I fished with Tim today on another trophy lake for smalllmouth bass. We got a late start and began fishing around 10:30 AM, once again in the rain. The temperatures were above 60 degrees, but with rain gear on, it felt more like 80. Our starting location was really muddy due to all the run off from the rain and didn’t produce a single strike. I decided that a location change was in order & ran to another area not too far away. We found water temps to be about the same at 52.5 and casted our crank-baits over the rocks in 3 to 6 feet of water with only one hookup. Eventually we ran into warmer water of over 55 degrees and began to get into them pretty god. Tube jigs produced over 10 fish in about 45 minutes with plenty of others lost before they came to net. As usual, the largest fish of over 5 pounds was one of those long distance releases! The afternoon weather took a turn for the worse and sent us off the water by 2:30 PM, when the rains got really heavy. The skies blackened up and winds also intensified looking like it might get worse and possibly dangerous. Mother nature wins again!! No pics today!

This was Mike’s last day here, so we decided to give the trophy lake another try before he headed home. As usual, it rained pretty much all day long, with some heavier downpours at times. The air temps reached about 65 degrees towards the end of the day and we actually got about an hour of sunshine around 4:00 PM. Light winds and overcast skies were what we fished in all day and this made it impossible to see any follow ups from the bass. It was a really slow bite until we switched to crank-baits! We landed several smallies up to 5 pounds 5 ounces in a few hours and lost others as well. There was even another lake trout caught on a fin-s tipped jig and one more lost too. The day was a little tougher as the water temps actually dropped to 51 degrees with all the cold rain that fell. Close to 20 more smallmouth bass were caught & released today on mostly crank-baits in 6 to 10 feet of water. All in all, this was a pretty good day considering all these horrible, rainy conditions.

Mike & I went back to the same lake again this morning and we had an even tougher time once more. It rained pretty much all day with downpours at times! The water temps were between 50 & 53 degrees, depending on the areas being fished. We had so much rain overnight that the water clarity was brown in some of the shallower sections of the lake. We began throwing soft plastic jerk-baits over shallow water and only came up with a few fish. The balance of the day was spent fishing deeper water along break-lines and most of the better fish up to 5 pounds were taken this way. Jigs accounted for all of these bigger smallies as well as another brown trout of over 4 pounds. Close to 20 smallmouth bass were caught & released on another miserable day.

Mike & I were back on the water again this morning, on another trophy lake. Water temps were between 51 & 52.5, depending on the area being fished. The skies were overcast when we began, but turned to drizzle & rain not too long after. There was little to no wind and the air temps were slightly over 50 degrees. Jerkbaits were what we began with, but had a hard time getting into many fish. Only two bass were caught on the jerkbaits with a couple of others seen. The best fish of 4.5 pounds came on a jig, once again. With the fishing a little slow, we decided to try another lake for the afternoon and headed off he water before lunch. This would prove to be a good choice as we ended the day with about 20 bass caught & released up to 4.5 pounds. Most of the fish on this lake were taken on soft jerkbaits, but some were caught on jigs as well. The weather was really terrible as we had rain all afternoon long. Water temps were pretty much the same all over at 51.7 degrees. We did end the day with a bonus brown trout of 5 pounds and a couple of lake trout missed. Considering the conditions, we did all right!!!

I spent the day fishing a trophy lake for smallmouth bass with Mike today and what a day it was! Jerkbaits & fin-s tipped jigs accounted for over 30 smallies landed under not so perfect conditions. The weather began overcast and late in the morning started to rain. Air temps reached 60 degrees by late in the afternoon with E/SE winds at 15 to 20 knots, blowing waves of two feet in certain areas. Even the water temps were a little colder than I had expected with the average being just 51 degrees. Only one lake trout was caught today of 5 pounds, but we were after the jumbo smallies. Of the 30 bass landed today, 20 of them were between 4 & 5 pounds and several were over 5 as well. Unfortunately, we didn’t get anything over 6 today, but they were still real quality bronzebacks, nevertheless. All in all a really fantastic day for quality fish!!!