Darren joined me again today but this time he treated his brother Mark to a day with him for smallmouth bass. We headed out a little later than usual due to the cold overnight lows in anticipation of sunshine and a warmer beginning. The air temps were in the mid 40’s but with the strong 20 knot, W winds, it felt more like below freezing. Clouds blanketed us pretty much all day with a little sunshine later in the afternoon. Water temps were between 58.5 & 62 degrees, depending on where we were fishing. Darren drew first blood when he hooked up on a 4 pounder on his first cast and we knew he was in for trouble. It’s bad luck to catch a fish on your first cast, as Darren was about to find out. His brother Mark was to hook up next with a slightly smaller smallie but it was quite sometime after the first. Eventually, we managed to get into an area where they began catching largemouth on almost every cast for a brief period and managed to bring about 15 or more of them to the boat with the largest going about 3 pounds. They also managed to lose several other smallies due to the strength of their fight. We probably stayed longer than we should have, but there were plenty of huge smallmouth bass in the area that seemed to only have lockjaw. Somewhere after noon, we opted for another area a little further away in hopes of more biters. As luck would have it, it wasn’t long after we arrived that the fish became active. Both Darren & Mark began to hook into plenty of above average smallies that went up to & even over 4 pounds on a regular basis. It wasn’t every cast, but there was enough action to keep everyone satisfied! When it all slowed down, I relocated to another area and they began all over again. There were so many fish in this area that they began hooking up in doubles. Mark managed to land his largest bass ever when he brought one to the net over 5 pounds. Ironically, he blew that away a few minutes later when he managed to land one of 22 inches and all of 6 pounds or better. This was too bad that we arrived in this area so late in the day as we were almost ready to leave! We fished a little longer and managed to get into many more bass, but nothing over 4 pounds, before we cut out and headed back to the ramp. Although the day started out a little slow, it definitely ended with a bang! There had to be over 50 bass landed to day with closer to 75 being more likely. It was definitely a big fish bite day!!

Norm headed out with me this morning, as we took a road trip to see if we could get him into some smallmouth bass. He hadn’t fished in over 10 years and was really looking foreword to catching a few fish and seeing what techniques would be used. We arrived at the lake a little later than expected at 9:00 A.M. after having a little car trouble and wasted no time launching the boat. The conditions were less than perfect with overcast skies, heavy winds at 10 to 20 K from the W/SW & air temps below 50 degrees. I really thought we would get them good when I saw that the water temps were around 61 degrees but wasn’t impressed with the grey colour. We began by throwing spinnerbaits to see if we could get into any active fish and had a few short strikes. I changed up to see if I could entice a fish into hitting a texas-rigged tube and immediately got bit. I also got bit off and knew it was a northern! After re rigging, I also got bit off once more and was beginning to wonder if it was a good idea to set another rig up and try again. This I decided to try and finally landed a pike of a couple of pounds and knew it was time to relocate. We tried several other areas before we finally went deep and began to hook up on tubes. Although we may have taken a few hours to locate the fish, we were finally on them and actually catching smallmouth bass. We spent the rest of the day covering water in the same area and catching bass up to 3.5 pounds. For someone that hasn’t fished in over 10 years, Norm definitely held his own, catching plenty of smallmouth on tubes as well. It didn’t take him long to get the hang of dragging the jigs slowly over the area to entice the reluctant strikes that we were having. We actually had to almost dead stick the baits in some cases to provoke the fish into hitting the jigs. Along with the difficult conditions, we had a wind from the W/NW and waves blowing in from the S causing a washing machine effect that had us on our toes. It wasn’t easy to make a proper drift under these adverse conditions, but we still managed nevertheless! Somewhere late in the afternoon, we began to get into some of the larger bass and decided to stay a little later than expected. At one point, we were catching average 3 pound or better smallies in a small area and didn’t plan on moving until they stopped biting. It wasn’t until we lost our wind that I decided to pack it in and call it a day. We loaded the boat on the trailer at just about dark and were happy to have held out as long as we had as the fish were really biting. Overall, there must have been about 40 or more smallies landed up to 3.5 pounds and plenty of others lost & missed as well. For a day that started out slow, we definitely finished with a bang. If we had spent the entire day in the area we had finished in, there would have most likely been closer to 100 fish landed instead. All in all a tremendous day despite the weather and lack of fish at the start!!

I was back on the water once again today, but this time with Darren & Ed for smallies. The weather wasn’t the greatest with overcast & rain pretty much all day long. The winds were light and from the S/W at less than 5 K, but the air felt cool at 58 degrees. Water temps were hovering around 65 degrees and pretty clear wherever we fished. We tried several areas throughout the day and never really found schooling fish anywhere. Most of the time we were lucky to get more than 1 fish in each spot and I think we actually caught 4 in one area. Spinnerbaits & tube jigs were what they threw, but a few fish were also taken on tiny crankbaits. Darren managed to land a smallie on the tiny bait that went over 6 pounds in one area and was lucky it stayed pinned when I finally got her in the net. As luck would have it, the tiny hook was barely holding in a lose piece of skin. I guess elephants eat peanuts too! Ed just hammered the pike on a spinnerbait and it took a while before he actually landed a smallie, but it finally happened. He got a nice 3 pounder on a tube and soon after, several others on the spinnerbait. It wasn’t fast & furious like I had expected, but there were quality bass landed today in many areas. We definitely covered water trying to find schooling fish but only managed to find small groups in the areas we fished. By days end there were probably close to 20 or more bass taken ranging from 3 pounds to over 6. A good day for quality!!

I fished with Mark today on a local body of water for fishing 101. He hadn’t really ever fished for anything larger than panfish before and needed to learn a little about other species for work and wanted to experience it first hand. We met at the boat ramp around 7:30 A.M. and headed out for a crash course in everything from the basics to catching. The weather really turned out great with sunshine and temps exceeding 70 degrees. There was almost no wind until the afternoon when it began to blow 5 to 10 K from the S/W. This was a welcome change from all the N winds that we had been experiencing lately and the warm air felt great. Water temps actually increased during the day to just over 66 degrees. I still wish that it would fall and bring the fish in from deeper water for the fall bite. We began by jigging in deep water and managed to catch a few fish quickly on tubes. Although this seemed foreign to Mark, he eventually got the hang of it and landed a few nice smallies. I thought I would teach him a little about casting as well & gave him a spimnnerbait to throw in shallower water, hoping for a reaction strike from an aggressive smallmouth bass. Just when he thought about daydreaming, a 3 pounder hammered the lure and the fight was on. He couldn’t believe the power of a fish only that size as he struggled to land the fish for a picture. This was to prove to be the largest one he caught throughout the day, but at least he got to feel the strength of the smallie! He lost several others while fishing deep but only managed to land a few smaller ones in the end. He did get to see a couple of walleye too and now he knows what they look like in real life, instead of just pictures! Although this wasn’t the greatest day for catching, sometimes it isn’t the most important thing. The learning that he received from this outing will remain with him for sometime to come and benefit him in his work as well.

Hughes & his son, Olivier joined me today on a local lake for what was supposed to be a day of smallie action. To our surprise, it turned out to be more of a day of largemouth bass instead. The weather started out cloudy and dismal and never got any better with air temps barely over 62 degrees. Winds were light from the S/W making for easy boat control everywhere we fished. The water temps remained pretty much the same all over at 66 degrees and the clarity was pretty good as well. Both Hughes and Olivier managed to get into fish in the first couple of minutes, casting spinnerbaits and tubes. Although they weren’t huge like we were seeing, they were decent ones nonetheless. Olivier eventually hooked into a giant smallie and was overwhelmed when it took to the air for the second time and came unpinned. It was all of five or more pounds and gone! There was a bit of a competition going on between father & son and Olivier was winning. Each time his father caught a fish and thought he was gaining, Olivier followed up with one of his own. He even managed to get into another giant smallie later in the afternoon and unfortunately this one came off at boat side too. Hughes caught a bunch of largies and a couple of smallies, but never got into anything like his son did and had to settle for 3 pounders instead. By the time the day was done, Olivier had definitely landed more fish than his father, but both had lost their fair share as well. It wasn’t the day I had expected, but with a few adjustments, it turned out to be a good day overall.