After the long painful winter we endured, it will be a pleasure to fish from the boat again! Despite three months of phenomenal walleye fishing, I will be happy to get back to covering water for spring pike & eyes. Trout fishing took a back seat as well, when the lakes remained frozen through opening weekend. Even now, some higher elevation lakes are still locked up! Fortunately the waters surrounding Montreal have been thawed for a few weeks and are hopefully starting to warm. All we need now is a week of sun and they’ll be on fire! With all of this, the bookings have officially begun and it won’t be long before the reels are screaming again. Days of 50 or more pike & walleye are just around the corner and when all the conditions align, closer to 100. May & June are two of the best months for action as the fish tend to bite all day long. Pike opened on May 2nd for this region and walleye will follow on the 9th. I will be on the water as much as "Mother Nature" allows and recommend to anyone who hasn’t experienced this before to contact me. Plenty of dates remain open and hopefully the warmer weather ahead will convince everyone to get out & fish. Tight lines to everyone!

Annabelle was with me this morning for her first encounter into the warm water fishing world. Although she had caught trout out west, she never expected what was about to happen today. Her grandfather Keith joined us as well, but today was all about her! Keith & I grew up together and had shared many interesting experiences over several decades of fishing. I was sure, today would be another! By the time we set the lines it was late morning and the water had warmed slightly. I knew the fish would bite! The first reel to go off was one of the targeted species and Annabelle had her very first walleye. With a little coaching, she was able to bring the fish to net and immediately after, the live well. We were planning on having fish for dinner and she was excited about eating her catch. The next reel to scream turned out to be a much larger fish and Keith reeled in a northern of almost 8 pounds. Annabelle would have her fill as well with several more pike soon after. By now she was quite comfortable bringing in the fish and we decided to let her hold the rod while trolling. Soon after she felt what it was like to get hit and started screaming just like the reels. A good sized smallmouth bass took her lure and she had to use all her strength just to bring this fish to net. Now she had 3 different species of freshwater game fish and her very first slam. To say she was excited would have been an understatement. She was a fishing machine and wanting more. This is exactly what she got as fish after fish cooperated for her today. There was also a huge caddis fly hatch going on and I think it somehow got the fish activated. Although a real pain to be out in, it didn’t matter as she was hammering everything that swam. We slowly brought up the walleye catch for our dinner and she even landed a couple of rather large ones too. In fact, one of them was over 7 pounds and giant in comparison to her. This thing was a tank when held up next to her and made for a great picture. When she landed her next over of 5 pounds, she opted for no photo as she said, "I already have a shot of an even bigger one!" Seven going on seventeen! Many more fish were caught after this and she eventually managed to put 6 walleye in the livewell for our dinner tonight. By 4:15 or so and after she landed another walleye, we called it a day. Her attention span was amazing and the fish were responsible for keeping her interested. Not too many 7 year olds would be this pumped to be doing what she had done today. We had fished for over 5 hours and she would have stayed even longer had we chosen to do so. Who could ask for anything more! To be eating her catch would be the icing on the cake and she thoroughly enjoyed Cajun walleye on the BBQ. Even her mother loved it and she never eats fish! A perfect ending to a perfect day!!

Now that the season has officially wound down, I can enter the reports without too much attention. Over the last couple of months, I have had to pick the shittiest days and the worst conditions in order to fish effectively. People have been all over the waters on the nice days & practically in the same boat! Many confrontations have popped up and even more ignored, making this the toughest fall fishing ever. Too many tournaments have increased fishing pressure to the max and mortality has been at an all time high as well. It’s a terrible thing to see dead fish all over due to the ignorance of some fishermen! Our resources are phenomenal when it comes to the fishing and it would be a shame to take it lightly. Many a fishery has suffered in the past due to similar issues. Hopefully this will make people more aware in the future and situations like these will be an anomaly! Only time will tell whether or not they can learn from their mistakes! Now that I have vented, let’s get back to the task at hand and some reports! Today I had the pleasure of fishing with Ed & James on one of the coldest days so far this fall. Although the temps did reach almost 40 degrees, lack of sunshine had a real bite in the air. Would it affect the fishing? We began in an area, with a technique that had been productive recently and almost immediately, Ed was locked up. Fish of all sizes were seen throughout the morning and there was no need to change. We covered plenty of water and focused on the spots putting out, monopolizing on the biggest biters. Early in the afternoon, I switched it up a bit and tried a few different techniques. With limited success, I was forced to return to what was working earlier and began hooking up once more. I also had them toss a few blades in the late afternoon when the sunshine peeked out briefly. A few fish were taken and James landed his largest bass of the day, so it wasn’t in vain! After returning to some of the previous areas and landing several more quality bass, we decided to call it a day. I think the only thing that might have made today colder would have been precipitation. Thankfully we had a rain free day filled with plenty of action to keep us warm. Overall a great day of fishing was had by everyone!!

Craig & Derek were with me today, looking forward to another great one. Big fish were on the menu and today wouldn’t disappoint! Although nothing enormous was caught, the quality was there! Plenty of fall footballs were landed along with a few bonus fish as well. Great day!

Reda just can’t seem to get enough of this fishing and came back once again today. He was joined by his brother Hicham & their friend Phi as well. We had planned on fishing a different body of water but had to settle for plan b when the conditions wouldn’t allow. It still worked out pretty good and they tripled out on the last casts of the day. Great fishing still ahead!