I hit the water this morning with Norm & Alison, to se if we couldn’t get into a few big smallies as Norm needed to beat his personal best. The weather was a cool 45 degrees at the start with a light S/W wind of less than 5 K. Sunshine greeted us pretty much all day long bringing the air temps into the 60’s by days end. The water temps started out at 58.5 degrees, but also warmed to just over 60 degrees before we were done. It didn’t take long before the action started and both Alison & Norm were hooking up on multiple bass in the 2 to 4 pound range. This went on for quite a while throughout the morning and then it just slowed down completely. I wasn’t sure why, but I didn’t like it! I changed up to several colours and they picked a fish here & there, but it just didn’t feel right. I had a feeling there was a higher power responsible for this and decided to relocate to another area not too far away. As luck would have it, this turned out to be the right decision. Almost immediately, Alison was into a bass on her first cast and Norm was soon to follow. There were a mixed bag of both smallmouth & largemouth bass in this area, but I was after the big smallies. Norm had a shot at 3 or more of these giants, but unfortunately they all came unpinned when they took to the air. I know that at least two of them were in the mid to upper 5 pound range as we had a great look at them during the short battle. Alison did manage to personal best hers though with a nice smallie in the upper 4-pound range and that was great to see. To all our amazement, Norm was left empty handed with about 6 chances and they all came off! We decided to run back to the other area for a little while before we called it a day and Norm hooked into a smallie within the first minute. It may not have been one of the giants he kept losing, but it was a decent fish of a couple of pounds. About the time the fish took to the air on it’s first jump, my suspicions were confirmed. There was an enormous surface explosion about 20 feet from the boat as a huge musky decided this was an easy meal and grabbed the bass crossways in its mouth. It actually looked more like a shark attack than anything else as we all stared in amazement. I’m not sure why, but the musky didn’t want to let the bass go and after a couple of minutes of battle, I was able to net the beast and bring it aboard. I quickly locked onto her with the boga to ensure everyone’s safety, fish included and to my surprise, the bass was gone and the jig was holding in the musky’s jaw. A couple of quick pics and a measurement and the 48-inch monster was released unharmed to feed another day. I told them that after this, everything else would be just downhill. We stayed for a brief period longer and soon after decided to leave for home. This was not only a productive day for bass, but an exciting one with the musky as well! It’s not too often that you get to experience this first hand and rarely do you ever end up landing the fish, especially on 10 pound line. I’m sure that all of us won’t forget this anytime soon!!

I had a full boat today as Sammy & his brother were joined by Tony & his uncle Leonardo from Belgium for some tremendous smallmouth bass action. Although we somehow managed to get a later start than I was use to, they still managed to catch a bunch of decent sized bass. The weather was a beautiful fall like day with cool air temps in the upper 50-degree range and light winds until late in the afternoon when they blew at 10 K from the west. Sunshine greeted us pretty much all day long and warmed the water to just over 60 degrees by days end as well. I really don’t remember who drew first blood with the fishing but I do know that everyone managed to catch plenty of bass to keep all happy. Sammy definitely had the hot hand as he landed the most of everyone, but not the largest. These honours were for Tony as he managed to get a smallie that was 21 inches and all of 5.5 pounds. Good thing too as he also sampled the water first hand while taking a nature break. It was like watching someone from the Polar Bear Club, but fully clothed. Thankfully, he was able to get out quickly and change before the cold set in. Love that Ranger ladder! There wasn’t really and dead periods during the day, just constant action that kept everyone on their game. Too bad there were so many fish missed or lost, as this would have been an even better day on the water. We decided to call it quits somewhere after 5:00 P.M. when the temperatures started to fall as the sun went low. Overall, it was a pretty good day with lots of action, right down to the Baptism!!

Darren joined me again today but this time he treated his brother Mark to a day with him for smallmouth bass. We headed out a little later than usual due to the cold overnight lows in anticipation of sunshine and a warmer beginning. The air temps were in the mid 40’s but with the strong 20 knot, W winds, it felt more like below freezing. Clouds blanketed us pretty much all day with a little sunshine later in the afternoon. Water temps were between 58.5 & 62 degrees, depending on where we were fishing. Darren drew first blood when he hooked up on a 4 pounder on his first cast and we knew he was in for trouble. It’s bad luck to catch a fish on your first cast, as Darren was about to find out. His brother Mark was to hook up next with a slightly smaller smallie but it was quite sometime after the first. Eventually, we managed to get into an area where they began catching largemouth on almost every cast for a brief period and managed to bring about 15 or more of them to the boat with the largest going about 3 pounds. They also managed to lose several other smallies due to the strength of their fight. We probably stayed longer than we should have, but there were plenty of huge smallmouth bass in the area that seemed to only have lockjaw. Somewhere after noon, we opted for another area a little further away in hopes of more biters. As luck would have it, it wasn’t long after we arrived that the fish became active. Both Darren & Mark began to hook into plenty of above average smallies that went up to & even over 4 pounds on a regular basis. It wasn’t every cast, but there was enough action to keep everyone satisfied! When it all slowed down, I relocated to another area and they began all over again. There were so many fish in this area that they began hooking up in doubles. Mark managed to land his largest bass ever when he brought one to the net over 5 pounds. Ironically, he blew that away a few minutes later when he managed to land one of 22 inches and all of 6 pounds or better. This was too bad that we arrived in this area so late in the day as we were almost ready to leave! We fished a little longer and managed to get into many more bass, but nothing over 4 pounds, before we cut out and headed back to the ramp. Although the day started out a little slow, it definitely ended with a bang! There had to be over 50 bass landed to day with closer to 75 being more likely. It was definitely a big fish bite day!!

Norm headed out with me this morning, as we took a road trip to see if we could get him into some smallmouth bass. He hadn’t fished in over 10 years and was really looking foreword to catching a few fish and seeing what techniques would be used. We arrived at the lake a little later than expected at 9:00 A.M. after having a little car trouble and wasted no time launching the boat. The conditions were less than perfect with overcast skies, heavy winds at 10 to 20 K from the W/SW & air temps below 50 degrees. I really thought we would get them good when I saw that the water temps were around 61 degrees but wasn’t impressed with the grey colour. We began by throwing spinnerbaits to see if we could get into any active fish and had a few short strikes. I changed up to see if I could entice a fish into hitting a texas-rigged tube and immediately got bit. I also got bit off and knew it was a northern! After re rigging, I also got bit off once more and was beginning to wonder if it was a good idea to set another rig up and try again. This I decided to try and finally landed a pike of a couple of pounds and knew it was time to relocate. We tried several other areas before we finally went deep and began to hook up on tubes. Although we may have taken a few hours to locate the fish, we were finally on them and actually catching smallmouth bass. We spent the rest of the day covering water in the same area and catching bass up to 3.5 pounds. For someone that hasn’t fished in over 10 years, Norm definitely held his own, catching plenty of smallmouth on tubes as well. It didn’t take him long to get the hang of dragging the jigs slowly over the area to entice the reluctant strikes that we were having. We actually had to almost dead stick the baits in some cases to provoke the fish into hitting the jigs. Along with the difficult conditions, we had a wind from the W/NW and waves blowing in from the S causing a washing machine effect that had us on our toes. It wasn’t easy to make a proper drift under these adverse conditions, but we still managed nevertheless! Somewhere late in the afternoon, we began to get into some of the larger bass and decided to stay a little later than expected. At one point, we were catching average 3 pound or better smallies in a small area and didn’t plan on moving until they stopped biting. It wasn’t until we lost our wind that I decided to pack it in and call it a day. We loaded the boat on the trailer at just about dark and were happy to have held out as long as we had as the fish were really biting. Overall, there must have been about 40 or more smallies landed up to 3.5 pounds and plenty of others lost & missed as well. For a day that started out slow, we definitely finished with a bang. If we had spent the entire day in the area we had finished in, there would have most likely been closer to 100 fish landed instead. All in all a tremendous day despite the weather and lack of fish at the start!!

I was back on the water once again today, but this time with Darren & Ed for smallies. The weather wasn’t the greatest with overcast & rain pretty much all day long. The winds were light and from the S/W at less than 5 K, but the air felt cool at 58 degrees. Water temps were hovering around 65 degrees and pretty clear wherever we fished. We tried several areas throughout the day and never really found schooling fish anywhere. Most of the time we were lucky to get more than 1 fish in each spot and I think we actually caught 4 in one area. Spinnerbaits & tube jigs were what they threw, but a few fish were also taken on tiny crankbaits. Darren managed to land a smallie on the tiny bait that went over 6 pounds in one area and was lucky it stayed pinned when I finally got her in the net. As luck would have it, the tiny hook was barely holding in a lose piece of skin. I guess elephants eat peanuts too! Ed just hammered the pike on a spinnerbait and it took a while before he actually landed a smallie, but it finally happened. He got a nice 3 pounder on a tube and soon after, several others on the spinnerbait. It wasn’t fast & furious like I had expected, but there were quality bass landed today in many areas. We definitely covered water trying to find schooling fish but only managed to find small groups in the areas we fished. By days end there were probably close to 20 or more bass taken ranging from 3 pounds to over 6. A good day for quality!!