With no bookings scheduled for today, Christiane & I decided to hit the lake for a little fishing. No rush to get out as the best fishing had been once the water warmed anyway! We decided to drop in around 10:30 and hopefully the ramp wouldn’t be too busy. I needed several walleye for dinner tonight and as everyone knows, I don’t eat frozen fish! Well, it doesn’t really get any easier than this when a limit was swimming in the livewell in under 30 minutes. I could have caught plenty more but chose to pull the lines and leave this area when the third boat moved in on us. They had seen several fish netted and wanted theirs as well. No problem as they had no clue what they were doing anyway. I wasn’t about to educate them either and decided to go somewhere else for bigger fish. We had what we had come for and now it was time to play! With many, many boats on the water, I was forced to be looking over my shoulder at all times while fishing. I didn’t want a repeat of what happened earlier! Once positioned in the right areas and presenting the proper baits, it was game on. First reel to fire had quality in the 5 pound range and all gold. A few quick pics and back she went awaiting the next bite! Soon after Christiane was into the biggest one of the day and after a lengthy battle from the depths, a walleye of 7.5 pounds lay in the net. This one was definitely photo worthy and would make for some great pics! It was nice to see her swim off so perfectly afterwards and I was glad we were the ones that caught her. Despite the slot limit here in the province, I’ve seen many people keeping anything they catch. It’s a shame that rules only apply to some people and others just abuse them! After the release we went back to covering water and catching plenty more fish in the process. Bass, pike, perch and walleye fell victim to the lures and the action was great. We decided to call it quits shortly after 3:00 and pulled the lines for the day. In a few short hours there were many fish landed and we were quite satisfied with the results. Weekend traffic is always heavier and today was no exception. Although a light SW wind under 10 knots was present, there were waves from all directions. So many boats out that I felt like I was running an obstacle course on my way back! I was lucky at the docks though and was on the trailer in just a couple of minutes. We pulled out of the ramp and headed on our way as I had fish to clean and dinner to prep. This would be the perfect end to an excellent day of fishing and nobody got hurt!!

Steven & Mark accompanied me this morning on this almost perfect day. The winds were still blowing out of the north though and would build up to 15 knots a little later in the afternoon. We can’t catch a break with the cold fronts and the fish were definitely feeling the same. They weren’t too active at the start as we saw when we set up for a little trolling. With hopes of getting a few walleye to take home, I moved into a zone that had produced only yesterday. Water temps had fallen overnight, back below 65 degrees and I knew the bites wouldn’t be loud. The first fish only made a couple of clicks on the reel as I hammered the gas to lock her up. Mark was first, but unfortunately into a northern of about 5 pounds. When the second fish hit I had to do the same thing as they weren’t crushing the lures like they wanted to eat. This time Steven brought a nice walleye to net and shortly after it was swimming in the livewell. It had made the cut and was on their menu for dinner tonight. A few more northerns and one more walleye were caught in the next hour or so but I wasn’t satisfied with the results. After Steven landed & released one more over I decided to pull the lines and try something different. We changed it up and were heading for smallies in hopes that they would bite. Mark was throwing a crank bait and Steven a spinnerbait to create vibration in this muddy water. The north wind had turned this normally clear water into coffee, with three cream! It didn’t take long for a confirmation as I hooked up immediately on the demonstration cast. Mark would continue the trend with the same crankbait and hook into many of his own afterwards. Steven had several as well on the spinnerbait but the action wasn’t fast & furious under these conditions. It seemed like every time I mentioned leaving, someone would hook a fish! This prolonged the departure several times until I finally pulled the plug and left. We headed to another area to try for a few more eyes and began the troll all over again. Unfortunately the bites here were about the same as they were previously and I really had to listen to the reels in order to lock the fish up. We missed several short strikes that I’m sure were a percentage of walleye and landed only pike from this area. Too bad too as there was a good roll on the water, only from the wrong direction. By now we had the 15 knot blow from the north and waves were at 90 degrees to the actual current flow. Time to relocate again and off to the shallows for largies! This didn’t work out as I had expected though and was short lived. I figured that the water would have warmed up considerably but was shocked to see under 67 degrees. Although Steven did have a shot at one big largemouth, it wasn’t to be. After about an hour of just seeing the bass cruising the area, we decided to leave. A couple more smallmouth spots and a little trolling for walleye all came up somewhat disappointing. We manages only a fish here & there and I was on the move once again. One last try at walleye on a new area had better results as they managed to put 4 more walleye into the livewell in the last hour. A few smallmouth and a couple of northerns were also landed before we called it a day. It was an interesting one to say the least with all the scrambling we did to find active fish. Oh yeah, the winds died off completely as we headed to the boat ramp signaling that "Mother Nature" is definitely a woman! Who else would have a sense of humor like that? All in all a pretty good day with lots of fish landed!!

Ed & Josh were with me this morning on a not so friendly day. The winds were out of the north, blowing 15 knots at the start and expected to increase during the day. We hit the water with high expectations knowing what we were in store for! It was bass we were targeting today and I raced over to our first spot in a terrible cross wind. Waves were already two footers and almost impossible to smoothly navigate, even in my boat! I set up in an area that usually had a decent current but this time it felt like the tide on an ocean. The wind was opposite the flow and it was a roller coaster ride just standing on the electric. Regardless, they managed to get into a bunch of small bass and had a great time hooking but losing most. For whatever reason, the fish just weren’t staying pinned most of the time and on their first jump, getting off. Hooks were sharp so I knew that wasn’t the problem! Despite the fact that the water was around 64 degrees, the fish still seemed active and should be eating. It was post spawn in most sections of the lake and feeding should have been on their minds. This north wind had created a cold front effect and I just had to make them slow down with their presentations. Our very next area was the same as Ed missed over 75% of the fish he got hits from. Thoughts of adding a stinger hook to the spinner bait crossed my mind but he was hanging onto a few. With each & every move the same thing occurred and eventually I decided to give it a try. Well it didn’t seem to matter because they still got off! It almost seemed like the fish were hitting with their mouths closed. Josh was throwing a small crank bait and hooking into a small percentage of what Ed was but losing almost all of his too. I decided to change it up and switched areas completely as well as species. We were going trolling and the lines were set for walleye this time! I fished a little deeper and managed to have a couple of reels fire quickly but pike were the ones that ate. We covered a lot of water before we finally contacted what we were after and Josh landed a high end keeper for Ed to take home. A little later, Ed was into another one but unfortunately it was in the 25 inch range and returned after a couple of quick pics. We kept fishing for a while longer but could only come up with pike and decided to go for largemouth just to change it up. By now the winds had blown up to their max and waves were 3 to 4 foot in the open water. We had made the run to this area just before it got insane and I planned on staying here for the remainder of the day. For the next several hours they picked at the largemouth as we covered the area thoroughly. A few of the places produced multiple hookups but most were just one fish here and there. The water temps were actually a little warmer here with 70 degrees being seen in a couple of spots. The skies were looking threatening and I could see storms in various areas and readied for the worst. As luck would have it though, we never got more than a light sprinkle. The city looked like it was getting crushed and south of us as well, but we were safe! Ironically we had dodged a bullet and were glad to be fishing where we were! After the storm passed through, it seemed like the winds had gotten lighter so we switched areas one more time to try & get Ed a few more fish to eat. Apparently it wasn’t meant to be because each time we had a shot at a walleye, it just came off. All we could manage were a couple of pike and bass and we were done. It wasn’t the easiest day of fishing but there was plenty of action everywhere we went. These cold north winds really need to leave in order for the fishing to stabilize and get better. Although difficult at times today, we managed to make the best of it and boated plenty of quality fish. Too bad they only caught about 50% of what actually could have been, but that’s fishing! We’ll get even the next time around!!

After being shut out the last couple of days due to heavy rain & high winds, I finally made it back out this morning. Nice to see" Mother Nature" was back to her usual self as I had to cancel 3 different bookings! Apparently I wasn’t the only one happy to see the change in weather either, because the ramp had an unusually high amount of traffic at 7 A.M. One "Big Ass" cruiser was dropping in and blocked pretty much everything for almost 25 minutes and caused me to launch way off to the side. Luckily I had just enough room to maneuver the boat to the outside & tie up. It was a full boat this morn as Stephan brought along his girlfriend and Martin did the same with his wife. Not usually a big fan of four on board but we’d have to make it work! I decided to start with a troll due to the number of bodies and set the lines in an area holding, prior to the weather change. I had lost almost 5 degrees since the last time out and now saw 61 as an average. Air temps were barely 60 degrees at the start but expected to reach about 80 by mid afternoon. Although not much wind was present, it was out of the NW making the air a little chilly to begin. The girls were new to this and were going to have the first rods that fired. About 10 minutes into the day one of the reels started to sound but I had to hit the throttle in order to lock it up. It was really a light bite with this water temp and was barely hooked once in the net. Stephan’ s girlfriend had caught her very first dore ever. Being from France, she was excited to finally see what they looked like & a few quick pics were taken. Into the livewell it went as they were hoping to bring a few home to have for dinner tonight. The second & third fish were also walleye and now almost everyone was on the board. Stephan was the last up and when the next reel fired, it went off hard. This fish seemed quite large and I had visions of another lunge. I immediately cleared all the lines and awaited the visual. After many good runs and a decent battle, I was surprised to see that it was actually a northern. It was a rather large one though and went just about 10 pounds! Several pics later it swam off and we continued with our fishing. Weekends are never my favorite days to be on the water for various reasons but people moving in on me are number one! That hateful cruiser that had blocked the ramp had somehow found where I was and decided to set up right next to me. I hadn’t thought he would be fishing but soon saw several rods being prepared. I immediately trolled out of the area never to return! Unfreaking believable! The next couple of locations also saw slow action due to the cold water temps but we did pick away at them nonetheless. Knowing that Stephan wanted to cast, I waited until 11:00 for the water to warm before heading shallow for bass. It was here that they managed to all catch several largemouth and a couple of them were decent sizes too. I believe both Martin & Stephan managed to land 4 pounders along with a bunch of two to three pounds as well. The girls also landed several smaller fish of their own, all on soft plastics. When the bite slowed down, they thought another troll was in order and I willingly obliged! I went back to an area close by that was extremely slow earlier in the day and was immediately locked up. Mostly pike were caught now but a couple of nice walleye were also taken. I had one more area I wanted to fish before they called it a day and decided to head over to see if they were active. I had briefly fished it this morning before the cruiser moved in and wanted to try it once again. As if on cue, the fish started to bite and they were almost all walleye! Everyone had a couple of rotations in the last hour but it was Stephan that managed to land the largest walleye of the day. Unfortunately for him, it was an over and had to be returned after a couple of quick pics. We ended the day on another fish as I was bringing in the lines and the last one bent over heavily. Stephan had caught a pike and the last fish of the day. Despite the surprise number of bodies this morning, they all managed to have a great time while catching many fish. On top of that, they were taking several walleye home for a great dinner! Another great day of fishing and nobody got hurt! Who could ask for anything more!!

Clinton & Hafey were with me this morning, all the way from Australia. They were in the city on business and thought they check out our fishing. Not having ever caught what swims in our waters, they would have many personal bests today! It was also going to be interesting because Hafey was a fly fisherman and brought some rods & tackle of his own. After a slight debriefing on the shore and rigging up one of his rods, we were ready for the lake. I had instructed him to set up the fastest sinking line he had as we were going to be trolling over some deeper water and he needed to get down. Along with the rods, he also brought a good selection of flies that I was sure the pike & walleye would take a liking to! I headed out to the area we had finished up on yesterday to see if there were any active fish still eager to eat. Clinton trolled with rod in hand this time and Hafey did the same with the fly. Would the fish bite was the question? Although marking several decent hooks suspended, it seemed rather slow and then Hafey locked up with his very first ever walleye on the fly. A keeper in the 17 inch size was what he had brought to net and well deserving of a picture. I was sure he would get more and quickly went back to trolling. Clinton wasn’t having any luck, so I decided to add another rod to the spread and placed one short line in the rod holder. As luck would have it, the reel went off shortly after and he reeled in a walleye of his own. Both of them had a new species to add to their list of caught fish now and hopefully plenty more would follow. Eventually after a couple more fish on the short line, Clinton actually hooked one of his own. Although another first, this little perch was nothing to write home about and was quickly released. Hafey managed to get one small pike from this area adding another species before I decided to relocate, to hopefully greener pastures. The next area had us out in open water where I had been catching a combination of pike & walleye and we went right back to the same spread. After a couple of northerns on the short line I decided to pull the rod as it was the only one getting hit. Being a short line and the first bait through, it wasn’t a surprise! Both Clinton & Hafey managed to catch a few northerns, but it wasn’t on fire here. I kept moving around looking for active fish and eventually after a few more fish decided to try a little shallower. This time however they would be casting to new weeds in 5 to 8 feet of water looking for the pike moving offshore. It wasn’t fast & furious but they both managed to hook into several smaller ones and enjoyed doing the casting thing. Hafey had set up a lighter rod with a sink tip and missed several before realizing that he had to wait a couple of seconds before setting on the fish. I found the water to be extremely cold here today and saw that it was barely over 62 degrees, telling me to slow down considerably. After changing to a lighter fly and smaller strips Hafey started to hook up. In fact he even landed a couple of pre spawn largemouth on their way into the shallows! As we weren’t targeting them, I didn’t feel guilty and just kept moving! By mid day the water had warmed to almost 67 degrees and I decided to try offshore once more to see if the pike & walleye were active. As with before, the short line was the reel to fire most often but now they were at least catching on their rods too. I kept moving around looking for the active ones but was never able to lock onto them like I wanted. Each area had several eaters but nothing to write home about. By late afternoon we were back to where I had began the day in hopes that something had changed. Fortunately they did have better luck and Hafey even landed a couple more new species in the process. He had caught one perch and two smallmouth bass here and thoroughly enjoyed the bass. I told him he was about 4 days too early! With the season only opening on the 13th, I was unable to fish for them and had to settle on the pike and walleye. Still it was nice to see him tackle something he had never caught before! We finished the day here with a few more eyes as well as small pike before calling it a day. They had experienced something different and managed to catch a bunch of new fish in the process. Hafey was a great fly fisherman and I would have loved to had him a little later in the season to put him on the smallies. Despite a slower day than what I am accustomed to, it was still a high numbers outing and they both left fulfilled. For me it was just nice to be out on a weekday and not have to be looking over my shoulder all the time. There definitely weren’t many boats out today and it was a pleasure just to be on the water. Catching fish was an added bonus!!