I had the pleasure of fishing with Kevin and his wife Chris from Oklahoma today for smallmouth bass. Kevin was an experienced bass fisherman, but fished mostly largemouth from where he was from and they both were looking foreword to the smallmouth. It was a little slow in getting started and took almost 15 minutes before they were hooking up regularly, but they caught on. The weather was nice for part of the day, but the wind was another story. It began almost dead calm where we were fishing and eventually went east at 5 to 10 knots only to change over SW at 15 to 20 knots. It was also gusting stronger at times and they were over 30 knots too! Chris had never really experienced smallmouth bass much before but after today, realized why everyone loves them so much. They just tore her up! She was complaining of sore everything before noon and it only got worse! Tube jigs once again were the lure of choice, but Kevin became my guinea pig and caught them on almost everything. I had him throwing spinner-baits and jerk-baits and hooking up on both lures as well. Some of the bigger fish came on spinner-baits and I broke off the biggest one when I tried to boga a 5 pounder hooked on a jerk-bait that Kevin hooked. I hope I get her back next time out! Just like the days before, fish were taken in each and every area we fished and large volumes I might add too! The wind was really causing havoc and thankfully they were both throwing jigs on spinning gear because the wind really made casting difficult. Trying to position the boat to enable them to get the perfect drift wasn’t easy either and I really had to work at it. Our last stop of the day had about 10 fish caught in about the same amount of time before we bolted to the ramp in the rain. I wish it could have held off a little longer as we would have been able to take the pictures a little easier. I don’t know about Kevin, but I’m sure that his lovely wife Chris was ailing that night! They must have boated at least 100 smallies by the time it was all over and every one of the fish gave them one heck of a fight. Overall, it was a great day despite “Mother Nature” and the elements!

Darren & I headed out again today to another body of water in pursuit of big smallies! The weather held out once again and we were faced with beautiful blue skies and little to no wind all day long. Air temps reached into the 70’s and we were in a T-Shirt for quite a while during the afternoon. The water temps continued to climb and rose almost another degree to over 57 in some of the areas we fished. Lots of fish were once again caught and even more lost mostly on tube jigs and many of them bigguns! Darren lost the best one of the day right after a fish over 5 pounds came aboard. Too bad too, because it would have been the largest one this fall. It didn’t really matter though as we caught over 75 bass during the day and multiple fish in certain areas brought the numbers up fast. It wasn’t quite as good as yesterday, but that’s fishing! All in all a pretty good day though and bigger fish were caught!

I fished with Michel on a local body of water for smallmouth bass today and oh, how we caught them. The weather started out with us in a fog bank and I had to run almost solely by GPS, It was so thick that I decided to start in an area that I really didn’t want to but was glad I did. First cast produced a fish over three pounds! The air temps were cool but once the fog lifted after 10:00 AM, they warmed up plenty. There was virtually no wind and this made boat control a breeze. Water temps were around 56.5 degrees at best, but I knew they were on a warming trend with the forecasted temps. Every spot today produced plenty of smallies from 1.5 pounds to almost 5 pounds. Michel caught so many fish that he was sore from top to bottom, literally! I never feel sorry for someone that self inflicts pain from fighting too many fish. Not responsible! By the time the day was said & done, there were probably close to 150 bass caught. I can’t even imagine how many were lost as well. To say this was a great day would be the understatement of the year. I don’t think words could describe this one, it had to be experienced!

Today, I fished with Glen & Chris on a local body of water, mostly for smallmouth bass. The weather was a little nippy in the morning with air temps barely over 40 degrees and heavy cloud cover. Fortunately, there wasn’t much wind, but it was still from the NW making it feel even colder. The water temps seem to be dropping each & every night and this morning, the best I had was 56.5 degrees. The fish were a little lethargic at the start, but once the sun poked out, they began to feed. I knew that it would be another slow bite, so we threw tube jigs and slowly dragged then in specific areas for the bass. Both Glen & Chris were new to this type of presentation, but once they began to get into a few fish, they were on their way. The hardest thing about this technique is to have the feel for the lightest tap and know the differences between weeds, rocks or the fish. Keeping a tight line at all times and allowing the jig to bounce along the bottom will definitely produce more strikes! They both caught plenty of bass in the 1.5 to 3 pound range and several that were closer to 4 pounds in a few areas as well. By moving around a lot and taking advantage of the aggressive biters, we were able to get into fish in every location we fished. In the mid afternoon, I decided to try & see if I could get them into a Muskie and started to troll for these creatures. They both knew that there were no guarantees, but were willing to give it a try and relax for a while. I set the rods out and began trolling over deeper water looking for any sign by either baitfish or big fish-hooks, but never really marked anything worthwhile. One of the reels did fire however, but the fish came off before I could get it out of the holder. Apparently, the reel jammed when the fish grabbed the lure and the line didn’t go out. It turned out to be a minor problem that only required tightening the thumbscrews on the side of the reel. Somehow, they came loose and the gears weren’t lining up correctly causing them to jam. Tough break! We weren’t having any success in this area and decided to change locations hoping to change our luck as well. The next area was about as good as the previous one and we just kept on moving until I hit a location that I had never fished before. It looked good and I was marking bait and an occasional hook and then the reel screamed. Finally we were into what I was looking for and Chris took the rod and began fighting the fish. I could tell that it was a good one and we cleared the other rods to make sure there were no mishaps. It was a decent sized fish and I lip gripped her with the boga and removed the hooks before bringing it aboard for the pics. It measured 45 inches and would have gone about 25 pounds or so due to its girth. Looks like they’re feeding well on my smallmouth! I quickly returned her to the water for the release and moments later; she bolted to the depths where she came from. I was glad to have gotten into this fish, but wanted more and reset the lines hoping for another pull. Unfortunately, that was all she wrote and we had to settle for one fish and one missed strike. Not too bad for less than 3 hours of trolling I guess, but I always want more and never seem to be satisfied. It’s an addiction! All in all a good day with about 40 smallies caught and plenty of others lost and the first Muskie for Chris!

Alain & Cindy were to accompany me today on yet another local body of water in pursuit of more smallie action! We were to get off the water a little earlier today due to other engagements so we met at 7:00 AM and rolled immediately afterwards. Overnight, the air had dropped down to only 3 degrees above zero and I knew it would have an effect on some of the areas we were to be fishing. It would definitely be a slow presentation until the water warmed up, if it ever did! Fortunately for us, the sun was shining and that made the air feel no quite so cold. We were all wearing some sort of gloves for most of the day however and were glad to have them on. Winds were out of the W at 5 to 10 knots with slightly higher gusts at times feeling more like sub zero temps rather than above zero. The fish were still in the areas I had caught them yesterday and it didn’t take long before both Cindy and Alain had bent rods. Some of these smallies were a little on the below average size, but still a blast to catch. Eventually we were to shift areas and finally fell into a zone that was holding better quality fish of 3 to 4 pounds. We stayed in this area as long as the fish were cooperating and everyone was catching. When it finally slowed, we relocated again and did the same thing all over again. I think Cindy might have caught more than Alain, but to Alain’s defence, she was in the front of the boat casting to where I pointed. Just like yesterday, we caught fish in practically every location we fished. I wanted to see if I could hook up with a Muskie for one of them so sometime after lunch, we began to troll. Unfortunately by this time, the winds had kicked up a little more and it had started to rain. Add to this all the floating vegetation and it darn near made it impossible for me to have a chance at getting into one. We trolled for about 90 minutes or more in a few areas, marking some fish and plenty of bait, but had no takers. It wasn’t to be today given the short time frame were allotted to try for them and we had to call it quits for the day. It was still a great few hours for smallmouth though with over 40 fish landed and plenty more lost as well. The largest today would have gone close to 4.5 pounds and still another day without a five pounder to our credit. I anticipate that this will only improve with the cooler nights ahead and falling water temps in the next few weeks and can’t wait for all of those 100 fish days to come!!