This was to be another annual Derby weekend on the water with Darren & my wife Christiane. We were fishing together to try & win a local event for smallmouth bass. We knew that it would take a fish of over 5 pounds to even place in the money this year and were hoping for one apiece! The first day began with sunshine and cool morning air temps in the low 60’s but eventually rising into the low 70’s. Water temps were just below 70 degrees with all the cool nights we had been having. Our biggest challenge was going to be the 15 to 20 knot winds from the N/NE that were causing a 2 to 3 foot chop on the areas we wanted to fish. It didn’t take too long before we got into fish as all three of us were hooking into smallies up to and even over 4 pounds on a regular basis slinging jerk-baits. It was great to be catching so many quality bass, but we were in need of something a little larger if we wanted to succeed in winning this thing. At one point, I had a fish closer to 6 pounds that ripped line from my reel on the initial hit and just let go. That was definitely a winning fish that was not soon to be forgotten! We caught probably 30 or more bass through the day on tubes & jerk-baits, but could only weigh up to 4.25 pounds as the largest. Most of these fish were between 3.75 pounds & 4.25 pounds as we weighed our three at the end of the day. Day two proved to somewhat different as we bettered our three best in the first hour or so of the morning. The largest was a fish of 5 pounds on the nose and the other two were between 4.5 & 4.75 pounds. The weather was slightly different than the day before with dark, eerie skies and little to no wind at all. Storms were present all around us, but the rain only fell towards the end of the day as we managed to dodge it by hopping all over the lake. The air temps were in the low 70’s but quite humid and the water temps remained the same as yesterday too. We didn’t catch as many fish as the day before, but we were looking for only bigger bass to weigh in on this final day of the derby. By targeting only areas that produced smallies over 5 pounds in previous weeks, we definitely eliminated plenty of water. This stormy, overcast weather definitely had the fish in a negative mood as we just picked a fish here and there. Once all was said and done, we managed to take 5th place with the 5 pound smallie only to have 5.01 & 5.1 as the 4th & 3rd place winners. The first place finisher had a bass of 5.4 pounds and a check of $2000.00 for his efforts. So close and yet so far this year. Oh well, there’s always next year!

I had the pleasure of fishing with a father and his son today on a local lake for smallies. Tony was treating his 9 year old Matt to a day of fishing on his birthday. The weather was beautiful once more as clouds & sunshine greeted us for our run up the lake. Air temps began around 70 degrees but ended more like 90 degrees by mid afternoon. It turned out to be a real scorcher with high humidity in the end! The water temps were around the same as yesterday near 78 degrees all over. The fishing began a little slow as we spend almost an hour with only a few bites. Tony did manage to land a real bonus Walleye about 5 pounds on a senko fished almost dead sticked. The bass were definitely there as we saw plenty of big smallmouth just swimming all around. The only way we could get them to take was by practically leaving the bait on the bottom and letting them swim it off. I decided that we were going to try another area and see if we could get into some active fish. We finally got into more aggressive bass as both Tony & his son Matt were seeing action on senko’s. Matt probably lost the best fish of almost 5 pounds when it went airborne and threw the hook. We did manage to catch several, but nothing larger that 3 pounds or so. I decided that there were just too many big fish in the first area and we went back to see if they had changed their mood. Once again there were more seen than caught, but at least we were hooking into a few of the better fish this time. One fish even pulled a rod into the lake as Matt was reeling in another bass up front. I threw a marker out and got the rod back after we finished with the other one. There was definitely a fish on the end of the rod as I brought it back into the boat. Another firedrill once again! It was to be a short day as Tony was to be heading up north and by 2:00 PM we were done. A pretty good day for the time spent on the water with a dozen or more fish caught & released & a bonus walleye too!

I fished with Sammy & Stephan on another lake today and they just slaughtered the bass! What a difference a day makes as over 50 smallies were caught & released and probably the same amount were just lost. For a while it seemed like it was every cast that someone was hooked up! The weather was absolutely spectacular with bright sunny skies and flat calm conditions. Air temps were in the upper 80’s and the water temps reached 78 degrees by the end of the day. Sammy scored the most fish but Stephan held his own in the end. Stephan wasn’t quite as experienced as Sammy and missed a lot more fish before he began landing some of the bigger ones that he hooked into. At one point Sammy went three bass on three different rods as I was just stuck with each of his fish still in the net. I love a good firedrill! Once again, almost all the fish were caught on senko’s with a small percent taken on tubes as well. This is the way fishing should be!

I fished with Andre & Jim today on a local lake for smallies once more. The weather was almost perfect with little to no wind and sunny skies to start. Water temps were around 75 degrees and the air temps climbed up to over 80 degrees by days end. Jim latched into the first smallie of over 4 pounds almost immediately on a spinnerbait and after a couple of jumps, released her unharmed. Even with a stinger hook attached she still managed to get off! It was a little longer before we managed to hook into anything else, but not for lack of trying. There were plenty of quality fish all around us and they were difficult to entice! Both Jim & Andre had chances but only managed to land a handful of the smaller ones in the area. We jumped all over the lake trying to find aggressive fish but only managed to land one here and one there. It seemed like the fish just weren’t in the a feeding mood anywhere. There were a couple of beauties taken up to 5 pounds, but not the quantity I was use to seeing. It took almost till the end of the day again before Jim landed a good one of over 4 pounds. I think the last couple of days had a definite influence on the fishing today. All in all a good day with about 15 or so smallies caught up to 5 pounds.

I began the day on Lake Champlain with Peter, but after an hour or so of fighting the 4 & 5 foot rollers on the lake with only one bass, we opted for a change. We re launched at another ramp in much calmer waters and took our chances in a large bay. The air temps went up to almost 80 degrees but the water temps were down to 72 in most places causing the fish to develop lockjaw. The skies were a mix of sun & cloud and the winds were out of the S at 15 to 25 knots with stronger gusts. Smallies were what Peter was after, but we had to settle for mostly largemouth today as all the better areas were just unfishable. We managed to get into a few good smallies at the end of the day, but all the better fish just got off. A difficult day to say the least with Mother Nature winning another battle. With worse conditions forecasted for the second day, I suggested that Peter travel to my place and we would fish a local lake closer to Montreal. The winds would still be bad, but it would be much better than taking a pounding on Lake Champlain again! He agreed and was into fish almost immediately on Lake St-Francis. The skies were sunny and the winds were from the S/SW at 15 to 25 knots with gusts up to 35 at times. Difficult conditions, but very doable on this lake! Water temps were around 75 degrees and the air temps reached 80 degrees by the end of the day with clouds moving in. Most of the fish were caught on slowly dragged tube jigs with the larger fish coming on senko’s. Plenty of smaller bass in the 2 to 3 pound range were caught but only a few larger fish over 4 pounds fell victim to our offerings. The best smallie of 4.5 pounds came right at the end of the day as Peter finally landed a beauty. A few others were caught shortly after and it was time to call it a day. This was a difficult 2 days of fishing, but we managed to get into fish nevertheless. Hopefully, the next time we will have better weather!