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!

I fished with Mohammed today on Lake St-Louis for smallmouth bass. The day was probably the nicest one I’ve seen in a while as we had blue skies and no wind. Air temps went up to 80 degrees by the afternoon and the water temps were around 77 degrees in most areas. We were into fish in the first 5 minutes after we arrived on a flat in the middle of the lake. Mohammed had not fished in over 7 years but still managed to get the first walleye. He caught another one only a couple of minutes later and followed it up with a bass of 3 pounds shortly afterwards. There was plenty of large smallmouth swimming around that just wouldn’t take anything. We continued fishing all over the area and managed to catch about 10 fish or so up to 3 ½ pounds mostly on tubes. After a while I changed locations and we fished another area with weeds and a drop off. A couple more fish were caught before we decided to go to another area and throw Senko’s & Power Jerk Shads. It was slow, but we managed to get a few fish up to 4 pounds. We jumped around a bit and caught a few fish everywhere we went. The last area we went to try produced many more bass and even more followed our baits right up to the boat without taking. Crankbaits and Jerk Shads seemed to work the best in this place as we had over 15 fish interested. All in all a great day as over 20 bass were caught with many more missed & seen! On our way back to the boat launch a boat in distress flagged us down. It seems that they had hit a reef and damaged their motor to a point that it would not even start. Careful observation and a chart of the water you are on would be a good idea! Too many people just don’t have the respect they should and think because it’s a lake, it’s deep everywhere! Big mistake! I had seen a police boat on the water earlier and ran back to get them some help. Hopefully everything turned out all right as I brought the police boat back to the boat in distress and went on my way. Tough day for them!!!

Serge & his father, Raymond joined me today on Lake St-Francis for smallmouth bass. It was a tough start to the day as we had received a heavy electrical storm overnight that seemed to move all the larger bass away from their usual haunts. The air temps were a chilly 60 degrees at the start of the day but went up to 90 degrees by the end. Sunny skies turned to a mix of clouds & sun early in the afternoon with strong winds of 15 to 25 knots and even stronger gusts. Waves reached 3 to 4 feet in some areas that we fished making boat control extremely difficult. Water temps were at 76 degrees and rose a degree or two during the day. A couple of smaller bass around 2 ½ pounds were caught early on Senko’s and Raymond had a four-pounder throw a crankbait when she went air born. We eventually got into some better fish when I decided to go out to deeper water and fish a combination of rocks & weeds. Serge nearly had the rod ripped out of his hands a few times as the smallies hammered his spinnerbait. These fish were schooling and there were always a few following when one was hooked. I think that more bass were lost than landed however as it seemed like each time they jumped they came off. Both Serge & Raymond landed several fish around 3 pounds in this area on a combination of lures. When the fishing slowed down, we relocated to another area and took a beating in the waves trying to fish. A few fish were caught, but we decided to get out of there soon after due to the large waves we were in. We jumped to a series of places and caught a few more fish up to 4 ½ pounds later in the afternoon. All in all a good day with about 15 fish caught and plenty more lost.