I had the pleasure of fishing with Troy from Kansas today on Lake St-Francis for smallmouth bass. The day started with heavy fog and a light drizzle. The humidity was incredible but the air was a cool 70 degrees. We had to run by GPS to our first spot, due to the lack of visibility. Several smallmouth up to 3.5 pounds were caught on Jerk-Baits, spinnerbaits and tube jigs, but the fish were very inactive. Water temps were in the low 70,s and the wind was non-existent making for easy fishing in open water. Once the fog finally lifted, we were able to change locations and cover some water. The fishing was quite slow in other areas and it wasn’t long before we were back in the original starting area covering more water. Plenty of bass were seen and some of them wren actually takers, but it was very slow throughout the day. Jerk-baits accounted for the bulk of the fish today as we threw them most of the time in search of active fish. About 15 bass were caught up about 4 pounds from weeds, rocks and sandy areas today. All in all, a slower day than expected!

I headed out to Lake Ontario with Rick once again this long weekend. My wife, Christiane also joined us on this, tail end of Hurricane Katrina. To say we had wind would be an understatement! All of Saturday’s fishing and most of Sunday was a total wash as we were unable to get onto the water until after 3:00 PM on the second day. Six-foot waves were the norm and winds were from the N/W at 25 knots with stronger gusts. By the time we did finally wet a line, we were fishing in 2 to 3 footers and happy to be there. In about three hours we landed 2 salmon up to 25 pounds and missed three others do to various “Technical Malfunctions”. Monday morning had the makings of a great day as the lake layed down to flat calm conditions. Unfortunately, this was to be our shortest day as we were to be heading home early afternoon. The air temperatures were definitely cooler than the norm with 50 degrees and lots of condensation. The first fish hit less than 5 minutes into our troll and Christiane soon landed another King Salmon around 25 pounds. The second fish hit about ten minutes later and we soon had two salmon “In The Box”, as they say! It took quite a while to get the third salmon on as we had a few missed hits and releases. Rick landed the last one and we ended the morning with one apiece. It’s really too bad this day had to end, because it had the makings of a double-digit day! Once again, “Mother Nature” tried her best to mess up a perfectly good, long weekend! Better luck next time!

I fished a local derby this weekend with Darren & my wife, Christiane. We had great expectations on winning as I was targeting numbers of huge smallmouth on a nearby lake. The first day dealt us incredible heat of over 90 degrees and mirror calm conditions. Not what I wanted! These fish were roaming shallow waters and were quite spooky once the sun got high. We must have seen over 100 fish throughout the day from 3 pounds to over 5 pounds but they just wouldn’t feed. Our three biggest fish were caught in the first hour and we weren’t able to catch anything larger for the rest of the day. By 6:00 PM we were ready to call it quits and head to the scales to weigh our one fish each. These fish were from 3.68 to 4.08 pounds. Not what I was expecting to weigh in based on what was swimming around us all day! Day two threw us a curve ball as we drove to the lake in heavy rains. Fortunately, by the time we arrived at the water, it had stopped! The winds were blowing from the S/SW at 5 to 10 MPH and increased within the first hour. The air temps were humid and in the 70’s early and eventually went into the low 80’s by afternoon. Water temps were still around 75 degrees and the fish still had lockjaw! We managed to catch a few fish that were from 3.85 to 4 pounds, but nothing bigger. Plenty of strikes and some hookups, but no big ones were caught. By 10:00 I decided to take a chance and jump to another lake close by. Once again, fish were seen and caught, but nothing big enough to qualify for a winner. We managed to catch fish in water as shallow as 4 feet to as deep as 35 feet. We had to leave by 2:30 in order to make the 4:00 deadline for the weigh in and decided to pack it in. Once again, all fish in the 3.85 to 4 pound range! It turns out that a smallmouth of 5.3 pounds won the event with second being 5.15 pounds. It wasn’t for lack of trying that we were only able to weigh in the fish that we did on this tournament weekend! Better luck next year, I hope!

I had a half day scheduled with Dave & John from Colorado today and decided to go out on a local lake. The morning air was cool, but soon went into the 80’s when the sun got high. There was little to no wind and the humidity made it feel even warmer than it actually was. Water temps were around 76 degrees where we were fishing and rocky, weedy areas were the cover we were on. Shortly after we arrived on the first location, Dave caught a smallmouth over 4 pounds on a Power Jerk-Shad. John missed several strikes but eventually landed his first bass on a tube bait soon after. Plenty of big smallmaouth were all around us, but were difficult to get to take. About a half dozen fish were caught and many others lost or missed before we relocated to another area nearby. Dave managed to pick up a walleye of about 3.5 pounds on a spinnerbait and we contacted a few more smallmouth amongst the weeds also. Eventually, we made our way to a few larger rock shoals and they threw tiny crankbaits for smallies. Once again, several missed strikes and followers, but only a few fish were caught. All in all, a slower day than expected as they landed about a dozen fish with several different presentations.

I had the pleasure of fishing with someone all the way from California today. John was on his way to northern Quebec for a Caribou hunt and flew in for a day of fishing before the trip. The drive to the lake was a little wet as we spent most of it in rain. Winds were from the S/W at about 5 knots, but increased to 15 or 20 knots after the first hour of fishing. There were even gusts at times that felt more like 30 knots! The waves were 3 to 4 footers, making for difficult fishing even with 2 drift socks out. Most of the 20 fish caught were taken on tubes but towards the end of the day, spinnerbaits were the ticket. Plenty of others were lost with some of them being the biggest of the day! All in all a productive day with Mother Nature not winning this one!