David joined me today on a laurentian lake for smallies. We met up north & made our way onto the water before 8:00 A.M. in pursuit of big bass. David would be strictly fly fishing today & hoped to get into some fish on the surface. On his first cast with a popper, he hooked a small bass & was on his way. We worked quite a bit more water with no takers & I knew we would have to make some adjustments. I had him switch up to a sink tip line & slow right down. By going deeper he would hopefully be into fish soon. The water temps were 69 & plenty warm to have active smallies shallow but they weren’t showing any sign of life. David finally hooked up near a dock on my 5-weight rod & was into a real nice bass. He fought this old timer for a while before I lipped the 4.5 pound smallie to photograph. A couple of quick pics & back she went. He had finally broken the ice on this lake & we were both happy & eager for more. It was real slow fishing but the fish were mostly quality sized from 3 to 4.5 pounds. With the overcast skies & heavy cloud cover, I knew the fish would stay inactive unless we had some sun. A little later in the afternoon David went back to the surface popper rod & caught a couple of small bass once more. We had a little wind making casting difficult & eventually dangerous. He had somehow buried the hook into the top of his hand, well past the barb. Fortunately it missed the veins & we needed to get it out. This was to prove to be a learning experience for David as he is a doctor & had never seen this technique. I cut a decent length of heavy braided line off of one of my reels & tied off the ends creating a loop. By wrapping it around my wrist, I was able to have the control I needed & looped the other end around the bend in the hook. By applying pressure downward on the head of the hook it in turn dropped the barb lower as well. One quick snap of the line & it came out without any damage & was ready to cast again. A light coat of liquid skin on the wound & so was David! The rest of the afternoon was also slow with a fish here & there, but good ones never the less. We had caught all the larger ones by fishing a bit deeper & slower. They were really inactive today! We pulled off the water just in time, as a storm was pushing through with heavy rain, thunder & lightning. Tough bite, but a good day!

Bill fished with me today on a local lake for bass with a friend from Arizona as well. Air temps reached into the low 80’s by the end of the day & water temps were as high as 73. The morning started out a little slow as I began the search for the smallies. Not many were caught but they were quality ones all around 4 pounds. Frank even t managed to get into a nice walleye of over 6 pounds while tube fishing in the same area. Without any wind today, it was a real scorcher on the water! I checked many areas looking for a concentration until I eventually realized how shallow they still were. Finally we were into bass, both smallies & largermouth, mostly on soft plastic baits. In the next few hours plenty of quality fish up to 4 pounds were caught & released before we called the day. There was a big storm brewing & I wanted off the water as quickly as possible! All in all a great day!

Jim & André on two Mountains on the first day of bass. Opening day proved to be a strange one with mostly smaller males of 1-2.5 pounds caught. Weather was warm & sunny with temps reaching 80. Water temps were around 70 in most areas & bass were shallow. Only a few fish caught on top water with most taken by slowly working tubes & soft plastics. Almost dead sticking the baits! No wind today in most areas until late made for a great season opener. Over 50 bass caught & released up to 4.5 pounds.

Well summer officially arrived today with a high of almost 90 degrees. If it weren’t for the 20 to 30 knot winds from the S, it would have been unbearable. Mike joined me today for the toughest day yet for trout with everything else to show for our efforts. Lots of small, smallies & 1 of almost 5 lbs. We found one area on the lake with only 57 degrees there & tried it without success for a while. I think that every boat was taking advantage of the heat wave today as the waves were coming from all directions with the boat traffic.

Well great expectations were met with even greater disappointment today when we arrived at the boat ramp. The winds were blowing 3 footers at best directly on to the launch causing us to change our plans entirely. I had wanted to use this ramp to be able to troll some of the deeper shoals looking for salmon, but had to settle for another game plan as well as a place to launch. Air temps were almost 60 with steady rain falling & 15 to 25 knot winds form the S. We were in 60 degree water & I knew it would be tough to get the lines down deep enough to meet their comfort range, but tried never the less. We had a few short strikes on the deep lines before we finally connected with a fish over 40 feet of water. To our amazement, it was a largemouth over 4 pounds. Several more smallies , pickerel & even jumbo perch were taken as well before we just abandoned the area entirely & called it quits. Between mother nature & the suspended bass & pickerel we had enough. Misty rain with an occasional shower was all we had to show for our efforts today!