After taking a few days R and R on Lake Ontario fishing trout & salmon, I was back on the water once again for more smallmouth action. I was to fish with Taylor & Matt today & promised them the biggest smallies of their lives. It’s not too hard to guarantee this when you have the quality of bass like we do and I wasn’t worried about coming through. Taylor had been given this as a birthday present several months back and his mother had contacted me to make all the necessary arrangements beforehand. Unfortunately he had a major mishap that resulted in a broken leg only a couple of weeks before the scheduled fishing day that could have caused him to miss out. Fortunately though, he was willing to go nonetheless! We began our outing in warm, humid conditions with air temps of 65 degrees. Water temps were almost 72 degrees where we concentrated and the winds were out of the N/E at about 10 knots. The forecast called for the day to worsen and I didn’t want to take the chance of fishing open water later, so we began way out in the middle of the lake. I wasn’t sure what level of aggressiveness they were in so I had them throw spinnerbaits to begin. Apparently it wasn’t what they wanted as I tested the area by throwing a tube and hooked a couple of decent fish between 3.5 & 4 pounds. A change was made and now Taylor was throwing the tube while Matt continued with the hardware. The first bass to come aboard from Taylor was an honest 4-pound plus fish that was the largest smallie of his life. I had to change up Matt as well when I saw this and he too was soon into some jumbino’s as well. We fished this area and others nearby for quite a while catching more and losing some before we ventured to another distant spot in the rain. It had begun to rain off & on and was just miserable with the humidity. The winds had increased as well and were now blowing more like 20 knots with some stronger gusts at times. I knew we were into the major and suggested that Matt throw the spinnerbait again hoping for some aggressive hits. He had caught a 3.5-pound smallie earlier that nearly tore the rod from him and gladly accepted. It wasn’t long before he let out a yell when another tried to repeat the violent attack that he had felt and this time the fish was closer to 5 pounds. I love it when a smallie beats up on a fisherman! He managed to get this and one other in before he lost a really good one when it took to the air. Taylor also lost two good fish before he landed his best of the day on a tube. If this fish didn’t go 5 pounds it was 4 pounds 15 ounces and certainly well worthy of a great picture. We tried a couple of other areas and managed to land one more fish over 4 pounds with another missed fish on a senko. Taylor had definitely struck out on this one as he swung 3 times and had a piece of the fish on every try. We eventually saw the fish and it was another biggun as we went over the area he had been hit. The day ended in the rain but they had a great time both learning and catching huge smallies throughout it all. I think there were at least 15 or 20 fish that were landed and many, many others lost in the process. Overall a great day for real big smallies!

Alain & Andrew joined me today on a local lake in hopes of catching some quality bass. We began the day with strong winds and high humidity. Air temps were in the 80’s and water temps were almost 73 degrees pretty much all over, where we fished. The winds were blowing from the S/W at 15 to 25 knots making the ride a little bumpy. The fishing started out a little slow at first with only a few smallies hitting our baits and the smaller ones being landed. Some of the larger 4-pound plus fish were seen just roaming around and not actually hitting the lures until I went to the senko’s. Here they managed to actually bite a few of the baits and soon after some of the larger ones were being caught. I think the activity level of the fish was really down from all the wind and rain we had experienced lately and the water colour wasn’t the greatest either! We moved around a bit with Alain catching a few good fish on the crankbaits and Andrew getting into a few as well, both on spinnerbaits and senko’s. I eventually opted for a more active fish and tried trolling for a while hoping to get Andrew into some pike & walleye. The winds were blowing pretty good in the area we were trolling causing the rolling waves to run about 3 footers. Add all the floating vegetation and I was constantly clearing the lines from all the weeds. We did manage to hook a few pike & one walleye but eventually gave up with all the headaches we were having and went back to casting for smallmouth. I tried several off shore areas that should have been loaded only to find absolutely nothing on any of them. I finally decided to go back and hit the shallows due to the high water and late season we had been experiencing when I stumbled on fish right away. I never thought that they would still be shallow and was glad we had gone in looking! For the rest of the afternoon we either hooked & landed or lost smallies up to & over 4 pounds but we saw all kinds cruising the fishing area as well. A slow presentation was definitely what they were looking for and the senko was the bait of choice. One more stop in the area we began our day proved to be a good choice as both Andrew & Alain landed several more quality smallies there as well. Overall a tough day, but a learning one that will aid me in the next few weeks to come until we actually get our long awaited summer.

Ed & Jim joined me today on a local lake in hopes of catching a few quality smallmouth bass. The weather definitely wasn’t in our favour, as we left the dock in dark skies and heavy winds. It was blowing at 10 to 15 knots and expected to reach 25 sometime during the day. There were showers & thunderstorms also in the forecast limiting our chances at a great day, but hopes were high nevertheless! By the time we reached our first spot, it wasn’t looking too good as light rain began to fall & the winds were blowing harder from the S making casting difficult. Ed began by throwing a spinnerbait & Jim threw a senko hoping for a quick bite but Mother Nature had other ideas in mind. It was difficult to control the line & direction let alone feel anything bite, but we pressed on looking for that first hit. The senko drew the first strike & Ed hooked up on a decent fish when he put the spinner bait down. This began a series of good fish before Ed decided to pull out the 5-weight fly rod hoping to hook a few smallies on a clouser. It didn’t take too long after I positioned the boat in order to ensure everyone’s safety and casting before he was locked up. They were both hooking into good fish now and well on their way to an excellent day with three to four pound fish on a regular basis. A few of these bruisers exceeded 4 pounds & pushed the 4.5-pound range showing both Jim & Ed the quality & potential of this lake. During all these fish being caught we were hammered several times with weather changes from bad to worse, but still fished through the heavy downpours. Fish do bite in the rain! Around 3:00 P.M. we thought the approaching storm might make us run back to the dock when we were hit with a monsoon like rain that turned on the bilge pump many, many times. Luckily for us, 20 minutes later it changed to only a light rain as we continued to fish. There were wind shifts from the S to S/W to W to W/NW that eventually went back to the S/W during the day, keeping me adjusting boat direction constantly. Many more fish were hooked & landed during all of this before we finally called it quits at 4:30 P.M. There was another storm approaching and we had seen all the rain we could handle for one day! Over all, despite all this misery, they must have landed at least 30 or more smallies with the bulk of them being real quality fish. I believe we finally won one against “Mother Nature” & overcame all that she had to dish out today!

I had a couple of days off so I decided to take advantage of this and go pound some chrome on Lake Ontario with Mike. We hooked up with Greg, a friend and hit the water early Wednesday morning in hot pursuit of the King Salmon! Water temps were 68 to 69 degrees where we were and the waves were pretty big with all the storm fronts that we had, but the fish were on. It rained plenty during the day and blew so strong that we were in average 4 footers with the occasional 6 or better thrown in for laughs. On the first day we landed a total of 36 fish up to almost 30 pounds with the bulk being 20 plus. It was quite an experience to get into all those fish and we have the bruises to prove it. The rod butts really put a strain on the gut when you’re trying to get back 4 to 5 hundred feet of line that just went out like a rocket. “What comes off must go on “ was the phase of the day! By 5:00 P.M. we had just about enough of this pain and headed back to regroup in the morning. Day 2 was almost the same with lighter winds and rain as well, but the fish were still hitting. We managed to land about 18 salmon in a few short hours and got off by 11:30 A.M. in order to get back to Montreal at a decent hour. We both had clients the next day and needed our rest after battling all these angry creatures. Some of the fish were a little smaller today, but we still had a double header that put 2 fish of 23 or 24 pounds in the boat at the same time. I only kept a few smaller fish to give to friends and all the rest were released to fight another day. All in all a really tough 2 days of fighting chrome monsters that just beat us up!! What a hoot!

I was sure glad to have the day off yesterday, with all the rain that fell and headed back on the water today with Satoshi. He was in from Japan visiting family & wanted to fish for the day, for smallmouth bass. We unfortunately were faced with cold front conditions after yesterday’s weather & had 20 to 30 knot winds from the W/NW. We also had a major drop in air temps & lost about 20 degrees, with a high of just 70 today. Water temps didn’t fall too badly, but with the wind they muddied up terribly. This was going to be a tough day all around! I had Satoshi throw a spinnerbait due to the tough conditions & I threw a senko so that I could pass off the rod, in case of a pick up. He landed a couple and lost a few more due to the hook sets, but they were not big fish. I had several pick-ups & he managed to land a few of them as well. A couple more decent fish were taken on tubes by Satoshi before we shifted to another area. This was even more in the wind & boat control was really tough here, but we did get into some more fish. They really weren’t very aggressive & needed a lot of convincing in order to eat our baits! We tried several other spots in hopes of finding schooling, active fish, but only managed a few more fish doing so. The winds were really bad on one spot we tried & it felt more like “Lake Erie” than St-Louis! Eventually we went back to where we had the most success & slowed down more. Satoshi continued to throw the spinnerbait off & on and had a big muskie eat it at the boat. We saw the whole strike perfectly & for a short time he was able to fight the fish. Unfortunately this was short lived as the fish jumped next to us & literally broke the spinnerbait at the bend in the arm. All he was left with was the blade & where the line connected to it. This fish was at least 45 inches and would have gone around 18 to 20 lbs. We got back onto the senko’s & Satoshi was into bass almost dead sticking them over the rocks. I knew the fish were there & slowing down while fishing was really working. The last couple of hours had the best landing ratio with Satoshi getting into bass up to almost 5 pounds. Despite “Mother Natue” we did overcome the conditions to land close to 20 quality smallies on this windy day!