I fished with Mike and his son, Ryan today once again and had a blast! They had fished with me before and I ensured them both that this was to be the best day they ever had! Like yesterday, the wind was to be the biggest factor and we were going to have to live with it once again. The air temps were in the 60’s and it was mostly a cloudy day but the winds blew at 20 to 30 knots from the SW with even heavier gusts at times. This was tough to deal with but I was able to keep the boat positioned for them to cast to the fish holding areas where they just pounded them. Once they became familiar with dragging tubes, they were both locking up on a regular basis. Many doubles occurred during the day and it seemed like each of them took their turn at bettering the other at times. Ryan definitely caught the largest bass of the day but that was only because he knocked off an even bigger one with the net while trying to land his fathers. Oops! Oh well, that’s fishing. I would have helped them out, but I was trying to hold the boat in these hurricane like winds and couldn’t leave the electric motor. It didn’t really matter as both of them were landing fish hand over fist all day long! I noticed that despite the heavy rains last night and all the dirty water because of them, the water had gone up another degree and was now 58.5 by the end of the day. This actually seemed to activate the fish a bit and they were chowing down heavily on the tubes we were throwing. Fish were caught all day long and there weren’t really any dead periods that something wasn’t happening. Every area we fished produced and produced plenty of quality footballs. These smallies were feeding like it was their last meal and we were loving every minute of it! I stayed out as long as possible and milked the batteries to the bitter end. By the time we fished our last spot, I was beginning to lose juice and after they caught another dozen or so bass it was time to call it quits. I believe that Mike was the last one to land a fish and even a nice walleye of about 4 pounds in the same area as well. Ryan was on fire today and fished slowly to get the big bites. I think he could have caught them in a bathtub today! It was everything that had hoped for and more! Another 100 fish day at least!

I had the pleasure of fishing with Kevin and his wife Chris from Oklahoma today for smallmouth bass. Kevin was an experienced bass fisherman, but fished mostly largemouth from where he was from and they both were looking foreword to the smallmouth. It was a little slow in getting started and took almost 15 minutes before they were hooking up regularly, but they caught on. The weather was nice for part of the day, but the wind was another story. It began almost dead calm where we were fishing and eventually went east at 5 to 10 knots only to change over SW at 15 to 20 knots. It was also gusting stronger at times and they were over 30 knots too! Chris had never really experienced smallmouth bass much before but after today, realized why everyone loves them so much. They just tore her up! She was complaining of sore everything before noon and it only got worse! Tube jigs once again were the lure of choice, but Kevin became my guinea pig and caught them on almost everything. I had him throwing spinner-baits and jerk-baits and hooking up on both lures as well. Some of the bigger fish came on spinner-baits and I broke off the biggest one when I tried to boga a 5 pounder hooked on a jerk-bait that Kevin hooked. I hope I get her back next time out! Just like the days before, fish were taken in each and every area we fished and large volumes I might add too! The wind was really causing havoc and thankfully they were both throwing jigs on spinning gear because the wind really made casting difficult. Trying to position the boat to enable them to get the perfect drift wasn’t easy either and I really had to work at it. Our last stop of the day had about 10 fish caught in about the same amount of time before we bolted to the ramp in the rain. I wish it could have held off a little longer as we would have been able to take the pictures a little easier. I don’t know about Kevin, but I’m sure that his lovely wife Chris was ailing that night! They must have boated at least 100 smallies by the time it was all over and every one of the fish gave them one heck of a fight. Overall, it was a great day despite “Mother Nature” and the elements!

Darren & I headed out again today to another body of water in pursuit of big smallies! The weather held out once again and we were faced with beautiful blue skies and little to no wind all day long. Air temps reached into the 70’s and we were in a T-Shirt for quite a while during the afternoon. The water temps continued to climb and rose almost another degree to over 57 in some of the areas we fished. Lots of fish were once again caught and even more lost mostly on tube jigs and many of them bigguns! Darren lost the best one of the day right after a fish over 5 pounds came aboard. Too bad too, because it would have been the largest one this fall. It didn’t really matter though as we caught over 75 bass during the day and multiple fish in certain areas brought the numbers up fast. It wasn’t quite as good as yesterday, but that’s fishing! All in all a pretty good day though and bigger fish were caught!

I fished with Michel on a local body of water for smallmouth bass today and oh, how we caught them. The weather started out with us in a fog bank and I had to run almost solely by GPS, It was so thick that I decided to start in an area that I really didn’t want to but was glad I did. First cast produced a fish over three pounds! The air temps were cool but once the fog lifted after 10:00 AM, they warmed up plenty. There was virtually no wind and this made boat control a breeze. Water temps were around 56.5 degrees at best, but I knew they were on a warming trend with the forecasted temps. Every spot today produced plenty of smallies from 1.5 pounds to almost 5 pounds. Michel caught so many fish that he was sore from top to bottom, literally! I never feel sorry for someone that self inflicts pain from fighting too many fish. Not responsible! By the time the day was said & done, there were probably close to 150 bass caught. I can’t even imagine how many were lost as well. To say this was a great day would be the understatement of the year. I don’t think words could describe this one, it had to be experienced!

Today, I fished with Glen & Chris on a local body of water, mostly for smallmouth bass. The weather was a little nippy in the morning with air temps barely over 40 degrees and heavy cloud cover. Fortunately, there wasn’t much wind, but it was still from the NW making it feel even colder. The water temps seem to be dropping each & every night and this morning, the best I had was 56.5 degrees. The fish were a little lethargic at the start, but once the sun poked out, they began to feed. I knew that it would be another slow bite, so we threw tube jigs and slowly dragged then in specific areas for the bass. Both Glen & Chris were new to this type of presentation, but once they began to get into a few fish, they were on their way. The hardest thing about this technique is to have the feel for the lightest tap and know the differences between weeds, rocks or the fish. Keeping a tight line at all times and allowing the jig to bounce along the bottom will definitely produce more strikes! They both caught plenty of bass in the 1.5 to 3 pound range and several that were closer to 4 pounds in a few areas as well. By moving around a lot and taking advantage of the aggressive biters, we were able to get into fish in every location we fished. In the mid afternoon, I decided to try & see if I could get them into a Muskie and started to troll for these creatures. They both knew that there were no guarantees, but were willing to give it a try and relax for a while. I set the rods out and began trolling over deeper water looking for any sign by either baitfish or big fish-hooks, but never really marked anything worthwhile. One of the reels did fire however, but the fish came off before I could get it out of the holder. Apparently, the reel jammed when the fish grabbed the lure and the line didn’t go out. It turned out to be a minor problem that only required tightening the thumbscrews on the side of the reel. Somehow, they came loose and the gears weren’t lining up correctly causing them to jam. Tough break! We weren’t having any success in this area and decided to change locations hoping to change our luck as well. The next area was about as good as the previous one and we just kept on moving until I hit a location that I had never fished before. It looked good and I was marking bait and an occasional hook and then the reel screamed. Finally we were into what I was looking for and Chris took the rod and began fighting the fish. I could tell that it was a good one and we cleared the other rods to make sure there were no mishaps. It was a decent sized fish and I lip gripped her with the boga and removed the hooks before bringing it aboard for the pics. It measured 45 inches and would have gone about 25 pounds or so due to its girth. Looks like they’re feeding well on my smallmouth! I quickly returned her to the water for the release and moments later; she bolted to the depths where she came from. I was glad to have gotten into this fish, but wanted more and reset the lines hoping for another pull. Unfortunately, that was all she wrote and we had to settle for one fish and one missed strike. Not too bad for less than 3 hours of trolling I guess, but I always want more and never seem to be satisfied. It’s an addiction! All in all a good day with about 40 smallies caught and plenty of others lost and the first Muskie for Chris!