My brother Mike had always wanted to fish a tournament with me, so we entered an event today and went in hard. Although it wasn’t anything major, there were still 21 boats registered and that was almost as many as the « Quebec Tournament Circuit « had all season. I had been out of this scene for a couple of years now and my bro even longer, so it was great to see some of the old faces at morning registration. What wasn’t too good though were the 34 degree air temps we were faced with when we arrived at the lake. Along with the cold air there was of course a heavy fog and this looked like a possible delay, or so I thought. Departure time was 8:00 and we actually left a bit earlier when everyone was in the water and ready. This never happens in the tournament world and it was real treat getting in an extra 15 minutes of fishing time. Running in the fog has never been a thrill of mine and I took it slow until we hit the open water where it was more broken up and safer to run. I knew by the 59 degree water temps in our first location that it was going to be a slow bite and started just that way. The first five fish came aboard by yours truly and if this had of been the old tournament days, it would have cost my bro a case of two four. To make matters worse, I even culled the first couple of fish as well before Mike actually woke up and got in the game. I knew by the size of these fish that every one of them would be culled throughout the day and wasn’t too excited about putting them in the livewell. Oh well, at least it’s a limit I thought! Once the sun rose and the air temps began to rise as well, I knew we would start to have better fishing with the bass. They would become active and the culling would begin! In the next few hours we were able to cull up to over 25 pounds with Mike putting three in the boat that all went over 5 pounds. We were switching up between deeper water and following the movement into the shallows as well. Some of the fish were being caught deep and some of them weren’t but we had the best of both worlds. By resting areas we were able to go back to them repeatedly and monopolize on some of the better biters. Eventually we were able to cull up to around 26 pounds or so and now we really needed a kicker to add to the bag in order to have a chance at the win. I was pretty sure it would take at least 28 pounds and never gave up the battle. I did have one come unpinned that would have definitely helped the cause late in the afternoon. We hit the deeper water again and when I hooked her, it really wasn’t any different that all the other high four pound fish we were screening through. Unfortunately when she took to the air near the boat, I realized that this fish was well over 6 pounds. One more leap and the hook and fish parted ways leaving me that empty gut feeling I had forgotten from years past. We had a bad run in this area late in the afternoon that saw about 6 or 7 lost bites and break offs. Who’s to say just how big some of them were, but it still sucked! We kept fishing, culling ounces until the bitter end when we stopped within minutes of the weigh in area and still managed to catch a couple more 4 pounders. These ones wouldn’t be helping us today and I packed it in to head to the ramp. We had caught plenty of fish but was it enough to take the win? We were soon to find out that it wasn’t as we weighed in after a bag that went 26.35 pounds. We had a solid 26.00 pounds for our 5 largest and probably could have improved it by a couple of pounds with some of the lost fish, but that’s fishing. There was another bag after us that went 27.65 pounds and that I thought was fantastic until the last team weighed in. The team of Charles & Nigel would be breaking the Canadian record for five bass with an unbelievable weight of 30.35 pounds. It was anchored with a 7.15 pound lunker that was also phenomenal. Hats off to them for doing what we all wanted to accomplish, weigh a 30 pound bag! By the time all the dust had settled, there were 5 teams with 25 pounds or better in this event. This is Lake Eerie fishing and we don’t have to drive 6 hours to get to it. We also don’t have to endure the ferocious winds and waves to catch bags like these and that’s the best part. This event will surely start people talking about just how good the Canadian smallmouth fishing actually is and create more than just a ripple. I’m thinking more like a Tsunami in the fishing world! Although we didn’t even cash a check for an average 5.20 fish in this event, it was great to be able to spend quality time with my bro and meet the old gang once again. Hopefully the next time one of these tournaments gets organized, we can do better. Better than 26 pounds isn’t something I’m use to saying and I can’t believe I’m disappointed with a weight like that. Man, are we spoiled!!!

I decided to take a road trip today so who better to travel with, Norm of course! Mike joined us as he had the access permission and we headed north with even higher expectations. The weather was freaking cold as we started climbing and arrived with barely over 40 degree air temps. Not unexpected were the 58 degree water temps as well and they only rose to 61 degrees late in he afternoon. To make matters worse, the winds were also out of the north and they blew 10 to 15 knots making the chill factor below freezing to start. We did manage to catch a bunch of bass with the largest going almost 22 inches on tubes along with a few Muskie. One of the lunge was caught on a tube as well but the other two were caught on Muskie jerk-baits and Norm got to witness a tremendous figure eight on one of them right at boat side. Mike had a follow and went through the motions like a ballerina, effortless in the rotations to provoke the attack. Although we didn’t catch a lot of fish, we did have a great time mixing it up and once the sun warmed the air, a beautiful fall day as well. We fished until around 4 in the afternoon and packed it up shortly after to travel back home. It’s still a little early to get the real big ones on this lake and hopefully in the next couple of weeks the water temps will fall, activating them before the winter arrives. With any luck, we will be back taking advantage of this lack of fishing pressure as well as capturing some of the oldest smallies of the north. I can’t wait!!

After hearing about yesterday, Norm just had to get back on the water for more giant smallies today. As usual, he brought his faithful companion Buddha along for the ride. We hit the water shortly after 8:00 and tried the shallows looking for migrating schools of smallmouth. The weather was dead calm with bright sunshine and temps of low 50’s. Although we were expecting some wind, it was to be from the east and not the best for a drift. As with yesterday, we ran aggressive reaction baits for well over an hour or so in hopes of getting some quick bites. Once again it was a disappointing ordeal that soon had us scrambling. I wasn’t going to waste any more time today so we headed straight out to the deep water once more in hopes of a repeat of yesterday. Although the wind wasn’t in our favor, I had to try! It took a little while to figure out which way I had to position the boat in the current to be able to move along at the right speed, but I got it. Once we lined up correctly, the game was on! I think the first one was around 5.25 pounds when it finally showed from the depths and Norm was all smiles. All we had to do was repeat the right depth drift and the fish would take our baits. We tried all different types and literally caught on everything from straight tailed worms to Carolina rigged lizards. There weren’t any real better baits than the other and by changing presentations we were able to get a few fish from each drift. I didn’t want to over pressure the area so we changed locations and were able to repeat this everywhere we went. It had taken Norm many a trip last fall to break 5 pounds and he had already accomplished this more times today in just a few hours. He even broke his personal best with one fish just under 6 pounds that weighed in at 5.86 on the scale! Once we had enough of the deep bite, we ventured back into the shallows in hopes of finding some easy fish and started throwing reaction baits again. Although we did catch some fish, they were definitely smaller at 3 pounds max. We mixed it up several times during the day from deep to shallow and always came up a little short when we moved in. The deep bite with the bright sun was the way to go and we knew that by covering water we would have action, but not quality. By the time the day was done we had the best of both worlds with the numbers and the size. By shifting all over the lake we were able to have our cake and eat it too! The best part of the day was the pumpkin that Norm caught that went almost 6 pounds. Unfortunately he now has another goal to target and probably won’t sleep until he accomplishes it. It’s gonna be a long fall!!!

I fished with Tom & Mike today on a local lake for bass and only caught bigguns! We hit the water a little later than expected after a late flight arrival, but definitely made up for it with the fishing. The air had a chill with temps in the low 50’s but were to climb into the 70’s by afternoon. Winds were out of the S/W blowing 10 to 20 knots and I loved every minute of it! Water temps were still around 66 degrees and would surely be rising with today’s sunshine. I really figured that we would have a great blade bite with the two footers we were in so I decided to start with the reaction baits, in shallow. After a disappointing hour or so of this with only follows, I was beginning to wonder what was going on. I switched it up to a jig and Tom threw a jerkbait in hopes of changing these lethargic fish and finally had a strike. Although it wasn’t big, it was a sign and I thought we were finally onto something. Tom also hooked up minutes later and it too was a small fish of less than 3 pounds. Mike on the other hand was only able to get follows and short strikes on the blade and decided to switch up to the jig instead. We stayed shallow for about another hour without much success then decided to move to some deep water further away. This was to prove to be the right decision as it was here that we found some real big smallies. By dragging jigs and drop shot rigs, we were able to land many quality bass with the largest going in the mid fives. Although there weren’t too many fish landed, the size was worth the lack of numbers. Most of these fish were above 4 pounds and fought like champs! I hit a couple of areas that resembled this one afterwards and they too put out only a few fish each, but they were quality. By changing up tactics we were able to benefit from the short time spent on the water today with mostly big bites. Although Tom was here for a different species of fish with Mike, he will surely remember the big Canadian bass from today!!

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!!