Well, I was back on the water again today with Mark & Mike and what a day we had! With these temperatures, the fish have really turned on. Not that they needed any help, but now there’s even more biting than usual. With a wind from the N/E at 10 to 20 knots, we got blown around a little, but managed nevertheless. The air temps were in the 50’s with overcast skies and water temps were 47.5 degrees. With all the mild weather we’ve been having lately, the water temps have remained constant throughout the last week. We began in slightly deeper water of 20 to 30 feet and locked up almost immediately on tube jigs. I knew it was going to be a great day! Mike was in pain with fisherman’s elbow and took a beating the entire day while loving every minute of the pain. Mike definitely had the hot hand for a while as he just threw the jig out and let it drag across the rocks. Not much work involved, but excellent results! Mark was holding his own, but was a little slow getting started as he missed a few fish before the first one came aboard. As usual, everywhere we fished, smallies up to 5 pounds were being landed on a regular basis. We covered plenty of water as they caught plenty of 4 to 5 pound footballs all on tubes. The best areas were ones in the 12 to 17 foot range and several of them had schooled fish holding there. At one point, it seemed like every cast had a hook-up! By the end of the day, there were over 50 smallies landed with the bulk being over 4 pounds. Just another great day on the water regardless of the date!!!

Part 1: Due to the excessive amount of large smallmouth bass today, I have to do this report in two stages. Darren & I headed to a local lake, with the weather looking like it was going to be sunny all day. Boy were we in for a surprise! The first half hour saw sunshine and the last 15 minutes as well. In between all of that we were in the clouds and had a wind of 10 to 20 knots from the west. I wish the weatherman could get the report right just once! Air temps were in the upper 40’s and the water temps were 48.5 in most areas. We began by dragging tubes in 20 to 30 feet of water and it wasn’t long before Darren was tight to a nice bass of 3.5 pounds. Almost immediately after releasing that fish, he was into another of equal size and the games began. Plenty of fish in the 2.5 to 3.5 range came aboard in the next hour, but we were looking for the real haawgs! I moved around quicker than usual to try and get out of these smaller fish and it paid off. Once we found the right spot, Darren was into one over 5 pounds that unfortunately came off when she went airborne. Right back into the same area, he was immediately into another slightly smaller and this time it came aboard. We were even into several doubles as we continued to fish this area for the next hour or so and landed plenty of quality sized smallies up to 5 pounds.Eventually, we educated most of these fish and had to move on! We picked a fish here and there until I located another huge concentration of bass and it began all over once more. This time however, we stayed for almost 3 hours just pounding one bass after another. Many, many doubles and 4 to 5 pounders came aboard during this time and it felt like we had found the « Mother Load » at last. One of the fish looked like it was worth weighing and it tipped the scales at 5 pounds 12 ounces. It was only then that we realized how big some of these fish actually were and weighed another smallie that we thought might have gone a little over four. To our amazement, it weighed 4 pounds 12 ounces and was just bloated with food. Pretty much all of these fish looked like they had been at an all you can eat buffet and had done just that. The fall fishing can be spectacular once you locate them and above average days like this can become the norm and not the rarity. There were so many fish being caught that we had to empty the livewell twice for the pictures we were taking during the morning fishing. The first half of the day was great with the second half to follow!

Part 2: After we grabbed a quick bite for lunch, we were right back at it and into more of these fall footballs once again. It was just one of those days when it seemed like every fish was on the feed and we were going to take advantage of it as long as they were! I decided to try a little shallower and went into less than 10 feet of water to see if anything was there and on my first cast locked up with another bass of almost 4 pounds. By now, we had decided that it would have to be considerably larger in order to become livewell worthy and released everything under 4 pounds. There were plenty of fish between 3 & 4.5 pounds that just continued to volunteer biting our baits as we almost got sick of catching smallmouth. Just kidding of course! Most people would just die for this kind of action, but I almost expect it every time I am on the water and am disappointed when we have a 30 fish day. I figured we would just cover water a little more and try to find another area that was holding huge concentrations of quality bass once more. As usual, we picked a fish every couple of minutes as we moved along looking for another « Mother Load ». The action wasn’t fast & furious like we had earlier in the day, but it was more than enough to keep us happy. Eventually, I located another area that was loaded with larger than average smallies and it began all over once again. At one point, I literally casted 360 degrees and hooked up in 5 out of 6 casts. All fish were between 4 & 5 pounds as well. This was going to be our last area as we were running out of daylight and still had to get back to the ramp before it was too late. Several more fish and another picture session and we were done for the day. What an absolutely amazing day on the water! Darren had experienced this once before at Thanksgiving and probably done equally as well today. There was very little dead time today as fish were coming aboard at least every 5 minutes. By the time we were done, there had to have been at least 75 or more smallies caught with the bulk of them being 4 to 5 pounds and better. I hope Mother Nature holds out a little longer and allows me the luxury of doing this several more times before we are frozen in once more. All in all a great day to be on the water, once again!!!! This really has to be experienced to be believed!!

I was back on the water again today with Darren for smallmouth bass. We travelled to the lake in the morning with air temps below freezing and launched when they were barely above. A minor mishap with a trailer bearing put us a little behind, but not out of commission! By 9:00 we were wetting lines and into smallies shortly afterwards. Water temps were barely 47 degrees and the air temps never hit 40 degrees as we spend the entire day in the clouds. Thankfully, the winds were light from the W/SW at less than 10 knots for most of the day. The bite was real slow today and detecting some of the takes wasn’t too easy either. Some of the bass were just mouthing the tubes while others actually ripped line from the reel when they hit. Once again, covering water proved to be the way to go as we hit one fish here and one there throughout the day. Darren even managed to have another Muskie just pick up his jig and swim it by the boat like a torpedo before it just let go. Sunshine appeared in the afternoon for a while and it felt great! With almost no wind in the sun, it felt more like 60 degrees than 40. We continued to get into more & bigger fish in a few areas and Darren began to land a few close to 5 pounds in a brief period. One small area accounted for over 10 fish and were happy to see somewhat of a concentration, finally! By 4:00 we were ready to head out and packed everything up for the long run back. At this time of year, the temperatures really drop when the day ends and the sun disappears. It was a pretty good day overall with 25 to 30 smallmouth bass landed up to almost 5 pounds. Unfortunately, there were plenty of others missed as well as lost too!!

Today I had the pleasure of fishing with Sam & Stephan for smallies once more. We began the day in the clouds with the air temps in the low 30’s and ended the day in the clouds with the air just in the upper 30’s. Today, we had it all! Winds from the west at 10 gusting to 25 knots at times. An occasional snow shower that never managed to amount to anything and bitter cold due to the clouds & winds. Thankfully, the fishing had everyone forgetting about all of this because it was on fire! Sam started the day with his 2nd or 3rd fish being one that was right around 6 pounds. What a beauty!! Unfortunately, Stephan was quite a while before he actually landed anything of his own, but eventually, overcame the problem. He got into about 8 or 10 fish in a short period of time and began to join Sam in fighting all of these smallies. It was a bit of a competition as both were trying to beat each other in the numbers game. It seemed that whenever one of them landed something, the other followed almost immediately. This went on for a while with 2.5 to 4 pounders coming aboard regularly until Sam just exploded. He took at least 10 fish in less than 30 minutes from a small area that both were casting to. Sam just had the touch as his first 5 casts were all rewarded with bass in the 3 to 4.5 pound range. He even managed to land a couple of Walleye that they took home for dinner. With this much of a lead it was going to be difficult for Steph to catch up! They both continued to land fish for the rest of the day as we just covered water picking one here and one there. Sam hooked into another Muskie on a tube that once near the boat decided to just break him off. This was to be another fish of at least 45 inches once more. By days end, there was at least 50 smallies landed once more but Sam had beaten Stephan by at least 10 fish. Oh well, there’s always next time!!