Ken & his son Grant were with me this morning, as well as his father Dennis and brother Rob. We were going to be trolling with this many bodies in the boat and I headed right to where I hoped the fish would be.

With 4 lines in the water, it didn’t take long for the first reel to fire. Unfortunately it was short lived when the line broke before I could pass the rod to Grant. No worries, there would surely be more!

About 20 minutes passed with only one mishap and I was beginning to wonder what was going on. A slight adjustment in depth and I had my answer! These fish were shallower this morning and for the next hour or so, the reels were firing often. We had singles, doubles and even a couple of triple headers! The action was just insane, with big pike and some really nice walleye making it to the net.

For a while it seemed like every fish in the area wanted to eat but that was all about to change. Way off in the distance we saw lightning and I was done! A check on the radar confirmed my worst fear as the storm was heading straight for us. We packed up quickly and raced back to the dock, trying to beat the storm.

We may have managed to stay ahead of the thunder and lightning but we passed right through torrential rains along our way. We even drove right into the clear skies once again! I knew that I had made the right decision when I arrived back at the dock. I couldn’t see the other side of the lake and witnessed several more lightning flashes in the sky, from dry land. I wasn’t sure if we would be able to get back out or not but when I looked at the radar again, I knew we were done. In fact, my afternoon booking was also not going to happen with what was expected to follow!

Although short, this morning was filled with chaotic action! Once the bite started, it was fast & furious. Mother Nature definitely won out today, but not before we threw in a few good punches! The prefrontal weather system had the fish super charged and it was just on fire! Too bad we had to pull the plug, but safety always comes first. There will always be more fish to be caught tomorrow!

Well Monday came and unfortunately it also came with the wrath of Mother Nature. She blew the lake up giant making for tough fishing, but Dan & I stuck it out until the end. We still managed to catch some nice ones, but the deep water smallmouth fishing was cut short when we just couldn’t continue to vertically fish in the open lake!

Today was a better day with Rick & his wife Penny as we trolled almost the entire time out. Plenty of big northerns were landed by both under the comfort of the roof. A light SW wind kept the bugs away for most part and the shade made it quite comfortable to fish. There was no need to do anything else, as pike were the primary choice of fish to catch. We did manage to get a couple of other species though, with bass & walleye coming aboard as well. Overall it was just a relaxing day of fishing!

Today was another double trip day with a morning family and an afternoon mother & son. The first half of the day saw plenty of action with pike & big walleye coming aboard by trolling. As they were hoping to take some fish home with them, I decided to relocate with a couple of hours remaining. It was here that they finally put a couple of keeper eyes in the livewell by drop shotting. Plenty of other unders were boated as well before their time was done!

Melissa & her son Levi joined me for the second part of the day and we decided to try for bass. I made a long run to an area that I was sure would produce. Within minutes of our arrival, a small one jumped off the hooks confirming that they were definitely here. For about an hour we scoured the shallow flat but were only fortunate enough to land a handful of decent sized smallies. There were plenty of others missed as well though, before we relocated again.

Our second area wasn’t much better with more lost fish here. I even saw all kinds of cruisers that just didn’t seem to want to eat! Eventually I just pulled the plug here and shifted gears completely! We were going trolling!

With the lack of wind and bright sunny skies, we were feeling the effects of the heat and the run felt great. I wasn’t sure where I was going to go but after all the boat traffic, I realized that trolling was definitely the right decision. The roof was going up!

I quickly got the lines in and soon after the first reel fired, Levi was into a keeper walleye. It was his first ever eye and worthy of a pic. The remainder of the time here provided them with plenty more action and another first. They both landed several more northerns and even had a quality double header!

Today was an interesting one to say the least. Both trips yielded nice fish with plenty of action on the troll. Although I wasn’t able to get to most of the places I wanted to fish, I still made it work.

With a full schedule again this coming week it will be nice to be out with fewer boats on the water. Nice weekends always bring out the worst and this Sunday was definitely bad! Fortunately I stayed away from the crowds and was able to fish effectively in all areas. Taking out at the ramp however was a complete $%#& show but eventually I got the job done. I can’t wait for Monday and the peace and quiet of the work week!

Jeff joined me this morning and it was looking like a great day on the water! I began by searching an area right at the start for sturgeon but was unsuccessful at locating any numbers. Not to waste any more time, I decided to head to open water for some smallies.

With overcast skies and occasional sunny spots, I made my way over to a shallow, rocky flat hoping for a few big bites. The wind wasn’t helping much as it was out of the east and messing up the current we were fishing. The fish ended up positioning themselves in different areas, but I eventually found them. Jeff hooked a smaller one casting a swim jig while I was fan casting open water with a more aggressive presentation. It was a tough early bite with the moon having just set and I soon realized that we were going to have to fish slower.

Jeff tried a bunch of things including a spybait, but most were unsuccessful. At one point I had him toss a topwater to an area that usually holds good ones and he did manage to hook into a couple. The first one crushed the bait but the second one had it in the top of his head. This showed me that they didn’t really want the lures and it was time to change to the soft plastics. At one point, we were just using the current to drift the baits with barely any movement. This gave us several more fish with the dead weight pickups. It was looking like it was going to be a slow down kind of day!

Our next spot was a little deeper and we were going to be casting drop shots for hopefully bass & walleye. Jeff nailed a bass almost immediately, but we never caught another fish. A few missed bites was all she wrote! Time for another change again!

The inactivity of everything was definitely visible as I barely saw any fish or bird movement. Usually the sturgeon are jumping everywhere but I could count on one hand the number of fish I saw breach. It was going to be a struggle for a while just to get a few bites!

I decided to try steep breaks and different lures to see if we could bring anything up. When this failed we moved up on the shallows again and began covering water. This too failed and Jeff began to slowly work a drop shot instead. To give you an idea of how inactive the fish were, after casting he answered a text without even moving his line. When he was done and started to reel, he felt weight and set on what turned out to be the best fish of the day. Thinking we might be on to something, I began making a few adjustments for the balance of the area we were fishing.

Unfortunately, our day was about to be cut short when he received a phone call and some bad news! Not to get into details, we packed everything up and headed back to take out. Unforeseen circumstances had us pulling off the water early.

The bite may have been slow this morning, but Jeff was enjoying catching bass on a new body of water. He generally fishes the upper St. Lawrence, closer to Lake Ontario and was quite familiar with river smallies. I’m sure that if it had of been anyone else in the boat today that the results would have been different. Too bad about the short day but it was the right thing to do!

Sylvie & Gilles treated their grandson, Olivier to a birthday fishing day on the water and boy did he have fun! We met up just before 11:30 for their afternoon of fishing. He wanted some pike so we headed to an area and trolled him up some good ones. I had also hoped for a walleye and we were rewarded by a really nice over as well. Things were going as planned but now he wanted to change spots and catch something else. Off we went for some smallies!

After a long run to an area, we fished it for the remainder of the day. Here he got to boat several smaller bass and a few pretty good sized sturgeon. It wasn’t fast & furious but the fish were around. We could see all kinds of bass just cruising but the lake was flat and the sky was bright. Add to that the lack of current and there was barely any movement at all. They just didn’t want to bite!

Despite the short half day, we were able to give the little guy a birthday present that he will remember for quite some time. He managed to catch 4 different species of fish and never lost interest. I think he could have gone the entire day and still had power to spare! All I know is that this was one of the best presents he could have received from anyone. You have to love grandparents as they get to spoil their grandchildren, anyway they can! I have a feeling that I just may see them again!