I was back out again today with William & his son Sam, all the way from England for another multi species day. William had grown up in the Montreal region and moved way over to the other side of the pond later in life. He wanted his son to see his old stomping grounds and experience the fishing that he had done as a kid. We headed out shortly before 8:00 A.M. in cooler than usual conditions below 70 degrees and a good SW wind of over 10 knots. Overcast skies held for pretty much the entire day with just a hint of sunshine from time to time. Water temps had dropped almost 2 degrees since I was here last week and I wasn’t sure how the fish would react after all the stormy weather yesterday. We began with a troll and it was a little while before a reel went off, but Sam was soon landing his very first walleye. At just over 3 pounds it was a nice start and I had great hopes of bigger & better in store for him today! I had to make a slight adjustment soon after as it just wasn’t looking like the fish were cooperating. Although I was marking plenty of good hooks in the area, only a few of them were actually moving on the lures. Once I changed up baits, we were into fish almost immediately and both walleye and pike were being landed regularly. Sam was to have a few firsts today and now it was with a 4 pound northern. After trolling for a few hours I thought we would change it up and switch to casting for smallies in another section of the lake. I set up a few rods with soft plastics and let the games begin! We would stay on the bass for the remainder of the day and both of them would catch a bunch of good ones along with a few smaller ones thrown in for good measure. I think the largest one would have been a 4 pounder that Sam landed later in the day before we called it quits. They had caught plenty of fish today and Sam had three firsts to his credit with the bass being the largest smallie he had ever caught. It beat him up pretty good too! This will definitely be a memory for him to keep for at least a year as I think they may just be back again. With family still remaining in the city, they have no reason not to return for another visit. I hope they make it an annual thing as the fishing will only get better & better as Sam grows up!!

Well, Norm was back out again today just itching for some more smallie action and he found it. We hit the lake just after 7:00 A.M. and were casting into roaming pods of bass by 7:15. Water clarity was pretty good despite all the wind & rain we had lately and temps were still around 74 degrees. Slightly overcast conditions greeted us along with light winds and mid 70 degree air. It would be getting quite a bit warmer later on with the sunshine and high humidity but for now it was quite comfortable. I believe Norm’s first hookup was on a spinnerbait as it was the easiest locator bait to search for the smallies. Unfortunately it jumped off along side the boat and dashed away with all the other bigguns. It was definitely a four plus and a couple of the others looked to be topping the 5 pound bracket as well. We continued along our way after trying to relocate the pod without any success. Another group was located not too far away and once more Norm was tight to a spinnerbait bass. This time however, there were many others with her and we stayed on them afterwards catching a few more on different lures. Although there weren’t any real giants landed in this group, there were definitely a few with the potential. It’s ironic how fast they spook when you catch just a couple and only the smaller ones chose to bite afterwards. We made several more pit stops on specific areas and picked a few more along the way before I stumbled upon the mother load. It was finally here that the numbers started to climb. Although most were caught on soft plastics, there were several that fell victim to a spinnerbait and an occasional jerkbait too. As with all the other locations, the real bigguns just didn’t seem to want to bite and we had to settle for fish only up to 4 pounds. Tough job for anyone to accept! Norm had brought Buddha along with him once again today and seeing as it was getting pretty hot, we decided to let him out for a quick swim where we were. It wasn’t too difficult to convince him to jump in as the water was below 2 feet deep and solid enough for him to feel comfortable. This went on for about 15 minutes and before we knew it, Buddha was leaping back into the boat like a Gazelle. For a dog that weighs over 120 pounds, he’s pretty agile! Back to fishing and Norm wasted no time hooking up on a real good fish on top water but he thought it was a pike because of the length. Too bad it got off because it wasn’t! It was just an overly large smallie and smart enough to bury him in the weeds, escaping. Oh well, there’s always more! A bunch of other smaller ones were taken on a tube before we decided to try one of the other areas we had found a concentration of bigger ones earlier in the day. Norm locked up pretty much on the first cast when I pointed the area out and it was of better quality too. Another mishap occurred along side the boat when the spinnerbait broke off on one of the leaps. Luckily for the bass, the blades went one way and the smallie went the other. Talk about a slap in the face! He caught a few more smaller ones and we decided to call it quits. Back to the ramp with only an average day to show for our efforts but we did see plenty of fish to know we were in the right areas. They just didn’t seem to want to cooperate today but that’s alright, we’ll be back again soon as “Man Always Wins”, sometimes!!

Day 2 saw a little slower start with several shakers and one decent steelhead landed in the first couple of hours. There were a couple of larger kings that peeled plenty of line off of the reels only to eventually come unpinned during the fight too. There was also another good fish that felt like it may have been in the same caliber as the 30 pounder from day one that actually bit off the fly during the fight. Cold front conditions had these fish in a real negative state and we were feeling the pain right along with them. Greg was marking plenty of good fish but they were reluctant to eat anything he set down. The highlight of the day would have had to be the steelhead we found on the surface. As the boat trolled by it I noticed that it had head down from some hardware still attached. I saw a fly, a flasher and possibly a dipsey connected and the fish was still kicking. After yesterday’s terminal tackle loss we figured any freebees would be less painful. Greg had lost several spoons, a complete dipsey, flasher fly combo and an entire 5 colors of leadcore line from several mishaps. We circled back around and I scooped up the fish as it tried to get away and removed all the tackle. Well at least he got something back! By noon we had decided to call it quits as all of us had a long drive ahead and the fish just weren’t cooperating. Oh we caught a number of shakers up to about 4 pounds (12 or so) and a nice 6 pound steelhead but the bigger salmon just didn’t want to eat properly. We were 0 for 3 on the Kings and after yesterday, it didn’t matter. I’m not even sure that Christiane would have been able to fight anything big today as she was still suffering from all the stomach bruises from the rod butts. Her arms were also in pain along with back muscles that she never knew she even had. She was a mess! Whoever said fishing was a relaxing sport obviously never battled a King! This is a real full contact sport requiring anti imflamitories along with miscellaneous painkillers just to take the edge off. We both can’t wait to get back! Talk about a pair of masochists! If you would like to enjoy some of this pain as well, feel free to give Greg a call by checking out his Website at http://www.fishing4tails.com you won’t be disappointed, just sore and that’s a great thing. Thanks again Greg for showing us a super time full of pics, memories and ibuprofen. See ya again soon!!

Well I was finally able to take Christiane to the big lake for a couple of days, so we headed out around midnight for some crazy salmon action. I really didn’t want to drag my boat to the lake this time so we hooked up with a good friend that guides there on a regular basis. I knew we would be in good hands and an extra pair of them never hurts either! We arrived at 5:00 A.M. after a long drive and met Greg just around 6 to try & get Christiane into some trout & salmon. Winds were out of the NW at around 5 to 10 knots and the waves were barely 2 footers. This was just what I was hoping for as we set the lines and waited. The first rod to fire came from one of the riggers and Christiane started with a beautiful 8 pound steelhead. The next rod went off soon after and she was battling a steelie of almost 14 pounds. Things were looking up but she still needed the king! Finally a wire line started to scream and this was the reel deal. It beat her up pretty bad but she still managed to land the salmon and after a quick pick it was immediately released. She was working her way up the ladder as this one was around 23 pounds. The next time the rod fired she wasn’t as fortunate, as this one was to live up to its name as “The King”. She was lucky though as it had hit one of the riggers and not the wire line with all the hardware. A painful & lengthy battle of over 10 minutes finally ended when the net was slipped under the 30 pound plus beast. This was definitely her personal best and almost impossible for her to hold for the pictures. She needed help! We continued to fish for several more hours all the while knowing that this fish would be tough to beat. A few more smaller ones (20 pounders) were caught before we decided to try the Abyss for a shot at some steelhead. Greg ran out to much, much deeper water and barely had the first rigger set when it popped and chrome was in the air. He knew it would be more action and that’s what he was wanting for her! Almost immediately after the first fish was netted & released another rod fired and this one put on an aerial show that had at least a dozen jumps in it. Another chunky 10 pound steelie was also released back to where she belonged. This “dog & pony show” lasted for over 2 hours with many more fish coming aboard and lost with the largest landed being a high teens Coho Salmon. Oh there were bigger as one of the kings took the reel to almost 550 feet on the counter and it started around 150. This fish had to be a real giant as it never even slowed down on the first run. Although Christiane managed to gain most of the line back, it finally came off as she neared 200. It was a heartbreaker because we never even got a chance to see how big this thing might have been before it was over. Several more steelhead and a few more Coho’s were landed & released before we decided to call it a day. The fact that her arms were ready to fall off might have had something to do with the decision as well!

As it was Christiane’s week off and I didn’t have clients, we decided to head out on the lake for some smallie action. The weather was a little better than yesterday’s with clear skies and slightly cooler temps of 70 degrees at the start. Winds were out of the SW at 5 to 10 knots and picked up to 15 by afternoon. Water temps were hovering between 74 & 76 degrees depending on where we were when we made the first cast. There were only a few smaller bass in the 3 pound range caught on spinnerbaits & jerkbaits before we relocated to try & find bigger & better. The next area found Christiane hooking into a 3 pound walleye but not any bass were found. Immediately we relocated again and this time it was on fire! For the next several hours we were hooking into plenty of quality bass up to and over 4 pounds on a variety of baits. Although there weren’t any real giants today, we still had a blast! Tomorrow we are off to Lake Ontario searching for some real giants and hopefully will get into them big time! Maybe even a 30 pounder or better for someone’s personal best!!