Wow, next season came quick! I headed out today with Norm before calling it quits again, for this year. We didn’t get an early start due to the overnight temps but were fishing by 9:30. With 35 degrees expected as the high today, we knew we wouldn’t get a better opportunity for one more kick at the can! Intermittent sun with clouds and a light wind from the SW of 5 to 10 knots were what was forecasted, but as usual they were wrong. The part they always mess up is the wind and today had 10 to 20 knots with higher gusts thrown in just for laughs. Boat control was a real treat too, when the winds switched to the west in the afternoon. We didn’t get on the fish quickly but when we did, they were good ones. One of the best smallies came from a deep hole and went almost 5.5 pounds by slowly moving the baits. Hits felt more like weeds rather than actual fish and you didn’t have long to react before they would spit out the jigs. I’m sure we missed plenty of fish with the winds not allowing us to keep the lines tight, but we also caught quite a few as well. In one area we found a mix of bass and walleye and if the drift was just right, you could hook up on every other cast. There was even a small Muskie of 38 inches landed on light spinning tackle as a bonus. We kept fishing this area catching more walleye than bass and eventually moved out in search of that elusive 6 pound smallie. Late in the afternoon when the conditions got worse, we even contemplated heading back. Just a few more casts and it would be done for this season as far as the boat goes. On Norm’s last cast he hooked up on what we both thought was another walleye only to find out at the boat that it was a huge smallie. A last cast fish is always a good thing but it’s even better when the bass weighs more than 5 pounds. We decided to end it on a high and after a few pics and a quick release; we packed it in for yet another year. Norm had landed his last five pounder for the season, but what a way to end it. I believe it took him all year to get just one last season but he more than made up for it this year! I guess we’ll have to satiate our appetite for fishing by changing gears and pursuing some chrome steelhead from now on. Just « Living The Dream »!!!!!

Well, Darren joined me today for what could possibly have been the last outing of the season. The weather was unbelievable for December as we had mostly sun and temps around 40 degrees. Winds were out of the SW at around 10 knots and the surface water was around 45 degrees as well. If you thought the fish were lethargic before you should have been there today! The bites weren’t anything more than a perch nibble and they only tapped the jigs once. If you weren’t literally dead-sticking the baits and shaking them in place, you didn’t get bit. I never really found the mother load today but each spot I fished held some sort of concentration and most of them were big. The largest bass of the day was an almost 6 pounder and the largest walleye was a 28.5 inch monster. There weren’t huge numbers of fish caught but they were slightly bigger than what I had seen recently. We stuck it out till around four o’clock and decided to call it a day, with our light going fast. It’s not too often that we’re able to fish open water from a boat at this time of the year and I wanted to milk it until the end. I don’t think Darren has ever been out this late and who knows when the next time might be! I may try for one more attempt before I store the boat, but who can say. All in all it was a good day to be on the water and an excellent year. I can’t wait until next season!!

Last day out with Tim and the search for big smallies had us fishing the slowest we had all week. The day started out with a snow fall overnight and light fluffy flurries throughout the morning. Temps were right around the freezing mark and climbed all the way to 33 degrees by days end. Winds were from the west at 10 knots and turned to the NW by mid morning, blowing closer to 15 knots. It was an interesting day to say the least! Boat control was almost impossible with the cross winds and feeling the baits wasn’t any easier with all the slack being blown into the line. The first few smallmouth that came aboard were rather on the smaller side and breaking the 3 pound mark was the best we could do. Many missed fish were also being seen as they were picking up the baits and dropping them almost immediately. I tried a few slower, deep holes and finally located some of the bigger ones there. Unfortunately, they were walleye and only the occasional smallie, but they were eating. We hung in there as long as we could but eventually moved when the winds really made control difficult. For the remainder of the day we jumped around to all the better places all the while trying to locate a trophy but came up short once again. Many smaller fish in the 2 to 4 pound class but no real giants today. The largest fish would have been the walleye of over 6 pounds but she wasn’t what we were looking for. By 3:30 we were losing our light and decided to call it a day. Overall, a slower than usual day but considering the conditions, we still made out alright. Many fish were caught but just not the ones we were searching for on this last day of the month. Maybe December will bring bigger & better as an early Christmas present for the next person out!!!

Tim & I were back out again this morning, looking for another shot at the big smallmouth bite. Christiane came along as well, hoping to increase our chances of some quality fish. We had almost perfect conditions with cloud cover and less than a 5 knot wind from the W/SW. Water temps were 46 degrees and the air temps were somewhere around 42. I realized quickly that the bite was a slow one when our first fish came while dead sticking the jig in a deep hole. After that we all slowed down even more and began hooking up everywhere we fished. Plenty of decent smallies were being caught from shallow to deep as we covered water in search of the real giants. At one point we even got into a pretty good walleye bite and boated a bunch of 3 to 5 pound fish. The real giant today wasn’t a bass, but rather a huge walleye of almost 30 inches. After a few quick pics she was released back to continue her cycle next spring. Fish this big really shouldn’t be killed for the table! There were many good fish caught today with the largest bass only topping the scale at 4 plus pounds. It didn’t really work out for the big ones for us as there were boats all over looking for the same thing. Although we came up a little short, we all had a great time catching a bunch of fish in some incredible, late November weather. This may have been Christiane’s last chance at a trophy smallie for the season but I will be back many more times looking for yet another trophy!!

I was back out again today with Tim and Mike hoping for, « The Big Bite »! We hit the water shortly after 10 A.M. and were into fish almost immediately. The weather was a little better than the last time we were out but the fog was still quite present. Fortunately, the visibility was more than just a few feet making the running not as dangerous. We weren’t going to see any sun today as there were lots of clouds just drizzling on us the entire day. Air temps were in the low to mid 40’s and the winds were out of the W/SW at around 10 knots giving us a pretty good drift. Ironically, the water temps hadn’t fallen very much and were now holding at 47 degrees. Tim drew first blood as we drifted over deep water and brought a nice 3 pound walleye to the net. Several more drifts later and only a few more smaller bass had us looking elsewhere for the mother load. We jumped around again and found small pods of decent fish in each new area we fished. There were also 3 more walleye caught up to about 4 pounds in between the smallies. With the heavy cloud & fog over us we knew that the afternoon would be rather short and tried many more areas just looking for the bigger ones, only to come up a little short once again. Although there wasn’t anything landed over 5 pounds there were still several others close and everyone had a hand in catching them. Shortly after 3 o’clock we were getting ready to head out and caught several more before we called it a day. The darkness comes early now and without the sun, even earlier! We weren’t able to find the ones we were looking for, but there were still plenty of decent sized ones caught throughout the day. Considering what « Mother Nature » had dealt us, I think we made out pretty good on this not so perfect day!!