I fished with Anthony & Minya on a local lake for largemouth bass today. To say the fishing was tough would have been an understatement! Air temps began above 75 degrees & humid with almost no wind at all. Water temps were almost the same at 74 degrees in the shallow weeds that we fished. Heavy cover was what we were to be fishing today and heavy jigs were our baits. This was to be the day of missed fish as everyone missed more than they caught! Several smaller bucketheads were taken up to about 2.5 pounds on a variety of baits like tubes, worms & slugs before any larger fish were caught. Minya was to be the only one to hang on to any fish of decent size, but we all had our chances. The first larger fish of 3.5 pounds came on a surface frog and it was really aggressive. His second fish of about 4 pounds came on a slug and she was barely felt on the bite. The weather was about to take a turn for the worse as it began to rain and the winds started to blow from the N/E at 5 to 10 knots. Even the temperatures & humidity began to fall! This was to become a pain as the direction was contrary to the current flow creating a 2 to 3 foot chop in some areas of the lake. We moved around a little more and caught a few more fish, but nothing of any size until Minya hooked into a big smallie. As luck would have it, this 4 pounder was also lost at the side of the boat shortly after she hit a soft plastic jerk-bait. This day was just not fending well for the fishermen as we continued to miss fish right up till the end. There were about a dozen fish landed and at least that many more missed fish to painfully add to the total. All in all a really good day, for the fish! Not so great for the fishermen! Tough Bite for all!!!

Ron & his son Alexandrer were my guests today on another local lake for smallmouth bass. This was going to be a challenge as Ron hadn’t fished in a real long time and Alex had never fished before. The weather was absolutely perfect with light W/NW winds of 5 to 10 knots and a mix of clouds & sunshine throughout the day. The air temps reached 73 degrees and the water temps were about 69 degrees in most areas. My first three demonstration casts all produced small largemouth as I showed them how to cast & fish the baits we were to use all day. A few more largemouth and practice casts and we were off for the smallies that we came for! The first fist was rather small at about 2 pounds and Alex muscled it into the boat quickly. The second fish however wasn’t going to come in that easily as a smallie twice the size had other thoughts. It was really great to see a young boy with such enthusiasm and determination fighting a fish this big. Once in the net, Alex needed a quick rest from being warn out by the bass but was back casting shortly after, again. Ron landed the next one of over 3 pounds without any trouble and the game was on! The 4 largest smallies of the morning were all caught by Alex with his biggest going over 5 pounds. The action was slow, but every fish was a good one with most being in the 4 pound or better range. We took several photos and returned them all back to the lake unharmed before we decided to break for lunch. The afternoon was a little slower, but the bites were still good ones as we managed to get into more fish in the 3 to 4 pound size on almost every spot we fished. Ron made it look easy when he hooked a fish beside the boat and it immediately jumped into the boat, landing right at his feet. Fortunately it jumped back into the lake and gave him a better fight afterwards! We spent the last hour or so of the day fishing for largemouth and managed to get several decent fish before Ron latched into something that just fought too hard to be a largemouth. It turned out to be another big smallie of about 5 pounds that acted like it was on steroids. The jumps and aerial displays were phenominal as it seemed to spend more time in the air than the water. Another quick photo and back to the lake she went, unharmed once more! We stuck it out a little longer, then decided to call it quits for the day. For two novices like Ron & Alex, they definately made a great improvement in just a short time. Alex was casting like a veteran by the end of the day and both were definately holding their own in the catching catagory. A great day on the water with probably more than 20 fish landed and many more lost too!!

Ben & Luc were to accompany me today on a lake that was to yield only big bass all day long! The weather was a chilly 60 degrees when we arrived, but sunshine throughout brought the temps to over 80 degrees by days end. Winds were from the S/SW at about 10 knots creating a nice smallmouth chop! The water temps were below 70 degrees at the start and up to 73 by the end as well. A slow presentation was definitely going to be the ticket today as the fish seemed to be really lethargic. Senko’s accounted for the bulk of the fish with tubes and soft plastic jerk-baits catching a few as well. Luc drew first blood as he battled a fish of almost 5 pounds almost immediately on our first spot. Ben doubled up with a smaller one at the same time too. The next fish was almost equally as large as Luc managed to bring another big smallie to the boat on a senko again. A few more huge smallies were seen just looking at the baits, but not really interested in commiting to the bite. Luc had a shot at one of almost 6 pounds twice, but didn’t manage to get the hooks to her on either occasion. I found the fishing to be rather slow in the morning with one or two fish coming from each spot and decided to try deeper water instead, for the afternoon. Apparently it was to be the right decision as we found aggressive, schooling smallies eager to eat our baits. Both Ben & Luc had multiple hookups and several doubles for the next few hours. These fish were also huge and eventually became wise to our offerings and just shut down. We had to slowly finesse them into biting in the end and just picked one here & there for a while. I decided that we had put enough pressure on them and switched locations once more. For the last hour or so all we could do is pick one here & there once more and called it a day. Both Ben & Luc had managed to land over 20 bass combined today with the average size being over 4 pounds. All in all a slow but productive outing once again!!

I picked Leonard up at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in downtown Montreal this morning at 6:30 AM and headed to a local lake for smallmouth bass. Being from Oklahoma, he doesn’t get a chance to tackle the brown bass as much as the largemouth and was really looking forward to fighting some of these big smallies. Mother nature wasn’t going to make it an easy one as we drove through the first heavy rain of the day on our way to the boat ramp. It was a cold rain that chilled the morning air to below 60 degrees. The winds were almost non-existent as we began to fish our first spot of the day. Sunshine greeted us upon arrival and water temps were about 67 degrees at the start of the day as well. Not having fished Senko’s before, Leonard was about to see just how effective they really were! The first couple of bass caught were on the small side at 2 to 3 pounds, but some of over 4 pounds were caught a little later. Several huge fish were seen just cruising the areas we fished, but they had absolutely no interest in feeding at all. We fished several rocky areas before we were forced to retreat to a sheltered area when thunder & lightning began. These storms seemed to last for more than an hour before we were able to venture back out, safely! We got into a great largemouth bass bite immediately after the storm and pounded them for almost an hour on senko’s, up to 4 pounds or so. When the sun came out again, we opted for the smallmouth once more and headed back onto the open lake. I thought I would try something a little different and had Leonard cast spinner-baits to aggressive smallies on offshore rock-piles for a while. The hits were viscous as they really didn’t want to be caught. Aerial displays were amazing as some of these fish just seemed to go ballistic! A few more were caught on soft plastic jerk-baits before the winds kicked up so bad that we were forced to move. We tried a few other places for smallmouth before we decided that largemouth was the way to go and got completely out of the wind. Leonard landed some more green bass and almost another brown bass before we called it quits for the day. A pretty good day with plenty of bass caught & released and many more lost as well!!!

Andre, Jim & his daughter Careen were to be my guests today on a local lake for bass. Jim had waken his daughter up at midnight to drive the over 6 hours without telling her why. It was going to be a surprise for her as he called it “Daughter Appreciation Day”! She was about to experience an unbelievable smallmouth fishing day as we were soon about to see. With the air temps a warm 73 degrees at the beginning of the day, it climbed to over 80 degrees by the end, making for a comfortable fishing day all around. Sunshine and light winds soon changed during the morning to heavier winds of 10 to 20 knots from the S/W. The water temps went from 69 degrees to 71 as the day went on causing the fish to get more active as it rose. We had a slight delay as I towed a fisherman to shore with engine problems even before we were to wet a line. It’s an unwritten rule to aid anyone in need of help while on the water and I wasn’t about change that. We were rewarded for our good deed with a hookup almost immediately after as Careen landed a smallie of 3 pounds on a senko. The next fish was going to be a giant for her as one of over 5 pounds soon came to net. Andre got in the game a little while later with another fish over 4 pounds and Careen followed it up with another 5 pounder almost on the next cast. This went on for a while with fish being caught on every spot we fished. Andre managed to hook into a real beauty in the afternoon that went almost 6 pounds and had big fish of the day! Jim eventually got in the game with several hookups in one spot and managed to land a couple of the smallies that bit his line. With the wind blowing terribly on the lake, we decided to try a sheltered area for largemouth bass instead. Plenty more fish were caught & released by all parties before we braved the elements and headed back on the lake once more. The winds were gusting even stronger than before and a couple more smallies were caught before we headed back to a sheltered area once more for largemouth. We fished it for about fifteen minutes before we called it a day. All in all a great day on the water with 25 or so fish landed and released up to almost 6 pounds!!!