Norm was back again today for another shot at a five pounder. Would this be the day that he finally scores it! The weather was a beautiful, crisp fall day with no wind and complete sunshine throughout. Air temps started out just around freezing and rose into the 50’s by days end. The water temps were around 58.5 degrees and almost made it up to 59 degrees during the day. Norm started out strong with the first fish weighing in at 4 ½ pounds. He had several others slightly smaller in this area before we relocated to another spot looking for that elusive five. Pretty much everywhere we hit held fish, but nothing was really close to his targeted goal and we kept looking. It didn’t really matter if we fished shallow or deep, but all we could come up with was those 3 & 4 pounders. I hate it when you only catch tiny fish! The action was constant with fish coming in every place we fished, but still no trophy. By the time we were ready to call it quits, Norm still hadn’t found his “Holy Grail” and had to settle for a great day instead. Plenty of quality sized bass were landed today, but he still needs to get that one fish he can call an honest five! Oh well, there’s always next time!!

After a day of rest yesterday, I was ready to hit the water again this morning for more bass action. Christiane & her brother Michel joined me for a day of pleasure fishing, as the weather was just too nice to pass up. We got a rather late start and were casting by about 10:30 A.M. at best but were immediately into fish. I thought I would try something different today and apparently it paid off. Michel locked up on a decent bass on his first cast! The weather was fairly warm with air temps reaching into the mid 50’s and the water temps were hovering at 50 degrees as well. Winds were out of the S/W at 10 to 20 K and the skies were a mix of cloud with occasional sun. We even had a brief rain shower that dampened us for about 30 minutes. Both Christiane & Michel were into fish pretty much all day with a mix of sizes being landed. Christiane managed to land the largest bass though and her personal best as well. In the 4 or 5 hours we fished, there were plenty of small, medium and large fish taken with a couple in the XL category to boot. Overall, it was a pretty good day and one that we were glad to not have missed!

It had been a year since Yacenti & Marco had fished with me, but they were back today for some more smallmouth bass action. It wasn’t quite as warm as the last couple of days, but it was still too warm for my liking! Air temps reached into the lower 60’s with some sun and plenty of cloud cover to make it feel slightly cooler today. Water temps were just below 50 degrees and the winds were out of the N/E at 5 to 10 K. Marco had requested that I show him what he needed to do by an example cast and I knew what was going to happen next. Immediately I was tight to a fish and it wasn’t small! At the boat, it weighed in at 4 ¾ pounds and was immediately released. Marco was astonished and had the confidence to begin casting on his own as Yacenti locked up on a slightly smaller bass from the back of the boat as well. After 5 or 10 minutes without any hits, Marco asked me to show him exactly what he was doing wrong by another example cast. Big mistake! Once more, I was into another bruiser and this one weighed only 4 ½ pounds. By now he should have known what he was doing and been able to get into a few fish on his own, but he kept either missing the bites or losing them on the hook set. Either way, it was frustrating to see Yacenti catching fish & not Marco. After a while, we relocated to another area not too far away, and the same thing happened. Yacenti landed smallies and Marco, nothing. One more place and once again the same outcome. He did have several fish hooked slightly, but they kept coming off each time he began to reel them in and had to make even more adjustments. It wasn’t until I made a drift & drag in deeper water that he finally locked up on a good one and it stayed pinned. Marco had finally gotten that monkey off his back and it began. Each area after that produced fish for both of them and they even had a double, three times in a row. It may have taken Marco a little longer to get the feel for this, but he eventually overcame the hurdle and was now holding his own. I told him not to be too hard on himself, seeing that he only fishes about once a year! As the day went on, I brought them into an area that had been seeing a lot of the larger fish lately and informed them that the bites here were usually bigguns. It wasn’t long before Yacenti nearly broke his wrist on a hook set and was into the best fish of the day. When he was asked if it felt big his reply was, “Nothing Special”. I guess it grew when it neared the boat, because it weighed in at 5 ¼ pounds. A few quick pics and back she went. We fished for a little longer getting into a few more, smaller fish before we called it a day and headed back to the ramp. The weather was looking like it was going to be getting worse and the onset of a storm seemed to be approaching quickly. It may not have been a fantastic day on the water for numbers and size, but it was still a pretty good day nonetheless! We drove home in the rain!

It had been quite some time since I had Charlie & Tony on the water, but they were back today for some incredible smallmouth bass action. The weather was a carbon copy of yesterday with warm air temps reaching into the 60’s and little to no wind. The sunshine didn’t help though as there were more boats out today than I had seen all fall! Tony hooked into the first bass and was amazed to see its size when I finally got it in the net. It weighed 4.10 and was a great starter fish! Charlie followed up shortly after with a couple that were slightly smaller. We moved around fairly often today trying to get into a larger concentration and found fish just about everywhere. The larger ones however, were slower to come by until the afternoon, when Tony started the ball rolling with a fish that went close to five. After that, there were plenty of others that came aboard in the same size range as well. There were even a couple of nice walleye in the 3-pound range that were taken and Charlie gladly volunteered to take them home for dinner. All in all it was a pretty good day despite the beautiful conditions. I can’t wait for the cold to arrive once again!!

Andre & Jim joined me today on the water and Jim decided to bring his daughter Corrine along for the trip as well. We got a rather late start with all the traffic and only managed to hit the water sometime after 11:00 A.M. We wasted no time heading to the first spot with the air temps somewhere in the 50’s and absolutely no wind. It actually felt like Florida! Sunshine held on throughout the entire day making this a picture perfect outing. I actually expected the water temps to increase more than they did but they maxed out somewhere around 49.5 degrees at best. Jim managed to hook into the first smallie of about 3 pounds and it began. Corrine matched that with one over 4 pounds and proceeded to land another pair even larger soon after. We didn’t get into too many fish in the first area so we decided to try another spot hoping for better results. It was almost the same with several more bass caught but not the numbers or size I expected. I moved out a little deeper and then we began hooking up with larger fish all together. Jim landed a few decent fish along with a nice 3-pound walleye that Andre gladly accepted as his dinner. Everyone was getting into fish now and Andre & Jim even managed to get into a double headed that would have topped the scales at over 10 pounds combined. It seemed that all of the larger fish were finally coming now and Jim brought another walleye of about 5 pounds to net on the very next cast. We fished around for a while after with everyone hooking up now & then before we decided to call it quits for the day. In the few short hours we were on the water there were plenty of quality size smallies and a couple of decent walleye caught. With daylight savings time upon up, the days are now cut shorter. Before we knew it, the sun was setting and it was time to call it quits. This had to be the nicest day so far this fall, weather wise and we were glad to have been able to take advantage of it by being on the water!!