I was sure glad to have the day off yesterday, with all the rain that fell and headed back on the water today with Satoshi. He was in from Japan visiting family & wanted to fish for the day, for smallmouth bass. We unfortunately were faced with cold front conditions after yesterday’s weather & had 20 to 30 knot winds from the W/NW. We also had a major drop in air temps & lost about 20 degrees, with a high of just 70 today. Water temps didn’t fall too badly, but with the wind they muddied up terribly. This was going to be a tough day all around! I had Satoshi throw a spinnerbait due to the tough conditions & I threw a senko so that I could pass off the rod, in case of a pick up. He landed a couple and lost a few more due to the hook sets, but they were not big fish. I had several pick-ups & he managed to land a few of them as well. A couple more decent fish were taken on tubes by Satoshi before we shifted to another area. This was even more in the wind & boat control was really tough here, but we did get into some more fish. They really weren’t very aggressive & needed a lot of convincing in order to eat our baits! We tried several other spots in hopes of finding schooling, active fish, but only managed a few more fish doing so. The winds were really bad on one spot we tried & it felt more like “Lake Erie” than St-Louis! Eventually we went back to where we had the most success & slowed down more. Satoshi continued to throw the spinnerbait off & on and had a big muskie eat it at the boat. We saw the whole strike perfectly & for a short time he was able to fight the fish. Unfortunately this was short lived as the fish jumped next to us & literally broke the spinnerbait at the bend in the arm. All he was left with was the blade & where the line connected to it. This fish was at least 45 inches and would have gone around 18 to 20 lbs. We got back onto the senko’s & Satoshi was into bass almost dead sticking them over the rocks. I knew the fish were there & slowing down while fishing was really working. The last couple of hours had the best landing ratio with Satoshi getting into bass up to almost 5 pounds. Despite “Mother Natue” we did overcome the conditions to land close to 20 quality smallies on this windy day!

Richard & Ian fished with me today & how we go them! We began on a rocky shoal & Ian lost a 4-pounder on almost his first cast with a spinnerbait. I thought I would try a senko & immediately was picked up! Ian took the rod & slammed another big fish in the 4-pound class. That was all I needed to see before everyone was throwing senko’s. Both Richard & Ian were into fish, constantly boating 3 & 4-pound smallies & losing others as well. We moved all over this flat & were picking up fish in every area fished. The winds were non-existent making this type of fishing a simple method for all the bruisers in the area. This went on for several hours before we moved to another spot due to the bugs & scorching sun. It had to be over 80 by 10:00 A.M. with unbelievable humidity! We caught a few more smallies & a walleye on tubes here before we ran for largemouth. Unfortunately this didn’t work out, but Ian learned how to pitch a jig into real heavy cover. Back to the smallie area we went towards the end of the day & were faced with 15 to 25 knot winds from the S/W. This wasn’t easy, but we did manage a few more bass on senko’s before taking photos & heading back. This was definitely a better day than yesterday with about 25 quality bass caught up to 5 pounds!

Max joined me today for what was suppose to a half-day of fishing, but turned out to be the full day instead. It was another scorcher with temps above 90 & no winds until very late in the day. We trolled once again for a few hours looking for some walleye & pike but were only able to land a few smaller ones. Eventually we went for smallies & caught only a couple, but saw a few cruisers. Largemouth were what we targeted afterwards & even they were difficult to get into. There was one really good fish over 5 lbs & a couple of smaller ones caught, but that was all. One more stop before we were to take off the water & Max landed a few more smallies. The fish were definitely off today for some reason, but we still had a good time!

Today I had a tournament on Lake St-Francis with my fishing partner Marc & finally got to fight some fish. Conditions cooled off overnight but rose quickly during the day to reach into the 90 degree range with high humidity. Light winds at times & bright sun made it a difficult day for most. We took advantage of the peak feeding period by sacking a strong limit early during the minor & upgrading slightly in the afternoon in the major, before having to leave to weigh in. With a 5 fish limit of almost 22 pounds of smallies we took first place by 2 lbs. We were also lucky to take lunker as well with a 4.7 lb fish bumping up our earnings more. The weights fell drastically after 2nd place to just 14 pounds proving that the largemouth bite was definitely off today. Thankfully we were after smallies & they were big. What a great day on the water!

I fished today with Irwin & his 6-year-old daughter, Chelsea for a multi species type of day. Chelsea was the reason Irwin had hooked up with me, as she loves to fish. She would be in for a real treat today! I don’t think we had been trolling for more than a minute before the first fish hit & she was battering a 3 or 4 pound pike. This was the largest fish Chelsea had ever caught, as pan fish were all she had fished for before today. We trolled for several hours with the rods firing like popcorn! We pretty much averaged a fish every 7 minutes for over 4 hours. Chelsea even landed huge pike of almost 10 pounds with a little help form her dad. We even had to adjust the fighting belt to fit her making it easier to reel in all these fish. At one point, we got into a bunch of walleye & she reeled in 7 of them up to 5-pounds. When the fishing finally slowed down we packed up the trolling rods & headed to another area to cast for bass. Here, Chelsea fought some smallies in the 4-pound range & had a hard time landing these strong, bruisers. They were so much more powerful on spinning tackle & almost wore her out! After catching several of these smallmouth she was eager to troll again, so we set the lines up once more in a new area. A rod fired almost immediately and she reeled in another samllmouth of 3.5 pounds. Shortly after, they called it a day, as Chelsea had to be at a party by 4:00 P.M. and needed to rest up before. What a tremendous day with this little sweetheart having the time of her life. By the time it was all over, she must have battled close to 50 big fish!