Sam & Martin joined me this morning, looking for some smallie action. Fall had already begun and it was time to start crushing them! We hooked up around 8:00 and wasted no time getting on the water. Strangely enough, the water temps were above 62 degrees, but the bite was on! Air temps would climb to just over that and a mix of cloud & sunshine stayed with us all day. Crankbaits and jigs would be the top producers today and both had their place. By covering water, the crankbait would find the fish and the jigs would vacuum the rest of the ones that didn’t want to chase. In one area, I think Sam landed almost a dozen and they were all on the crank. For whatever reason, they wanted the bait but Martin had a hard time following in Sam’s tracks. Both were throwing identical lures, but it was Sam that was landing fish on almost every cast. I immediately switched Martin to a jig increasing his chances and he was locked on the first cast. Pretty much every area we fished had similar results and numbers were soaring. Some of the fish reached the 4 pound mark for the day but nothing really giant was even seen. I think the water temps are still a little too warm to drive the bigger biters into the feed mode. With all this warm weather upon us for the next several days, it won’t get any better either. Regardless of the lack of bigguns, the numbers game was a real pleasure for both Sam & Martin today. Overall a very successful fishing day!!

Yuan was In Montreal on business from China and wanted to fish today for smallmouth bass. Who was I to deprive someone from halfway around the world out of experiencing our tremendous fishery! We met at the lake around 7:30 only to find the weather people were wrong once again. Quelle surprise! I couldn’t even launch the boat with three to 4 foot waves rolling directly onto the ramp. Plan B had us taking a road trip to another place where hopefully the conditions would be a little better. After fighting the morning traffic we arrived and all looked good. Yuan was use to fishing in China and on a good day receiving 4 or 5 bites from 12 to 15 inch largemouth bass. Boy was he in for a day to remember! The weather wasn’t exactly picture perfect with low clouds, cool air and the chance of precipitation. Although the winds were still present, they were doable and only caused me some discomfort with boat control. The first stop had him throwing a diving crankbait off a point and within a few casts, he was locked up. It may have been only average to me, but the 2.5 pound smallie was a giant to him. He couldn’t believe the raw power of these fish as I attempted to slip the net under his catch. Eventually, after several jumps and countless powerful dives, I succeeded. His first Canadian Smallmouth was officially behind him! A couple of quick pics and back to casting he went. Within the next 10 minutes he did manage to get a couple more but I quickly realized that there were better places to be and relocated. He was picking up one here & there and then I hit the jackpot. For the next few hours he was locked up on practically every cast. He caught a bunch of fish of all different sizes on a crankbait and then it went dead. I immediately switched him up to a jig and soon after, it all changed. He was back in the groove getting hits on every cast for a while and landing plenty more bass. There were so many fish in this area that even when he lost one, another immediately ate the jig. I think he believed that he was in heaven with all the fish he was into! This was something he had never experienced before and was more than happy to participate in catching as many as he could. As many times as he got snagged in the rocks, he would get hit when it popped free. There was even an incident that tangled the line in a knot around the rod and he had to hand line a four pounder to the boat. The action was so fast & furious that he skipped lunch in order to keep catching! We moved around a bit when things slowed and eventually got into an area that held some of the bigger smallies. These things were so vicious that they were attacking the jigs while we reeled in for another cast. I had one pinned by the boat and he threw in right next to the fish and almost had the rod tore from his hands with a fish almost 5 pounds. Each time we relocated, this happened all over again! There were so many fish being hooked into that he actually lost count of how many he had. I don’t even want to estimate how many were landed or even lost for that matter! All I know is that by the end of the day he was sore all over from the power of these bass. I don’t think he would have been able to fish a second day after being beaten up from these bass on steroids! Smallies rock and now he finally realizes what all the hype is about. By fishing for green bass all the time he hadn’t gotten to experience what a brownie could actually do. I know he won’t forget today anytime soon! His business has him travelling to this area almost every year and I’m pretty sure I haven’t seen the last of Yuan from China. What a way to be initiated into smallmouth fishing!!

Ed & James joined me today in hopes of similar results to yesterday. We met up around 7:30 once again and hit the lake not long after. Winds were out of the NE blowing 5 to 10 and sunshine was present when we got to our first spot. The water temps hadn’t fallen much and were right around yesterdays, when we arrived. Ed was on a spinnerbait and James was tossing a jig so we could determine what the fish wanted. Although Ed did have a solid hit and a push or two, it was James that drew first blood. He locked up on either his first or second cast and it was on! I soon netted the smallie and immediately released it. Unfortunately, he expected a pic but I knew better. It was only 2.5 pounds and I told him it wasn’t photo worthy! He thought it was big as he was use to catching pounders from his lake and couldn’t believe I had thrown it back so quickly. I told him that I wanted to release it fast in order for him to get a bigger one right away. The next bass was of similar size and went back immediately as well. I think he was a little disappointed, but that all changed when he set into the next one. This one was well over 4 pounds & definitely photo worthy and now he knew what I meant! Although he did have a tough time bringing it to the net, we finally managed to get it aboard and the camera came out. I also put it into the livewell for double shots later and now had both of them throwing a jig. Obviously the bass weren’t interested in chasing baits down with all the goby minnows in the area and jigs were the ticket. They weren’t hammering the fish with the chop on the water but they were picking at them pretty good. In the next hour they managed to have several chances at quality fish and landed about 50% of them. I’m not sure if it was the new moon or the wind direction, but these fish were acting a little different than usual. We pulled the plug here and relocated to another section in hopes of a better bite. As with the first spot, James was locked up immediately after we arrived and it started all over once again. Ed was throwing a spinnerbait in hopes of an arm jolting strike and he wasn’t disappointed. The four pounder was a blackie and nearly broke his wrist on the set! What a smashing strike and we both got to witness the attack as it wasn’t 20 feet from the boat. After landing this one, all Ed wanted to throw was the blade for more rude hits! James was quite content with the jig as he too was getting into plenty of fish all over this flat. Most of the fish were in the three pound size but several were pushing 4 and even higher in the next couple of hours. As with the day before, I decided to move around a bit and hit a couple of areas that had both locking up on almost every cast for a while. Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end and this place turned off almost as fast as a light switch. Ed had hoped to take home a walleye or two so our next stop was to be in an area looking for gold! Dragging jigs along the weed edges had us hooking up but they were all smallies. I think there were a couple of walleye on but we never got a confirmation, as they came unpinned before the boat. James did however save the day when he landed a beautiful slot fish just over 20 inches. Ed would have to settle for just one today as we shifted into bass mode once more and headed to another area nearby. We spent the last hour or so hooking, losing and landing some others and had a blast doing so. Although they weren’t the large ones we had hoped for, 3 pounders are always welcome. By 5:00 we decided to call it a day and headed back to the ramp. They had caught loads of bass today and oh yeah, a couple more sturgeon too! With only one walleye, Ed would have to have plenty of side dishes along with the fish tonight as he was feeding a family of four. I’m sure we could have gotten into more of these golden treats given the time but everyone was more interested in catching the powerful smallies instead. Next time out we’ll have to spend more than 30 minutes in order to succeed! Overall, a great day for fishing!!

I hit the water this morning around 7:30 with Peter, in hopes of showing him just how great our freshwater fishery was. He had only fished salt water before and was in for a real treat, as the smallies were just on fire! The cool morning air would soon give way to warm & later hot temperatures, with almost flat calm conditions. This would mean that the dog pecker knats would be out in full force, just tormenting the daylights out of us! Water temps were to reach a high of almost 70 degrees and although I hadn’t been on the lake in a couple of days, I knew they would be active. I started Peter out with a spinnerbait in hopes that he would feel how hard the strikes were. With only a couple of pushes and one short hit, it just never happened. I even tried him on a topwater but despite a couple of boils, he never hooked up. I was forced to resort to the tube jig and on his first cast, he was locked. For almost two hours, he would continue to feel the raw power these brown bass possessed and battle many, many more. Fish up to almost 5 pounds would be the largest but the 2 to 4 pounders were plentiful and he just kept hooking up. When they slowed down here, I relocated to another area and he continued the catching. Although this was completely different to him, he caught on pretty quickly with the jigs and managed to land loads of bass. Oh yeah, even another sturgeon! With the sun high by afternoon, the fish really took advantage of this and both bait and predator were active. Each time we relocated, it took but a few casts to connect with the fish and it was game on. Some of the areas were holding just a few and others were loaded. We just had to keep moving until we found the sweet spots and once we did, hammer time! I decided to try something different and ventured into the mid range areas with rock bottom and it was loaded too. I think Peter had 5 fish on in as many casts and landed all of them! Although not everywhere was like this, there were many places that were and we concentrated on these ones for the remainder of the day. With very few exceptions, there weren’t really any dead periods through the day and 5 to 10 minutes between fish was about all he had to wait. The conditions couldn’t have been better today allowing us to cover any and all areas I wanted. We even took a break in the afternoon to try a little trolling for pike & walleye and succeeded with both. All in all it was an excellent day and one Peter would remember for his first experience, fresh water fishing!!

I took a road trip this weekend and met up with Alain & Cindy on a distant lake, searching out fall smallies. An arrival time of 8:00 A.M. had us hitting the lake almost immediately afterwards. With flat calm conditions and a light misty rain falling, I thought we were going to just crush them. However, with the water almost 70 degrees, it seemed a whole lot more like summer than fall and I had to make adjustments regularly. A topwater bite was present but not a great one! Fish were attacking but only a few of them were actually eating. Most were just slapping at the baits looking like they wanted them out of their way. Poppers, Zara’s and prop baits all had similar results and this forced me to make a change, quickly. With Alain now on a senko, I decided to have Cindy throw a jig to see if we could get an attitude adjustment. It worked and now both were hooking up often. Unfortunately though, most fish were of the smaller size and of a two pound average. I continued to throw a topwater knowing that I could at least find the fish and hopefully one of them could throw back and catch it. We fished big bays and searched for weeds that were holding plenty of bait. Each time we changed areas, all of us began with surface lures, looking for quick bites. Cindy remained on a prop bait and managed to get a reaction every time we shifted spots, but unfortunately not all ended in hookups. Her best fish of the day was to come on this lure and now she was beginning to enjoy fishing with it! Alain’s best was to come on a buzz bait in between two weed beds when we spotted some surface activity. Although we covered plenty of water today, the results were pretty much the same. We never really got into a great active area with the exception of an open water shoal. This place was surrounded by over 100 feet of water and topped out around 12 at its highest point. Surface lures had a feeding frenzy going on but most fish were under a pound and not really what we were looking for. We tried going down, but ended up getting snagged on every cast and decided to leave all together. Rain was falling off and on and except for our lunch break with sunshine, it was a pretty dark day. We never really got into anything great today and only had a fish here and there, all over the lake. I think tomorrow will need even more adjustments and I’m ready, willing and eager to get started. Plenty of action today but not the quality bites I expected!! The second morning had me toying with the idea that by fishing the deep edges of weed beds, I would find the bigger fish. This didn’t work in the first area and I ventured into the 8 to 12 foot flat adjacent with sparse weeds. Jigs were now being thrown and we had a nice wind allowing a pretty good drift & drag approach. With Alain’s son Jean Francois along today, we had an extra rod in the water and hopes were pretty high. Despite a few fish on the surface, most bites were coming by slowly working the jigs right on the bottom. Multiple hookups were had and many fish were being landed until another boat moved in on us. I wasn’t surprised to see this as it’s almost a daily occurrence for me. What I was shocked about however, was that it occurred on this lake! I’ve probably grown accustomed to dealing with other nearby boat traffic and had them just keep fishing. The whole time we were landing plenty of bass and the other boat never hooked a single one! This must have really frustrated them and after almost an hour of punishment, they just left. We too, soon relocated and were now fishing another area of similar bottom along a weed bed and once again hooking up. Tubes were definitely the ticket and I planned on staying on this presentation for the remainder of the day. Oh there were a few areas that top water was used but not entirely. We would always resort to the jigs and finesse the bulk of the bass with this technique. For some reason, the other end of the lake wasn’t producing very well and after spending a lot of time looking for fish there, we ended up back where we began. The last couple of hours were spent slowly dragging jigs along the bottom and more bass were once again landed. Even with other boats around us, fish were being hooked and many more were landed in the time remaining. I wanted to get a jump on the traffic and pulled off the lake around 4:30 to avoid the rush. The two days spent here made me realize that the best is still yet to come. Despite the color of the leaves and some of them falling, autumn hasn’t arrived yet. It seems that the water will have to cool much more in order for the bigger bass to start feeding shallow. I may just have to get back to the lake again in order to take advantage of some of the biggest fish of the year. By then, everyone will have closed up their summer cottages and we should have the lake entirely to ourselves. Sounds like a good plan to me!!