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!

I had a few more days off and decided to join my friend Rick on Lake Ontario for Salmon. We had a tough time with the wind on the first day and spent it shopping at places like Bass Pro Shops & Gander Mountain. We were however able to get out late in the afternoon for a few hours when the waves subsided to 2 & 3 feet. Two salmon on and both lost were all we had until an 8 pound Walleye decided to end his life as the last rod was reeled in for the evening. It hit a spoon and was suspended up in 20 feet over 80 feet of water. The second day we had better weather and stayed out until about 3:30 in the afternoon before calling it a day. We went 2 for 6 today with plenty of equipment failure to blame for our losses. Faulty fluorocarbon leader material was the biggest problem with break offs. The morning of the third day was to be a short one as we had strong S/E winds and seas of 6 foot only a couple of miles off shore. We did manage to get one take and landed a salmon of about 20 pounds before calling it a day. It’s tough when you have three days and only spend about one of them actually fishing. Hopefully next time will be a little better as Mother Nature wins another one with me this season.

I fished on Lake St-Francis with Alain today for smlalmouth bass. We had a beautiful day with cool air in the morning and temps in the low 80’s by days end. Winds were from the S/W at 10 to 15 knots and were a little difficult to fish in later in the day. The water temps were around 76 degrees in the open water and slightly warmer in the shallows. About 15 to 20 bass were caught today on a variety of lures up to 5 pounds with plenty of others lost as well. There was no real area that produced better than another today. We had to move around plenty in order to get the bites. Rocks, weeds, shallow and deep all had fish. Overall, a good day to be out fishing!