Scott & his son Zane joined me today on the water and oh, how we pounded the smallies! The weather was a little bit of everything, except there was no wind at all. This might be good for some people, but I prefer it when it blows. The “Dog Pecker Knats” were a real pain today and drove us crazy. The air temps reached into the 70’s and the water temps were about 73 degrees in most areas. We had sunshine for a while in the morning, followed by clouds in the afternoon and eventually a light sprinkle. Tubes and senko’s accounted for almost all the fish landed today and they were bigguns! We had a slow start with only a few fish caught in the first couple of hours, but eventually they started to come alive. The afternoon saw one area produce only quality bass for almost 2 hours, 4 pounds or better with the largest topping five. Both Scott & his son Zane landed these beasts hand over fist at one time and the followers with them were incredible. The bass were obviously feeding as we were seeing the hooked ones cough up minnows while fighting. We were trying only for large fish today and it was definitely working out well. Each area we hit had some fish on it and 18 to 19.5 inches were the normal lengths with very few fish on the smaller side. By the time the day was over there had to be about 25 smallies caught and the best 5 fish stringer for any tournament would have gone probably 23 pounds or better. Too bad we weren’t in a tournament today as it would have been tough to beat. All in all a great day for real trophy smallmouth!!

Today I fished with Fred on a local lake for smallies and oh how it was tough! He wanted to catch some bass on a fly rod and that’s always a challenge after a high pressure has arrived. We had thunderstorms and electricity in the air last night along with heavy rains causing a poor change in their attitude. It wasn’t that they weren’t there, just that they wouldn’t eat! Our weather today provided us with bluebird skies and tremendous winds from the W that switched to the N/W afterwards. They were also blowing at 15 to 25 knots making for an interesting day to fly fish. Air temps went into the 80’s and the water temps remained around 73 degrees as usual. Our first area proved to be an aquarium as all we could do was watch big fish swim around and not even think about taking the fly. We moved to another area and had pretty much the same thing except that Fred was able to catch a few of the small & medium ones cruising in the area, but not the real giants. He did have a few of them look like they were going to attempt to eat only to have them swim away. We stayed on this spot for a while catching a few here and there before we had enough and opted for another area further away. This didn’t work out too well as the winds were coming from the S/W here and blowing even harder causing the water to stain up really bad. I knew we wouldn’t get anything under these conditions but attempted it nevertheless. After about 15 minutes we shifted gears and decided that it was time to try some trolling for pike & walleye. This too didn’t work out too well as we caught only about 6 or so along with a smallie of about 13 inches and decided to return to our starting area before calling it a day. To our amazement, it was even windier than earlier making it even tougher than the morning to cast a fly. I really had to provide the perfect boat control in order for Fred to be able to cast without taking one of us out! He had several followers once again, but it seemed that only the little ones were eating the fly. Every time he hooked up, there would be another bigger one just following the fight right to the boat with it. Eventually he hooked into a real beauty only to have it take to the sky and throw the fly right back at us. We were both beginning to think that it wasn’t going to happen and then another bruiser decided to inhale the fly and he was finally locked up with the largest bass of the day. I wouldn’t say that it was a beast, but under the circumstances, it was quality! After a couple of quick pics before the release and we were on our way back to the ramp calling it a day. This was definitely a tough one, but all in all we were both satisfied with the end results!!

I fished with Craig & his son Mitch today on a local lake for a multi species kind of day. We started off casting Gulp baits on jig heads as well as senko’s and caught a few smaller bass doing so. Several larger fish were seen roaming around and a couple of them were missed on the hook set too. Weather was decent with temps in the 70’s and water temps were around 72 degrees with a light S/W wind. During one of the hook-ups, a couple of bruiser smallies were following as usual and a gulp tipped jig thrown into the middle managed to hook one of the four pounders for an honest double. Both Craig & his son Mitch had several chances at fish and managed to get into some of them before we shifted to another area nearby. Here they both landed a few more and once again several others were also missed. Eventually after hitting another area again, we opted to troll for walleye and pike. As luck would have it, the first fish to come aboard by Mitch was another smallie that fell just short of the 4-pound mark. We eventually started hooking into walleye and pike, but nothing big. They were all less than 5 pounds at best and I began covering water in hopes of finding something larger. This was not to be however and we eventually quit to try our luck at a few more smallies before we ended the day. Craig hooked up on his first cast with the jig and I told him that it was bad luck! It was quite a while before he had another strike let alone land another bass, so I wasn’t lying. Mitch on the other hand was having just bad luck by losing several more fish either by having them come off or just by the hook set. Either way it was tough to see so many bass not come to the boat and we finally called it a day at 5:00 P.M. and headed back to the ramp. This was definitely a mixed bag kind of day as there were smallies, pike and walleye caught in the 10 hours spent on the lake. It was rather tough fishing, but we had a great time nonetheless!!

I fished with Terry today on a local lake for smallmouth bass. We had a slow start once again with the water being muddied up due to the strong S/W winds blowing ad 15 to 25 knots. Air temps were in the mid 70’s and the water temps were almost 73 degrees in most areas. Our run was through 3 footers to our first spot and as usual, the boat cut through it like butter. I thought I would start Terry out with a spinnerbait due to the fact that he had never caught a smallmouth before. Being from the south, he had caught plenty of bass, just not smallies and was anxious to get into them. Unfortunately, only one bass hit the spinnerbait before I switched him over to Berkley Gulp Alive on a 1/8 oz. jig head. It was then that he started to hook into some of the better smallies and was feeling the strength & power of the mighty bronzeback. Senko’s were also working on some of these fish as well, but the bite was slow during the off times. During the peak times of activity, he managed to get into plenty of quality-sized smallies as well as a few of the medium ones too. We could see some of the larger fish swimming around but they weren’t interested in even the Gulp as we casted in frustration. At one point I think we made a dozen casts and had hits from 10 fish, landing about half. As usual, the better fish managed to get off either when they took to the air or as they neared the boat. There was even a couple of bonus walleye caught on gulp! This was also a first, as Terry had never caught a walleye before today. We hit several areas catching fish just about everywhere before we called it a day around 5:00 P.M. The storms had escaped us to the north and we were lucky to have been able to last as long as we had, fishing all the while. Overall, it was a pretty good day with about 25 fish being landed and plenty of others lost too!!

Mike & Cleo joined me today on a local lake for smallies and got em good! We ran from the ramp in 3 to 4 footers and sliced through them like butter to reach our destination. Nothing runs like a 621 Ranger! Water temps were 72 to 73 degrees and the air temps were about the same with humidity. I had both parties begin with spinnerbaits to see if we could get into some active smallmouth, due to the waves and strong S/SW winds blowing at 15 to 20 knots. There were a few smaller than average fish taken, but I wasn’t satisfied! I knew the potential of this area and wanted more! I switched Cleo up to a tube and pointed him in the direction needed to take the bigguns, but he once again came up with just average sized smallies. We were now seeing a few of the larger fish moving around in the stained water & I knew it was just a mater of time before they would hit. To my amazement, they refused the lures again and even the senko’s I was throwing were only enticing the smaller ones to eat. I think all the rain & wind from the night before had shut them down and I really had to make a drastic adjustment in order to salvage the day. I wanted big fish & there was nothing more frustrating than seeing them & not catching! Well, for anyone that hasn’t tried “Berkley Gulp Alive”, they are definitely missing out! I save this stuff for the really tough days and this was one of them. I re-rigged one of the rods with a 1/8 ounce jig head and a minnow bait and handed it to Cleo to try. It didn’t take too long before he had a couple of fish landed and one was over 4 pounds. Immediately after, I rigged the other rod and gave it to Mike to use and he to began catching fish as well. In fact, he landed a post spawn bass that would have been over 20 inches and also went 4 pounds or better. If it weren’t for the fact that it was skinny, it might have been closer to 5 pounds. The remainder of the time on the water was spent catching instead of fishing and there were fish of all sizes coming aboard consistently now. By the time we were ready to leave, they must have caught 15 or 20 bass up to and over 4.5 pounds in a few short hours. As this was only a 4 hour outing due to Mike having to get back to work in the afternoon, it was pretty good nonetheless. With the aid of the Berkley product, we were able to turn this so, so day into a great one by making a few minor adjustments!!