After a couple of postponements this season, Hughes was finally out with me today. He brought his son Olivier and his girlfriend Stephanie as well, for some smallmouth bass fishing. Winds were light for the start and air temps were hot & humid. We began on a flat, throwing a mix of baits and hooked up almost immediately. Hughes tossed a spinnerbait for aggressive biters and was rewarded with several violent hits. Both Olivier & Stephanie tossed soft plastics and unfortunately missed several fish before finally connecting with a few of their own. Stephanie wasn’t too familiar with fishing but after a little coaching she was able to hook into some decent fish too. We fished a series of places, both shallow and deep but managed to get more bites shallow. Boat traffic was usual for the weekend with people running all over, without any idea of what was below. We even saw a big “Scarab” run through water as shallow as 3 feet & covered with a hard rock bottom. Still don’t know how he didn’t hit! To make matters worse, he ran back through the same area about 20 minutes later and never touched a rock again. I think he should buy a lotto ticket! Later on in the day, the skies darkened and the winds picked up considerably causing us to make a dash for the boat ramp. After checking the radar I realized that we were going to get hit before 2:00 and we unanimously called the day. Although it could have been longer, they still managed to get into plenty of bass up to almost 4 pounds. Overall a good day regardless of what “Mother Nature” had to say!!

Stephane was back with me again today and this time he wasn’t alone. Martin joined him for only his second time fishing in 20 years. This was going to be a challenge! We met up before 7:00 and were headed to our first location soon after. Bass was on the menu and they were about to slaughter them good! Water temps were still around 73 degrees and the air was going to exceed 80 degrees by afternoon. I was glad we had gotten an early start because the lake was about to become a zoo with all the mid day cruisers! Well for only fishing once before, Martin caught on quickly and both he & Stephane were fast into fish. They may not have been huge but it was a good start for them before getting into the bigguns. The two places we hit first had loads of fish and catching them wasn’t a problem. In three hours or so they landed both numbers and some quality as well. Eventually we hit an area that had the better ones and unfortunately more were lost than landed. For some reason most were coming unpinned, but not all. They did manage to get a few over 4 pounds making for some great pics. This went on for the better part of the afternoon as well and plenty more fish were added to the numbers. We even trolled for a while in the afternoon to add a few walleye to their dinner menu. Knowing that the boat ramp was not going to be pretty, we pulled the plug around 4:00 and headed back. As with all weekend traffic here, I had close to 45 minutes before I was out. It’s amazing how people have no courtesy for others around them at boat ramps. This one really needs someone stationed there to do crowd control. Between cars parked in trailer slots illegally and boats tied to the dock for hours at a time, it’s frustrating at best most weekends. Throw in alcohol and it’s just insane! Oh well, at least the fishing was great today!!

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!!