I had been contacted by the Quebec ministry to do a deep water smallmouth experiment and spent three days collecting specimens with them. They were trying to evaluate the mortality vs. survival rate from fish caught in excess of 30 feet. Due to the high number of tournaments held each year, this had become a concern and they were given the green light to set it up. Cages were placed in specific locations to hold these fish and large enough to allow them access to various depth ranges. After catching the fish, they were tagged with micro chips, measured, weighed and a blood sample was removed for DNA. The fish remained healthy in the livewell throughout the day but due to their air bladders over inflated, they were upside down the entire time. Fizzing was to be done only if required after being placed into the cages. By simulating the effects of a typical tournament day in captivity, they wanted to monitor how the fish reacted. As with any tournament, the largest possible fish were only wanted and this wasn’t a problem. We had fish in the 4 to over 5 pound range in the well pretty much every day and managed good numbers for their experiment. For three days, we collected smallmouth bass and everyone caught their share. In fact, I think everyone had personal bests by the time it was all over! I was fortunate to meet up with different people each day and everyone was great. What helped however was the fact that they were all fishermen and caught on immediately, fishing deep. Kudos to the biologists and ministry guys for their efforts in trying to preserve such a tremendous fishery! Overall, it was a great three days of fishing with plenty of quality fish for the experiment. Hopefully the results will be positive and help improve fish released after being held captive. I’m sure this is just the start of a long process of information & gatherings, geared towards protecting an already great fishery. I can’t wait to get back out with them and see the results!!

A lapse in posting due to too much fishing has finally given me a break today. It’s raining and I have no client, so it’s time to catch up on my reports! Ira, his wife and their two grand daughters were with me today. Another “Dog Pecker Knat” day had me giving up two buffs to the kids as they were going crazy. The fishing on the other hand was excellent! With water temps stable around 73 degrees the walleye were definitely feeding. We caught plenty of them along with several northerns to keep all busy. Eventually we opted for a change and headed to another area, to cast for bass. This definitely worked out as everyone was hooked up shortly after we arrived. For a little over two hours, they fought one smallie after another before we broke for lunch and headed back for a break. With three women on board, facilities were the main concern! After a short pit stop, we headed back out for more action. Ira had informed me that they would like to be back by 2:00 so I decided to troll an area close by. It was obviously the right choice as the reels began to fire almost immediately with walleye. In the remaining hour or so, they got to play with 6 or 8 decent fish and all were livewelled for a quick photo shoot before being released. They had come all the way from Florida and had a blast catching three different species of fish in about 6 hours of time. All in all an excellent time was had by everyone and all fish were released today!!

Chris & Betty were with me this morning for our first cold front of the season. We had a couple of days of on & off again thunder showers followed by a huge temperature drop. From average days of 90 plus, it was now just over 60 degrees for the start. Would the fish bite today? A light NW wind had me heading to a quick stop area to see if they could catch a few smallies. What was supposed to be 10 minutes soon turned into a couple of hours as our answer was a definite yes! From spinnerbaits to crankbaits and even soft plastics, they ate it all. Both Chris & Betty hooked and landed plenty of feisty smallies up to four pounds before we finally moved. A couple of idiots in an inflatable had run right through the shallows, hammering their motor on the rocks & creating quite a show. Although funny to see, not so funny for the fishing! Love the weekend warriors! The next area wasn’t any different as Chris was pounding smallies on a spinnerbait once again. Betty was throwing soft plastics and unfortunately missing most of her fish. This soon changed though with a little instruction from me and she was back in the game. In fact she was getting the bigger smallies and this was great to see as she usually struggled in the past. They both enjoyed just how good the fishing was with multiple hookups, pretty much all day long. In fact it was stated that they had seen and caught more fish so far than their entire previous season back home in Tennessee! This day wasn’t even over as we kept at it each and everywhere we moved. With very little down time, smallies were eating like it was their last meal almost all day long. Another section of the lake proved to be our last fishing spot as we remained there well over an hour. It’s always hard to leave fish biting and we made sure we didn’t. Unfortunately when it was time to go, I found that the motor wouldn’t start. I guess leaving the structure scan on all day and not running the big engine wasn’t such a good idea. I had done this a few days earlier too and the cranking battery had received only 1 hour of charge this morning when I found out. A small booster pack in the boat didn’t seem to have enough power to fire the main engine so I decided to try jumper cables instead. Same problem, as we had been in current on the electric motor all day and drained them as well! Being slightly smarter than a fifth grader, I came up with an idea that just might work. I would use the booster pack to fire up the small engine, idle at fast speed for several minutes and hopefully put enough charge in the battery to start the engine. Well it worked and we were finally able to crank her up and on our way! With a series of steps, I was able to turn what could have been a problem into just a slight inconvenience. We ended on a high and laughed all the way back to the boat ramp. They had seen the best smallmouth bass fishing of their lives and left wanting more. In fact, they liked it so much that I will be seeing them again at the end of their trip. After travelling to the east coast and returning to Montreal in about ten days, I will have the pleasure of repeating another incredible day of smallmouth fishing for them once again. Hopefully the fish will cooperate and the memories will be even better, the second time around!!

Stephane was with me today for a relaxing day of fishing. He had recently broken his leg in an accident and needed to get into some fish. I knew just the place and we left the dock shortly after 7:30 in hot pursuit. With a pretty good west wind upon us, I decided to troll some water in hopes of a quick bite. Conditions seemed just perfect with the overcast skies and a 10 knot blow creating a 1 to 2 foot chop on the water. Temps were in the 70’s already with plenty of humidity in the air. Water temps hadn’t fallen much and were still above 70 degrees. Well it didn’t take long to get the first pike to eat and it was game on. It wasn’t a giant but it was over 6 pounds and a good start to the day. A few others also came to the boat in the next hour or so along with a double header. Biggest one here went just under 8 pounds and it was time to relocate. I wanted to get him into more action and it just wasn’t happening on this spot! A slight change in locations and we began catching a few walleye & smallmouth in the 2 to 4 pound range. The smallies were what he wanted now and another complete change was in order. I wasn’t sure how he would be standing on the casted leg but thought we would give it a try nonetheless. Off to an area further away and almost immediately he was hooked up. They were active and several others followed the one attached to his hook making me believe it was loaded. He casted back out after the release and was instantly into another one of equal size. As this was late morning, I knew the boat traffic would be getting worse and he would have a hard time standing in the waves. We stuck it out for longer than I expected as it’s always hard leaving fish biting! He must have played with more than 15 bass here and fortunately landed about 75% of them before the leg just gave out. Time to troll again and I knew just the place. I fished open water areas looking for active fish and picked a few decent northerns again before one of the rods began to sing. I immediately knew what he had and it was game on. After a lengthy battle, we were finally able to get his fish to the boat. He was in awe with the overall size of the beast and absolutely thrilled to have landed her. I was also told that he could officially check this one off of his “Bucket List”! A quick release and she went away no worse for wear! We were going to head back for more smallies, but the weather wasn’t looking too good. I checked the radar and noticed that we didn’t have long before we would be in the worst. A unanimous decision was made to pull the plug before anything got worse. He had caught plenty of good fish today and even iced the cake with his first ever lunge. We were done and ran back in a little drizzle just in front of the heavy stuff. Despite an earlier than expected departure, there were loads of fish landed today. I know Stephane will remember this one for quite some time!!

Scott, Chris & Guy joined me this morning for another great day of fishing. We hit the lake shortly after 7:30 under sunshine and light winds. Air temps would reach into the 80’s and the water temps finally went over 70 degrees. At one point I almost had 72 degrees and it finally fired the fish up. We started trolling and had several missed rips before finally connecting with some pike. A couple of them were decent size as usual and mixed in with the walleye too. We were catching a few slot sized walleye and the guys decided to livewell some for dinner. This being Guy’s first time out in probably 20 years, made for some interesting fishing. They were rotating on the rods and it was always fun to watch when it was his turn. Despite the long lapse that he had, he caught on pretty quick and felt right at home with the others. We stuck it out trolling for a while catching a bunch more smaller fish then switched gears completely. Off we went casting for smallies and now I had to re teach Guy all over again. I had them tossing different baits and within a few minutes, had Guy back in the game. Several smaller bass up to 3 pounds were landed and plenty of others lost. We moved around a little bit and saw fish in a bunch of places before I decided to pull the plug again. There were too many boats all around and a few of them just kept coming closer & closer when we hooked up! Dog pecker knats were also out in full swing and I at least needed to get some movement going. Back to trolling we went! I hit all kinds of areas and they caught fish in every one of them. The walleye & pike seemed to be cooperating but not the size I expected. I searched all over for the bigger walleye but only managed 3.5 pounds at best. In one area near the end of the day, it happened again. We had a huge rip on the outside line that just never stopped. This fish probably took out 50 feet of line before the reel went silent. Gone, and I knew what it was! We continued for a little longer with only a few more pike before calling it a day. They had caught plenty of fish today and a Bar B Q walleye dinner was next on the list. Another spectacular day of weather and loads of fish were had. Who could ask for anything more!!