Black Fly Bite

I decided to try a trophy lake for smallmouth bass this morning, with Christiane. The black flies were just insane as we launched the boat and began fishing. I thought that they would be better once we got on the lake, but without any wind, they weren’t. The air temps went into the low 80’s and the water temps were low 60’s. Some of the fish were starting to bed as we saw nests all over the lake. They haven’t spawned yet, but I am sure it won’t be very long! We decided that the black flies were biting better than the bass after we only landed 3 fish in a couple of hours. The afternoon was spent back on Memphremagog, black fly free! There were probably close to 25 bass landed in about 4 hours in tough conditions. Most of the fish are shallow right now, but the water is still really dirty making the visibility just terrible. You have to fish really slowly with noisy baits just to get their attention. I hope it cleans up soon!!