was on Massawippi as we tried our luck on some of their earlier teenage areas that had produced in the past. Unfortunately time was not on our side as they just didn’t seem to pan out. Fortunately, the weather was a real blessing as we had mainly sunny skies and warm temps of 65 to 70 degrees and a light wind from the S/E for most of the day. Water temps were in the upper 60’s with the highest being 68.5 degrees. I had a few areas that I fished many years ago that still produced some smallmouth bass and an occasional northern pike and was happy to try them when all else failed. We didn’t catch too many fish, but it was still a good day by most standards! The best fish was lost at the boat on a jerk-bait of over 4 pounds. David probably landed the largest smallie and it went a hair over 3 pounds. Several others were caught in the 1.5 to 3 pound range and quite a few pike were taken as well towards the end of the day. All in all a pretty good day! Day 2 saw us fishing Lake Memphremagog as we awaited the bad weather from « Hurricane Ernesto » from the south. Fortunately for us, it never really seemed to arrive. The weather had forecasted rain for pretty much all day with high winds as well, but we dodged another bullet! I guess « Mother Nature » can be nice some times! We definitely had dark, overcast skies all day long and an occasional light rain in the morning, but other than that, all was great. There were almost no winds until late in the afternoon and this definitely made the fishing more comfortable. On the first area, both Dave & Jeff hooked up almost immediately and I knew it was going to be better than yesterday’s fishing. The overall average size of these fish was definitely better as well as they were all in the 2.5 to 3 pound range with an occasional fish ever bigger. Spinner-baits were the lures of preference as we fished mostly weedbeds in open water. Although there were other boats close by, it seemed that other than ours, nobody was doing anything. After more than 10 bass, we tried another location and immediately were into more bass once again. The spinner-baits were covering water and that was exactly what was needed in these huge weed infested areas. There were never really lots of fish in one particular location, just scattered all over the flats. Unfortunately. the weeds were dying out and very mossy on the surface. The bass were still remaining in the areas due to the clean bases of the weeds as we continued to hook up every once in a while. The rocky areas definitely weren’t very productive as this time of the year usually dictates weedy areas to be fished. By the end of the day there were probably 20 or so smallies caught and plenty more either missed or lost. All in all a good weekend with the weather holding out for us!!

This was to be another annual Derby weekend on the water with Darren & my wife Christiane. We were fishing together to try & win a local event for smallmouth bass. We knew that it would take a fish of over 5 pounds to even place in the money this year and were hoping for one apiece! The first day began with sunshine and cool morning air temps in the low 60’s but eventually rising into the low 70’s. Water temps were just below 70 degrees with all the cool nights we had been having. Our biggest challenge was going to be the 15 to 20 knot winds from the N/NE that were causing a 2 to 3 foot chop on the areas we wanted to fish. It didn’t take too long before we got into fish as all three of us were hooking into smallies up to and even over 4 pounds on a regular basis slinging jerk-baits. It was great to be catching so many quality bass, but we were in need of something a little larger if we wanted to succeed in winning this thing. At one point, I had a fish closer to 6 pounds that ripped line from my reel on the initial hit and just let go. That was definitely a winning fish that was not soon to be forgotten! We caught probably 30 or more bass through the day on tubes & jerk-baits, but could only weigh up to 4.25 pounds as the largest. Most of these fish were between 3.75 pounds & 4.25 pounds as we weighed our three at the end of the day. Day two proved to somewhat different as we bettered our three best in the first hour or so of the morning. The largest was a fish of 5 pounds on the nose and the other two were between 4.5 & 4.75 pounds. The weather was slightly different than the day before with dark, eerie skies and little to no wind at all. Storms were present all around us, but the rain only fell towards the end of the day as we managed to dodge it by hopping all over the lake. The air temps were in the low 70’s but quite humid and the water temps remained the same as yesterday too. We didn’t catch as many fish as the day before, but we were looking for only bigger bass to weigh in on this final day of the derby. By targeting only areas that produced smallies over 5 pounds in previous weeks, we definitely eliminated plenty of water. This stormy, overcast weather definitely had the fish in a negative mood as we just picked a fish here and there. Once all was said and done, we managed to take 5th place with the 5 pound smallie only to have 5.01 & 5.1 as the 4th & 3rd place winners. The first place finisher had a bass of 5.4 pounds and a check of $2000.00 for his efforts. So close and yet so far this year. Oh well, there’s always next year!

I had the pleasure of fishing with a father and his son today on a local lake for smallies. Tony was treating his 9 year old Matt to a day of fishing on his birthday. The weather was beautiful once more as clouds & sunshine greeted us for our run up the lake. Air temps began around 70 degrees but ended more like 90 degrees by mid afternoon. It turned out to be a real scorcher with high humidity in the end! The water temps were around the same as yesterday near 78 degrees all over. The fishing began a little slow as we spend almost an hour with only a few bites. Tony did manage to land a real bonus Walleye about 5 pounds on a senko fished almost dead sticked. The bass were definitely there as we saw plenty of big smallmouth just swimming all around. The only way we could get them to take was by practically leaving the bait on the bottom and letting them swim it off. I decided that we were going to try another area and see if we could get into some active fish. We finally got into more aggressive bass as both Tony & his son Matt were seeing action on senko’s. Matt probably lost the best fish of almost 5 pounds when it went airborne and threw the hook. We did manage to catch several, but nothing larger that 3 pounds or so. I decided that there were just too many big fish in the first area and we went back to see if they had changed their mood. Once again there were more seen than caught, but at least we were hooking into a few of the better fish this time. One fish even pulled a rod into the lake as Matt was reeling in another bass up front. I threw a marker out and got the rod back after we finished with the other one. There was definitely a fish on the end of the rod as I brought it back into the boat. Another firedrill once again! It was to be a short day as Tony was to be heading up north and by 2:00 PM we were done. A pretty good day for the time spent on the water with a dozen or more fish caught & released & a bonus walleye too!