Well after finally getting the brakes fixed yesterday, I went back to the lake with Norm & his buddy Buddha today for more giant smallies. The weather took a turn for the worse and a cold front moved in along with a N/E wind blowing 10 to 20 knots. This really had me making adjustments to the type of presentations we were going to use in order to get bit. I knew that the morning bite was going to be a little more difficult so we slowed down in the areas that held fish to try & entice them to take our offerings. Although the sunshine felt nice the cool morning chill had us bundled up and this definitely felt more like the fall rather than the end of summer. Water temps had dropped over three degrees since we were here a couple of days earlier and I wasn’t sure what to expect as we hit our first area. It took about 15 minutes before we had any contact with the bass and I could tell by their lethargic nature that they were inactive. The first one just came up and pushed the lure instead of hitting it and disappeared right back to the bottom immediately after. The second & third one also did the same thing and although I got to see them clearly, they never really hit. I had to slow down more and even this wasn’t working like I had planned. I thought I would move out deeper to see if some of those fish were willing to eat before I relocated completely to another part of the lake. Unfortunately, the same thing happened and we were forced to move. The motor was acting strange and I didn’t want to take a chance running too far so I kind of fanned out and never really went more than a couple of miles. Eventually, I had to do something and ran in and had it fixed by a local marina. Plugs and filters were the problem and now it runs better than it ever did! Back out and a little later in the morning, Norm finally broke the ice with a solid 5.5 pound smallie and we were pumped! I knew that once the sun began to warm the water the bass would start to get active and it was happening. The next fish to come aboard was slightly under 5 pounds and just as fat as the first one making me believe that we were on a school of pigs. This was to be the last bite for the area and after about an hour of fishing, we made a long run to another place in hopes of more hogs. On Norm’s second cast he locked up and landed a fish well over 4 pounds adding yet another beast to the already good sac we had. Three fish and almost 15 pounds isn’t too bad! We missed a couple of others and one of them was pushing the 6 pound mark by the looks of it as it just turned and swam away. We hit another area again and it finally began to look like we were onto something as Norm put one more high 4 in the boat keeping our average alive. A few more bigguns also came from this place and now we were on a stringer that was just huge. I wasn’t sure what was in store for us as we went to another location, but I was pretty sure it would be the same caliber as the others. A confirmation was had almost immediately as were locked up on our first casts with a double. Both of them were pumpkins with one going over 5 pounds once again. We decided to move around the area just looking for more of these slabs and although we really didn’t catch too many, they were all quality. By the time it was all said and done we probably had a stringer of close to 25 pounds. We weren’t after the numbers today and succeeded by catching only big fish. Despite the not so perfect conditions and the N/E winds we came out on top with an unbelievable big fish day! I can’t wait to get back out and see if history repeats itself by catching even more of those big brown bass!!

Norm wanted to battle some more of those mean smallies so we headed to the lake that I had fished with Christiane on the weekend in search of Moby. I also had to get the brakes checked out again, so I thought it would be a good trade off. Unfortunately they were still getting way too hot to be safe while driving long distance, or even traffic for that matter. We hit the water in sunny conditions and air temps in the low 50’s that were expected to climb only into the 60’s today. Winds were out of the S/W at around 10 knots and eventually were to increase up to 15 or 20 later in the afternoon. I immediately went back to the area I had seen so many bass the last time and ironically, they weren’t anywhere to be found. We fished it for almost an hour covering plenty of water to find the schools, but came up short. I fanned out and searched a larger radius right into deeper water and still came up empty. Here today, gone tomorrow! We decided that a change was in order and I headed to deeper water for a drag and hopefully some fish! Norm wasted no time locking up on the first one in 23 feet of water and I thought we were finally going to get them. Once again it didn’t happen as there were only two others landed in over an hour, with several drifts. Oh they were down there as I would mark one here and one there, but not in the mood I guess. I packed it in and made a long run with Norm & Buddha to another area in 3 footers to a flat and had Norm chunk a spinnerbait over open water. Within the first few casts he got violated and finally was tight to a bruiser. This fish went to the air several times and eventually threw the hooks right at the boat on its final aerial, leaving Norm speechless. Definitely in the high fours and meaner than a pit bull! He got crushed a few more times and landed another one in the high fours along with one slightly smaller in the next drift and then it died. I tried dragging a tube in the area and had to go to a heavier than usual one just to feel bottom in the 3 foot rollers we were in. Eventually after a few more follows without commitment, we relocated once again and Norm got hammered. This too was in the high fours as we watched it surf the waves all the way to the net. Wow, another hog on the blades and worthy of the livewell for later pics. By now I was throwing a jerkbait in hopes of bringing in a school and locating more of those big brown bass. Ironically I was only able to get into the smaller ones of 3 pounds or so all the while watching Norm continue to hammer the bigguns. It was getting even rougher where we were so I decided to try back where we had started in hopes of finding the mother load once more. After a while in this area without any results again I began the wide search and finally located what I had been looking for. When we finally found them they were huge and aggressive! Norm was having a ball and his faithful companion Buddha was too! We were watching some real giants come out of nowhere and just slam into the lures with such force that they were twisting the crap out of his lure. Big brown bass busting blades, gotta love that! In the last couple of hours we got into plenty of fish and all of them were in the 4 to 5 pound range making the day a phenomenal one for size. There wasn’t anything that he caught other than the deep jigged bass under 4 pounds. What a day and what a spectacular end to the day as well. We finished with a real bang and we never gave up until we found the monsters. It’s too bad that we went from a real high to a low when I had to pull over on the way home and wait almost 45 minutes for the smoke to clear from my trailer brakes. Looks like I’ll have to find an alternate source to get them fixed before I completely break down & have to be towed!!

Darren & Jack joined me today on a local lake for smallmouth as well as pike and walleye. We dropped the boat in around 7:30 and were on our way to the first location shortly afterwards with high expectations. The weather was a little dismal with heavy clouds lingering overhead and winds from the west blowing at 10 knots. Air temps were in the 50’s with highs to reach into the 70’s along with sunshine, we hoped! On our first stop it was a little slow with Darren breaking the ice on a smallie around 2.5 pounds that he landed on a blade. Jack was throwing a crankbait and not having much luck except for the moss he kept catching but soon was tight to a nice one of his own. Unfortunately, the three pounder threw the hooks when it went to the air leaving him disappointed. Eventually I switched Jack up to a senko and he finally managed to land a few of his own. Darren also went to soft plastics and got bit by some and managed to land a few smaller ones too. I wasn’t seeing the activity that I had hoped for and was wondering if the fish had moved to deeper water with the cold front that came in overnight. The water temps were barely over 68 degrees so I ran to some of the deeper shoals to try our luck. Once again Darren was the first to lock up on a fish and although it was a bass, it was a little smaller that I had hoped for. We managed to catch a few more but they were all around the same size and the action wasn’t too fast & furious so I switched it up once again. We had the same thing on the other places with a few smaller ones being caught, all the time marking plenty of fish sucking bottom on the sonar. I really didn’t like what was going on so I threw in the towel for bass and decided to try our luck trolling for pike & walleye elsewhere. This was apparently the right choice as we didn’t wait more than a couple of minutes before the first reel fired and the game was on. From that point, the fish were coming in every few minutes and for two or three hours the numbers climbed. We didn’t really catch anything larger that 3.5 pounds for walleye and twice that on the northerns, but they had action! Somewhere in the afternoon we decided to go back for the bass and packed it up for the trolling. I began covering water on a shallow flat in hopes of active fish now that the sun was out and quickly saw results. Darren once again managed to hammer one on a spinnerbait and Jack soon followed on the soft plastics. The bite wasn’t really aggressive so we all switched to the senko’s and picked at them for a few hours all the while looking for the mother load. Today wasn’t to see the best results on the bass but they still got into plenty of fish by mixing it up. One more final location at the end of the day in hopes of trolling up some big walleye or smallies resulted in disappointment too. We did have a good sized smallie on briefly but after several jumps, it came unpinned. For Jack’s first time out he didn’t get to experience the potential that this lake has to offer, but did enjoy the day none the less. Darren on the other hand wasn’t worried as he has seen this before and knows that the best is still yet to come. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks the temps will fall and the bass will start to move into their fall patterns. Then the results will be insane each and every day out and both size and numbers will climb to the levels I want. Bring it on and soon!!

Christiane & I headed out again today on another lake looking for some smallmouth that we could play with. We left the house around 7:15 in order to drop the boat trailer off early afterwards due to an overheating with the brakes. I thought we would fish while the trailer was being worked on and take advantage of it by catching a few bass. The weather was looking like a beautiful one with sunshine and air temps scheduled to hit the mid 70’s. The winds were blowing in from the east at 5 to 10 knots causing a good chop on the water and I liked that! With the cooler nights the water temps had been dropping slightly and that should start the bass moving shallow, I hoped. We began by working offshore on a flat and it took a while before we saw anything happening. By throwing faster moving baits we were able to cover this area pretty quickly and slowed down to jigs when we located some active fish. Unfortunately, the fish weren’t all that aggressive as they were mostly following the lures to the boat and losing interest afterwards. Even the jigs had them turning the other cheek as they mostly just swam the other way when they saw our offerings. Although we were able to get some of them to commit, the bulk of them weren’t active at all. After a couple of hours of total frustration from seeing them we decided to change it up a bit and headed elsewhere. The next location only produced one bass but it weighed 5.5 pounds. It was a real giant and when hooked, came up with about 20 others all in the same size range. This place died immediately after the bass was landed and the others also turned the other cheek. We stayed there for almost an hour trying to get another to commit, but they showed no interest at all forcing us to relocate once again. I figured if they wouldn’t move, we would! This time I stopped in deeper water to try a drift and drag that had been working on every other body of water I had been fishing lately. It didn’t take long before I locked up on a nice fish that went over 4 pounds. Christiane nailed a clone of this one a hundred yards or so down stream and the confidence was born. We made several drifts in the next hour or so and managed to get into fish on every pass with some of them a little smaller in size. I had one more spot I wanted to try so we packed it in and bolted to the other place in hopes of better fishing. I couldn’t believe it when I arrived as there were fish everywhere! Christiane had several on but was only able to land a handful of them as they were just too big and the hooks didn’t seem to get penetration on the majority of them. I too had a bunch of them hooked and the jigs and lures just never stayed pinned on the majority. In the last hour or so we must have had about 20 chances at these big bruisers and I was glad to see that they were here and thick. I wasn’t too thrilled with the landing ratio though but I will be back. We weren’t able to get anything over 5 pounds from this area but it wasn’t for lack of trying as we did have them on. All in all the day was a little slower than I had hoped but the fish were big and that compensates for the lack of numbers I guess. I will be back and I will get even!!

Norm was back from a two week vacation down south, fishing permit & tarpon and wanted to get back out for those feisty smallies once more. We rolled out shortly after 7:00 A.M. and were fishing soon after with his faithful companion, Buddha. The run up the lake was a little snotty with the N/E winds blowing near 10 knots contrary to the S winds that were forecasted. Gotta love the weatherman! The air temps were in the upper 50’s and expected to reach almost 80 degrees by the end of the day, with only sunshine. We began in a shallow area in hopes of locating an aggressive school of bass and threw top water & blades to try and find them. It didn’t take long before we had a take on the spook and it was spectacular! A three pounder had fallen victim to the lure and it was great to see the strike. A couple more bass didn’t feel the same as they exploded on the bait once again, but this time they just seemed to hit it with their backs and tails instead. A sure sign of a lack of activity! Norm finally managed to get a beauty of his own on the spinnerbait after watching the show and was relieved to feel their power once again. Pound for pound the strongest swimming freshwater fish alive, in my books! When I realized the nature of most of these fish I immediately switched up to tubes and senkos to try and get a few more biters. Well it worked because they were active enough to pick up these baits and many more smallies put on spectacular shows in the next couple of hours. When we had seen enough of the shallows, I opted for a deeper bite and headed to open water in hopes of getting some larger fish. Almost immediately, Norm was locked up! This time however, it was a 4 pound walleye and immediately released. We wanted the bass and weren’t going to stop until we found them. I drifted and dragged in the depths picking a fish here and there but not really any concentration was found. Somewhere around mid day we decided to give the shallows another try and apparently it was the right decision. In the next couple of hours, Norm just hammered the bass and most were in the 4 pound range. The slow presentation of the senko really paid off as he was crushing them! Several of the mid size ones came on tubes, but the larger ones only seemed to want the subtle fall of the senko. Eventually we headed back out to the depths again and tried drifting for bass with better results this time around. In one area, we managed to land a pile of 2 to 3 pounders and even a few that were over 4. Then it happened! Norm snagged bottom and was trying to free the jig when bottom began to move. I knew right away that he was into a sturgeon and this was going to be a long battle. After a lengthy dog & pony show we finally caught a glimpse of this beast and it looked more like a shark by its mass. I grabbed a glove, leaned over to tail it and nearly got yanked into the lake when I went too far. These things are just so powerful that when it kicked it was heading straight to the bottom, with or without me. I held the railing and lifted the beast into the boat in awe of its size and Norm couldn’t stop laughing. I had him hold it for a few pics and then we weighed it for r fun. It showed just above the 30 pound line on the boga and we released her back to the depths afterwards. What could top this for the day? I soon found out as not long after I was stuck on the bottom just like Norm and mine also began to move. This time the battle lasted nearly 15 minutes and it took us out to over 40 feet of water before we were able to get the beast to the top for a look. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw that it was actually larger than the last one and then it sounded to the bottom once again. It’s tough to land these things when they’re hooked on 10 pound test! Eventually after drifting forever, Norm grabbed the tail and the same thing almost happened to him. It damn near pulled him into the lake too! We wasted no time shooting a few pics and threw her back immediately. What a magnificent creature! We were both afraid to drop our jigs back down so we relocated to another area for our last spot. Here we both managed to get into several more bass in the shallower water and then just called it a day. This one was definitely full of surprises and one we will remember for quite some time. Back from the saltwater, Norm lands a freshwater shark and so do I. How great is that!!