Norm was back with me once again today but this time he brought Allison along for good luck. I knew we would have a great day with her, but wasn’t too sure about getting into bigger bass as the fishing had been rather slow lately. Oh there were numbers and an occasional large fish, but not what I expect for this time of year. The weather was a dismal, cloudy day that was supposed to be mixed with sunshine, but they were wrong once more! Winds were out of the N/E at 5 to 10 knots and it didn’t feel like the 50 degrees that it reached. Water temps were around 52 where we began and it wasn’t too long before Norm was hooked up. It turned out to be a decent 3 pounder and we were on our way to better things ahead. After several fish around this size, Allison managed to get into one of her own and this one went over 4 pounds. I was shocked and thrilled to see that they were somewhat larger than a couple of days before when I had managed mostly smaller fish with only an occasional big one. From that point on, the fish were coming into the boat all in the 3 to 4.5 pound range and I knew we were in store for something spectacular today. We weren’t getting into piles of fish but the ones we were seeing were well worth the lack of numbers. In another area there were a couple over four and one over five in a small confined current break. After trying to get into a few more without success, I decided that a change was in order and went deep. It was here that both of them started to hit only fish above 4 pounds and we were on them good. I don’t remember just how many, but there were plenty! When this section of the river died, we shifted to another and it was here that Allison got into her personal best. When I saw the size of this giant take to the air, I nearly knocked her over going for the net. It weighed in at slightly over 6 pounds and was a real pumpkin. She hadn’t even managed to break 5 pounds and had jumped all the way to over six! It had taken Norm all of last fall to break the 5 pound mark and she had broken six pounds in only her second attempt. Lady luck shines once more! We knew that this would be hard to follow but kept at it for the remainder of the afternoon all the while hooking into fish ranging from two to over 4 pounds. For the first time this fall, the fishing was what it was suppose to be like and Allison had managed to start the ball rolling. I know the next time out it probably won’t be like today, but I’ll settle for even 50% if it means the fish will be bigguns! Now Norm has an even bigger quest as today’s fish was larger than his personal best just a few short weeks earlier. I’m pretty sure he won’t be getting too much sleep after today!!

Darren & Jack were back with me today after a long lapse from the last trip. Darren was going to meet me a little later, so Jack & I fished for a brief period before we ran back to pick him up at the ramp. The weather was nicer than it had been with warm air temps of almost 60 degrees under cloudy skies, right through the day. The weatherman had called for strong winds around noon that were to gust as high as 25 knots from the W and that never happened. The winds never went above a 10 knot blow at the worst and for once they were wrong for the better! I was shocked to see the water temps had fallen to 49 degrees in the first area but apparently it didn’t matter to the fish. Jack locked up in just a few short casts on a spinnerbait and was officially on the board. Within 20 or 30 minutes we had probably 10 or more bass on and even a walleye to add to our catch. It was a good start before we picked up Darren and raced off to another area to begin his day. As with Jack, Darren also was locked within a cast or two and I thought it was going to be one of those days. They both landed several smaller than usual bass in this area and I began looking for bigger ones in some other areas nearby. Pretty much every spot was holding fish, but I was seeing below average smallies and that wasn’t what I wanted today. Jack was catching most of his fish on a crankbait and Darren was into his on a tube but both of them were landing smallmouth. We literally ran all over in our quest for larger bass but couldn’t bust one bigger than 4 pounds. Plenty of fish were caught today but the caliber just wasn’t there. Somewhere around 4:00 in the afternoon, I dropped Jack off at the dock and Darren & I continued to fish after for another hour. Many fish were missed but only a couple of bass were landed on these last locations before we packed it in and called it a day. I think the next time I fish this spot I am going to concentrate on the cleaner water rather than the stained, cold stuff just to see how it goes. At least there they will have the visibility needed to intercept a moving bait. November temps in October definitely have the fish in a different mood and they are just all over. I need them to begin to concentrate in order to take advantage of the higher number spots instead of covering all kinds of water through the day. Overall, it was still a pretty good day to be on the water!!

Richard wanted to take his father Maurice fishing, so he hooked up with me for another day of bass fishing. His brother in law Sheldon joined us as well as we ventured onto the lake. It was a brisk morning again, with air temps around 27 degrees at the start and not expected to rise any higher than the mid 40’s during the day. Although the winds weren’t too strong, they were from the N/E making our drifts somewhat difficult. Water temps were hovering around 51.5 degrees and didn’t climb much higher even with all the sunshine we had. Maurice drew first blood with a smaller than usual bass lost right at the boat. He managed to land another one not too long after that actually went closer to 4 pounds and that was worthy of a photo. We caught a handful of small to medium sized ones in the first hour or so with only one fish above the 5 pound mark and decided to move to another area in hopes of better fishing. It was here that the other two managed to land their first few fish as they began to have a better understanding of how to work their baits. We mixed it up with both casting as well as drifting where we could and caught fish with both methods. Most of the fish were a little smaller than I was use to but at least there was action. The day eventually warmed up to what turned out to be a beautiful, sunny fall one but there was still a crisp bite to the air. Whenever the winds kicked in, it felt a whole lot colder! We hit several other areas throughout the afternoon and caught fish in each & every one with the largest ones around 4 pounds. By 4:00 we had seen enough action to pack it in and headed back to the ramp, calling it a day. Overall a slower than usual day, but it sure beats sitting on the couch!!

Craig & Herm were back once again for another day chock full of surprises. They had a difficult time on Champlain yesterday and were really looking foreword to battling some active smallmouth this morning. We started out with cold temps of just 33 degrees when we launched and they never really warmed to more than 45 throughout the day. The winds were definitely better than their previous trip when we had 3 footers and were N/E around 10 knots today. This made drifting a challenge with the current slower than the wind and I had to improvise with a few tricks of my own just to get some movement. Overcast skies were also upon us for most of the day and the water temps were hovering just below 52 degrees when they made their first cast. Within a couple of minutes, Craig was locked up and I knew it was going to be one of those days! Herm followed up not long after and they were both starting to get into them when Craig set into what seemed like the bottom. After just a couple of seconds, the line went limp and we both knew that one had teeth. I won’t say that the fish came easy today as we had to really work for them and stay on our toes with the bites. Several hits were quite difficult to detect and many a missed fish was had in the process. Although there weren’t any real giants today, there were some real good ones of over 4 pounds landed. The largest fish of the day though would have to be the walleye that registered just under 6 pounds. We never really got into the mother load of bass but we caught some fish in every area we stopped. We literally picked at them all day long! Tougher fishing than usual but still a productive day overall!!

David wanted to catch a lot of fish on a fly so I thought this would be a good opportunity to tangle with numbers of smallies for him. What I didn’t expect was the negative nature of these bass as we targeted them all over the place. We got a slightly later start than usual but with the cold overnight temps it wasn’t such a bad idea. The air was a brisk 37 degrees when we began and the water was barely 56 degrees. Thankfully, there was sunshine and only a light wind from the SW blowing under 5 knots. I set him up with several patterns of flies and was pretty sure at least one of them would work. We began in fairly shallow water working specific areas all the while anticipating the first strike. To say they weren’t aggressive would have been the understatement of the year. They just didn’t want a fly as one literally held the tail of a bead head leech and just swam with it. When David realized what had happened it was too late and the fish released it leaving him more disappointed. From sink tips and leeches to floating lines and weighted bugs, the arsenal was unlimited as he threw everything but dynamite to try and lock up. I tied a perch pattern tandem streamer on one of the rods and he tossed that for a while before the rod finally loaded up and he was locked. I’m not sure which one of us was more surprised, but we were both relieved as the chunky 3 pounder took to the air. I could see by the length of the fly that the fish was only hooked by the tandem hook and once in the net, she fell off completely. I really didn’t know what to make of this and hoped that as the day went on, the water would warm up a bit making the fish a little easier to catch on the fly. I had been throwing a jig every once and a while and having good success on it, but David really wanted to take them with a fly rod and kept at it a little longer. We even moved out to deeper water in the 15 to 20 foot range and I set up one of my high density sinking lines to get him down. We drifted and dragged over these depths as I landed a few more smallies on the jig. David was able to get the fly down with no problem and we think he even had a few strikes as we covered this area of the lake. Unfortunately, they never locked him up! I knew that if we were going to salvage this day, he was going to have to switch up to conventional tackle and bite the bullet. He agreed and was immediately into a decent smallie of around 3 pounds. What had taken him several hours to do on the fly had just taken less than 3 minutes on spinning tackle. In the next 15 minutes, he was able to land a couple more and miss a few strikes as well! Although it had been quite a while since he held anything other than a fly rod, he was very comfortable by the looks of it. We drifted over the better areas and on the next spot he loaded up on what I thought was a real good walleye. It wasn’t fighting like a bass and was staying down during the battle making me believe that it wasn’t a smallie. I was shocked to see that I was wrong when it got closer to the boat and I was able to slip the net under her. Once weighed, it went 5.33 pounds and all of it bass! What a toad as Craig would say and he would have been right. We kept at this technique for the remainder of the day all the while catching fish every once in a while. It definitely saved the day and I was thankful that at least some of the fish were cooperating even if it wasn’t with the fly. The lethargic nature of the bass today made it even more difficult as a desperate adjustment was needed in order to trigger them into taking. We did miss many strikes, but at least fish were caught in the balance of time that we spent fishing. I will be back and I will get them on the fly before time draws nearer to freeze up and hopefully figure out what makes them go. This was surely one of the toughest days spent targeting smallmouth bass and we had to do it with a fly. I would have to say that it could have been compared to catching a « Permit » with a fly rod! We had gone and taken a difficult sport & made it tougher, but spinning tackle had saved the day!!