I fished with Scott & Manson on a local lake today and even though it was Friday the 13th, we still did great! The day started with air temps in the 40’s and they climbed only into the low 50’s be days end. The water temps were 60 degrees in most areas and slightly cooler in the shallower water. With a light wind from the S at 5 to 10 knots, I knew we were going to have a great day. Most of the day was sunny with a few afternoon cloudy periods causing some of the shallower fish to relocate to deeper water. On the first drift in 20 to 30 feet of water with tubes, it only took about 30 seconds for a fish to come aboard. Manson was to draw first blood today as he still had a grudge with Scott after their trip last year! It wasn’t a huge fish, but it was the first. It didn’t take long before both of them were tight lined frequently and everyone was fighting smallies on a consistent basis. The only bad thing about this was that they were dropping most of the fish they were hooking! Eventually they were both managing to keep more on than they were loosing and fish in the 3 to 5 pound range were coming aboard regularly. Manson dominated the morning hours, but Scott regained his title in the afternoon by landing plenty of huge fish of his own. Later in the afternoon, Manson was bringing in what seemed like a decent sized bass until we saw that it was actually a Muskie, when it neared the boat. It took a long run and drag peeled off the reel before he began to gain on the fish. Unfortunately to everyone’s surprise, he only reeled in a 2 pound smallie. This little fish was pretty scarred up, but it was his lucky day as we released him back into the lake. Too bad Manson wasn’t able to catch the Muskie as it would have been his first! By the end of the day, there had to have been close to 40 smallies landed and almost that missed as well. This definitely had the makings of a spectacular day for both size & numbers. All in all, it was still a great day on the water!!!

I was back on the water again today with Joe & Steve on Lake Champlain. Joe was a bass fisherman from Texas and Steve was more of a fly fisherman than a spinning rod fisherman, but was willing to give it a try. The temperatures had taken a dive from yesterday’s high of 75 degrees and began in the mid 50’s. Water temps were just below 60 degrees and pretty much remained that way through the day. In fact, the air temps barely went up either as they topped out at 60 degrees too. The winds had turned 180 degrees and were now blowing 5 to 10 knots from straight north. This was going to be interesting as I wasn’t quite sure how it would effect the fishing. It took a while before the first bass came aboard as we were covering plenty of water with tubes, spinner-baits and jerk-baits trying to entice these bass into biting our offerings. Joe managed to get the first one on a crankbait and Steve soon followed with a nice bass of 3.5 pounds on a tube. A few more smaller ones and a northern were hooked into on a spinner-bait before we tried another location. It was strange as there didn’t seen to be any concentration, just single fish here & there. Everywhere we went, there was about one fish caught so I decided to try some deeper water and see if they might be more interested. Once more, it took a while before the first fish was hooked into and as soon as she went into the air from 25 feet deep, she threw the hook. « There goes a 4 pounder », I said! Shortly after, another fish was hooked up and she also came off. Instantly another 4 pounder took to the air and I knew it was the same one just hooked. We travelled around quite a bit looking for some concentration, but never really got into them. Just a fish here & there as Steve hooked into a good one close to 4 pounds on a spinner-bait once again. I figured we should just move when he got this fish, but stayed a little longer without any more strikes. Off to another area and we worked a strip of shoreline with rocks & weeds and here there were actually several fish hooked, but most were lost. The last spot of the day produced a handful of fish, mostly by Steve as he once again landed a nice one of 3.5 pounds. We stuck it out for as long as we could before calling it a day and heading back to the ramp. It was definitely tough to swallow after a day like yesterday, but that’s fishing. Overall a harder day with about 20 bites in total. Unfortunately, not all were actually landed!

Part 1: I fished with Darren & Blair today on another local lake for smallies. Due to the extreme numbers today, it will be in two parts! It’s hard to believe that at this time of the year we can have a day with air temps in the mid 70’s, but we did. This day was to begin with a light wind from the south and water temps almost 60 degrees. Darren hadn’t had his line in the water for more than 15 seconds as I was explaining to Blair how to properly drag a spider grub when his rod was bent over, solid. This was to be the first of so many that they were about to experience! Darren landed a smallie around 2.5 pounds and was back at it immediately as another fish was instantly hooked up by him again. Poor Blair hadn’t even been able to get his jig to the bottom and Darren was already two up on him. It wasn’t long before Blain was also experiencing the same feeling as he too was with bent rod. I decided that if we were to keep any in the livewell for photos a little later, they would have to be at least 4 pounds and released each of the first ten or so. Eventually, they began to hook up with only bigger fish in the 3.5 to 4.5 pound range and the livewell began to fill. There were doubles being hooked on a regular basis and fish were coming aboard as fast as they could get their lines into the water. Being more experienced, Darren was definitely hooking up more often. Blain was just thrilled to be into so many quality fish that he didn’t even care. Drift after drift in deeper water, there were big fish being caught. Darren always wanted to catch a smallie over 5 pounds, but had never actually done this before. He finally had one on and was about to bring it to net when Blain made an attempt to reach for it. This was not to be as the fish actually jumped over the net and spit out the tube, leaving Darren a little bitter. The next fish Blain was into was a real beauty of almost 5 pounds and Darren said, « where’s the net, it’s payback. » There were just so many fish that even after he missed the 5 pounder, it didn’t matter. The livewell was so full of 4 to 5 pound bass that we decided to take the first of what was to be three photo shoots. Once done, we released the bass and continued to pound « Big Heavy’s » once again. It wasn’t even noon and they had probably landed 40 or more smallies up to almost 5 pounds. There was bigger and even better to come! Between trying to eat and having his phone ringing, Darren seemed like there was nothing he could do wrong as his rod was constantly being bent over. It only takes one hand to hook the fish! In the next couple of hours, they both managed to hook into 10 to 20 fish apiece. You guessed it, another photo shoot was about to happen as there really wasn’t any more room in the livewells once again. Blain was still in awe as he held up some of these huge bass they had just caught. It wasn’t so long ago that they had just taken photo’s and here they were once again. A few quick pictures and back to the depths they went once more!

Part 2: The afternoon bite continued to be great for a while longer in the deeper water and then the fishing just slowed down. We were still catching decent fish, just not as many as before. I thought it was time for a change and decided to try another area nearby, casting tubes. It took a few minutes for both of them to get the hang of it as I repeatedly showed them with multiple hook-ups. Eventually they were able to work these baits through the rocks and weeds and also began to hook up. Look out, more big fish once again made their way to the livewell for a later shoot. Blair was actually getting the hang of this and hooking up with more fish than Darren when all of a sudden he also slammed into what felt like a rock. As it began to move, he realized that it felt bigger than most of the fish he had hooked into during the day. It wasn’t until the fish went airborne that we all realized just how big she actually was. « There’s your 5 pounder », I said! « Get the net & not you Blain », was his response. This one was meant to be as I slipped her into the net and brought it aboard. We had to weigh this fish and she went 5 pounds 3 ounces. Definitely Darren’s personal best! He was thrilled for a brief moment until Blair slammed into another bruiser. When she went into the air, it looked bigger than the one just landed and I thought Darren’s glory was about to be shattered. When I slid this one into the net, she definitely looked bigger than the first one and I had to weigh her as well. It was touch & go for a second as the scale was moving between 5.4 & 5.3 before finally settling on 5 pounds 3 ounces. They were clones that both weighed the same. One was a little longer and the other was a little fatter. After that, the 3 & 4 pounders didn’t even get them excited as I netted several more before calling it a day. We took a few more pictures, released the fish and casted a bit more before packing it up and heading home. If ever there was a day to be on the water, it was today. I have had plenty of great days with customers, but this would have to rank in the top three overall. There were quality fish all day long and I don’t think that there was ever a period of time that we went more than 5 minutes without someone being hooked up. If I had to guess, I would have to say that there were 75 to 100 smallies landed with another 25 or 50 also either missed or lost as well. The strange thing is that about 50% of these fish were in excess of 3.5 pounds. It was definitely Darren & Blair’s best day ever on the water as they are probably still thinking of how many fish the two landed. Overall, yeah you guessed it!!!!!!!

I fished with Jim and his wife Marie for 2 days on Lake Champlain for smallmouth bass. There is always a competition between these two, but today Marie brought a score pad! Apparently, she wanted to keep score of the beating she planned on giving to her husband! The weather was a little chilly as we began day one in temperatures below 40 degrees. Fortunately, there was little to no wind as a wind chill would have really made it feel cold. Water temps were barely 56 degrees at the start and almost 60 degrees by the end of the day. Jim wasted no time drawing first blood with a nice smallie of 3.5 pounds on a tube in 5 feet of water. Marie couldn’t let him get away with that one and hooked up on her own bass at the same time and landed it before he did. The bet is usually first fish, biggest fish and most fish. Score one for Marie with the quick landing! Plenty of other smallies were being taken by both parties on tubes and spinner-baits, but not to the degree that I had expected. I think the water was a little too cold to get into the numbers of aggressive fish and we tried another area nearby. This time it was to be slightly deeper as we dragged tubes in water 10 to 12 feet. A number of smaller fish were being caught once again and I relocated once more. When the sun finally warmed the shallower water, the fish began to cooperate. We spent the rest of the day in anywhere between 2 & 8 feet deep and they continued to land a mix of both small & large fish up to 4.5 pounds. Day two found us more in open water on the lake and at the mercy of Mother Nature. The weatherman had called for light winds and waves of 1 foot or less. We were greeted with 10 knot winds from the south and 1 to 3 foot rollers in our starting spot. The water temps on the open lake were almost 60 degrees by the start of the day and slightly higher towards the end. Air temps were upper 40’s at the start and closer to 70 by the end as well. Spinner-baits and jerk-baits were thrown at the start and some fish up to 3 pounds were landed soon after. The wind was making for tough casting in certain areas after a while and I thought we would try some of the deeper water offshore. By utilizing the wind and doing a drift & drag, we were able to get into some of the larger smallies of 4 pounds or better. Marie managed to catch a bunch of fish on spider grubs and football jigs whenever we drifted over the rocky areas in 25 to 30 feet of water. There were definitely plenty of fish as well as bait marking out in 20 to 30 foot deep. I wish some of these fish were a little more cooperative! There was even a freshwater drum of about 7 pounds landed in amongst the bass. From the deep water, we decided to try a little more shallow water once the sun had warmed the rock piles and both Marie & Jim managed to land a few more before we called it a day. They probably managed to land around 60 fish in the two days on the water and Marie lost track of who led who. Eventually, they decided to call it a draw! It was a chilly weekend, but a good one nevertheless!