Scott & his dad Joe joined me today in search of some giant smallies. Scott had fished with me several times in the last few years and was even here a couple of weeks ago, but his dad had never experienced our bass. We hooked up around 8:30 A.M. and were on the water not too long after. The weather was a dismal and damp morning with light drizzle making the 31-degree temps feel more like the 20’s. Would this be the first morning that ice would be forming on the guides? Winds were out of the east at about 5 K and the water temps were around 48 degrees. I knew we were going to have our work cut out for us with these conditions! We found a few fish rather quickly but they weren’t the size I was looking for and they weren’t really hammering the lures either. I had a few pick ups that just dropped the bait almost immediately leaving me swinging at air. Joe even managed to bring in a scale on one of his casts confirming the negative feeding moods they were in so I relocated. The next area wasn’t much better, but we did manage to catch a few decent fish in the 3 to 4 pound range and hung around a little longer. After seeing that it really wasn’t getting much better, I headed out once again and this time it was for the better. By now the drizzle had blanketed us and it almost seemed foggy, but they were catching bass. Joe & Scott hooked up simultaneously and had the first double of the day. Ironically, Joe’s fish turned out to be over twice the size of Scott’s, confirming that size does matter! In fact, when I put her on the scale even I was amazed to see that it was over six pounds. This was by far the largest smallmouth bass he had ever caught and he was thrilled. All the stories that Scott had told his dad about the fishing were now confirmed! We fished all over in many other places throughout the rest of the day and caught many more bass, but nothing that would top that giant. Both Joe & Scott were hooked up regularly and that’s all that counted. Plenty of smallies were caught today and Joe even managed to land a walleye of almost 5 pounds that was to become a dinner. It was a slow start to the day but ended up finishing with a bang!!

With the daylight savings time going into effect overnight, I was in no hurry to get on the water this morning. Temperatures fell to about 20 degrees or –7 and it would be a brisk morning to say the least. I purposely didn’t have any bookings set up for today in order that I could take my wife out for a day of bass fishing and the warmer it would be, the better! A buddy of mine tagged along as well and the three of us hit the water somewhere around 9:30 A.M. We were surprised to find that the air temps were still hovering around the freezing mark when we arrived and along with that, there was an E wind of 5 to 10 K making it feel ever colder. Bluebird skies were a welcomed sight as that was all we had to help with the temps. The water was still around 48 degrees and with the aid of the sunshine, climbed all the way up to 48.5 by the end of the day. I think it was on Christiane’s second cast that she was locked up and a 3.5-pound smallie was her reward. I knew there were plenty of other fish in this area, but we were unable to convince the others into committing and left shortly after with only short strikes. In the next area, Rick was tight to a big fish almost immediately as I drifted through a deeper weed & rock zone and soon landing a 5.7 pound bass. Not bad for a starter fish eh! Although the bites weren’t fast & furious as we like them to be, there were still plenty of fish caught throughout the day. Christiane had a slower day than usual and finally managed to start hooking big fish later in the afternoon. The bites were quite subtle and if you weren’t really in touch, you just missed them. Lots of fish were picking up the baits and almost immediately letting them go instead of sucking them in and this was making it more difficult to detect. Although there were lulls in the day, we knew that at any moment another 5 pounder could fall victim to our jigs and waited anxiously on every cast. In the end, with the changing of the clocks, we were calling it a day just around 4 o’clock and heading back to the dock. It was probably one of the coldest days so far this fall and add the east wind to the mixture and any skin exposed cooled off quickly. We still managed to get a number of quality bass and that’s all that counts. Great day anyway!!

Mike & his son Ryan were to fish with me today for another eventful day of smallmouth bass action. Usually when this father & son pair gets together, Ryan manages to outdo his dad, but not today! The conditions were slightly better than yesterday with a little less wind at 10 to 15 K from the W/NW & the air temps reached into the mid 40’s by afternoon. Water temps remained constant at 48.5 to 49.5 degrees and sunshine was upon us for the entire day. I believe this time out, it was Mike that drew first blood with a solid 3.5-pound smallie and the gloves were off. It didn’t take too long before Ryan countered with one of his own and outdid his dad with a larger bass of over 4 pounds. The ball bounced around several times in the first hour or so, but Ryan had the largest at 4.75 pounds under his belt. We fished several other areas in hopes of getting into a mother load of quality fish but only picked at them slightly. Although the fish were of quality size, I still wasn’t happy with the numbers and continued my search. Mike locked up with a real heavyweight in deeper water and we thought he had a huge bass until it showed near the boat. To all our amazement, it turned out to be a big walleye of over 7 pounds instead. This was a bonus fish and I snapped a few pics before releasing her back to the water. Although it wasn’t fast & furious, the action was still constant as we managed to get into fish all day. They were pretty much hooking & landing bass on regular basis and equally as many. Towards the end of the day I hit on an area that was holding better fish and both Ryan & his dad had a flurry of activity that lasted for over an hour on some of the better quality fish of the day. They were catching 3 to 4 pound smallies on average and Ryan even hit one that weighed almost five. He had beaten his personal best so many times throughout the day that we lost track altogether. By the time it was all said and done, I would have to say that both of them had caught about as many fish, equally. Although Ryan had landed the largest smallie, his father took top honours with the walleye! This time out, Mike had held his own and Ryan didn’t walk all over him. I can’t wait to see what happens the next time out!

Norm joined me once again today, back in pursuit of that 5-pound smallie. He previously had finally broken his personal best and was looking for an even larger one. Would today be the day? The weather warmed to a mild 55 degrees throughout the day but the winds were the biggest problem. They were blowing at 15 to 25 K from the W with even stronger gusts of 35 K at times. With bluebird skies like we had this isn’t uncommon, just uncomfortable. Water temps were also on the rise and eventually hit the 50-degree mark in some areas during the day. I knew the morning bite was going to be a little tougher than the afternoon and informed Norm of this as we casted jigs to the areas holding bass. It wasn’t until I had covered a lot of water and fished through the usual areas that I stumbled upon a place that finally had a concentration of smallmouth bass. Although we had picked up plenty of fish, it was one here & there that had me on the move. This place produced about 20 bass in a pretty small area, right on a deep edge. Norm landed several good fish in the 4 pound range, but nothing around five. During all of this, I had to take a break out of the action to tow a boat back to shore. Apparently he had run out of gas or something, but he definitely was in need of help as he drifted down the current. I was hoping that after this, the gods would shine on us, but instead they just increased the winds, making fishing that much more difficult. We continued catching fish here & there and Norm landed some real good ones, but not the lunker he was after. It wasn’t until the last half hour in the day that he finally brought one to the boat that was a contender. I know that this was Halloween and all, but this bass was a real pumpkin! It wasn’t really long, but it was incredibly fat and that made it look huge. I had to weigh this fish and was actually disappointed to see that it topped the scale at 4 pounds 15 ounces. A mere 1-ounce shy of that elusive 5-pound mark Norm had been shooting for. I guess it just wasn’t meant to be today as we were to find out. Norm managed to land several more 3 to 4 pounders before we called it a day, but still is in search of his five. Regardless of this outcome, he did manage to break his personal best once again by 3 ounces and is officially closer to finding that “Holy Grail”! Oh well, there’s always next time!

After a couple of days away from the water due to absolutely horrible weather conditions, I was back out today with Brian. He had joined me on Monday and had a blast catching plenty of quality smallies and was really looking foreword to getting into them once again. The weather was a balmy 28 degrees at the start of the morning and heated up to a heat wave of 34 degrees by days end. Fortunately, the sun was out for most of the day as the winds were about 10 to 20 K from the W/SW. I kind of figured that with all the rain, wind & snow that fell in the last couple of days that the water temps would have fallen and I was right. They had dropped below 50 degrees and were now hovering at 48.6, considerably lower than a few days earlier. It was a tougher than usual bite in the morning and I wasn’t surprised! We really had to slow down our presentations and literally crawl our jigs in order to get bit. Fishing a little bit deeper also managed to produce more strikes, but the fish seemed to be slightly smaller than expected. There was one fish however that started out small and by the time it came to the net, it had grown to over 5 pounds. Not much of a fight on that one! Brian was getting into bass of all sizes and was just happy to be on the water again, catching fish. It was a change from all the trout & salmon he was use to from Alaska! I was pretty sure that once the sun warmed the water slightly by midday that the afternoon bite would be significantly better than the morning bite and was right. We started getting into them more and the quality was definitely better after 1 or 2 o’clock. From that point on, there were 3’s & 4’s coming in most of the time and oh how the time flew by! Before we knew it, it was time to go and after a couple more fish, we headed back to the ramp, completing another successful day. Although Brian may not have beaten his personal best from Monday, he did still manage to land many quality bass and definitely had a great day on the water.