I was back on the water today with Darren & his dad Al, for another shot at some multi species. We shot across to our first location to begin a troll for pike & walleye in a west wind of 5 to 10 knots & 1 to 2 foot chop. Air temps were in the low 60’s due to the overnight chill and clouds were surrounding us all the while. It didn’t take too long after we set the rods for the first reel to go off & Al was into a nice pike of 4 pounds. For the next couple of hours of trolling we managed to get into many more pike and miss several others along with a walleye and even a sunfish on a spinnerbait! Add to it a largemouth and a smallie and we’ve really got a mixed bag! Once the sun began to shine sometime after lunch, we decided to give it a try for strictly smallmouth bass. Senko’s were the hot ticket once more as we boated plenty of smallies, but they were mostly on the smaller side today. We did manage to see several larger ones just cruising around and Al had a shot at an honest 4 plus, but failed to close the sale! Somewhere around 3:30 P.M. we dropped Darren’s dad off at the ramp and headed back out to try & see if we might be able to hook into a muskie. Unfortunately, this was not to be as we trolled different areas trying to find one willing to take our offerings. With the late arrival of summer, the weeds are still not set up in the better areas and neither are the fish. I have had to make adjustments almost daily in order to get into the smallies that I should be hitting everywhere. Most of my better zones don’t even show any signs of holding fish as of yet and I don’t know if they even will this season. With all the high water I have been fishing areas that I normally wouldn’t and that’s where I have been finding the fish. Still with all this, we have managed to have success each & every day out and that’s all that counts! We ended the day around 5:30 P.M. today after washing several lures looking for that elusive creature know as the fish of 10,000 casts, without success. I will be back!!

Today I fished with Sydney and his grandson Oliver as well as one of their friends, Beryl for a mixed bag day. We began the day wondering if we were going to get dumped on with rain as we made our way across the lake to troll. The sky looked terrible with heavy dark clouds looming all around, but no rain fell. Air temps were in the mid 60’s soon to climb into the upper 70’s and the water temps were barely 72 degrees in most areas we fished. The winds were from the N at 10 knots or so and eventually died completely only to start again from the N/E and blow 10 to 15 knots with the approaching storms. We trolled for a while catching a few fish here & there but had to work pretty hard with the cooler waters to scratch up the fish we did. Oliver was the one catching the fish and managed to land several pike up to 7 pounds or so, but only one walleye later along. Her also caught a couple of smallies with one of them being over 3 pounds while trolling. As we made our way along to new areas, the reel fired and Oliver was into a big pike that would have definitely been over 10 pounds if we were ever able to land it. As bad luck would have it, the fish had 2 of our lures in its mouth and thrashed around at the boat throwing one and cutting the other off completely. Bye, bye pike!! Eventually, we opted to try our luck at bass and managed to get into a few smallies and a couple of largies, all on senko’s. Oliver hooked and landed a few smallmouth and caught a decent largie over 3 pounds as well. At another location, we hit several fish before the storms approached up to 5 pounds. Unfortunately with all the dark skies around us, we had to pack it in and head back to the ramp by 4:00 P.M. It wasn’t one of the greatest days on the water, but despite all the terrible weather lately I think we fended quite well. By the time it was all over, there had to be close to 25 fish landed with a pretty good mix of species as well as size. We all had a blast too!!

I had a couple of days off, so I headed to Lake Ontario in hot pursuit of “Cromage” with a buddy of mine at midnight. We arrived at the lake around 6:30 A.M. after a late departure, but were on the water a short while afterwards. Another friend of mine, Craig also joined us for a day of trolling for king salmon. We were very fortunate as the winds weren’t too strong, allowing me to try out my boat, finally equipped with downriggers and wire lines and all the necessary items needed to catch salmon. We managed to get several smaller kings into the upper teens along with a couple of steelhead up to 10 pounds during most of the day, but nothing giant. By the time Craig had to leave in the late afternoon, Marc & I decided to give it a try on our own. Craig was from the area and fishes the lake on a regular basis, fending real well but we wanted to see if we could catch a few salmon after he left and headed back out to try. There was a weather system approaching and we knew this might just trigger the fish into feeding before it hit. As luck would have it, we managed to catch 4 salmon and lose a big one near the boat before we had to run for cover with the nearing storm. Most of these fish were in the high teens with the largest going 23 pounds. Overall throughout the day we managed to catch 12 fish and only lose 2 others! Quality bites from some big cromers! After the storm had settled overnight, we headed back out in the morning hoping that at least some of the fish were still in the area. I don’t think we had the lines in the water for more than 10 minutes and the wire rod started to scream. We were to eventually land a 20-pound, chrome salmon that was to go home with Marc after we were through. Soon after, the rigger rod went off and another nice fish was being fought, only to be lost right beside the boat. We trolled around, marking hooks and baitfish all over the place and had another wire rod go off not long after the last one fired. I was to eventually land the largest salmon of the trip at 25 pounds. We got one other smaller one of around 10 pounds and had another get off before it all came to an abrupt stop. The show was officially over and we washed lures for over an hour or so before we decided to pack it in and head back to Montreal. It turned out to be a great trip with many fish fought and landed in my boat and now I know that I have all the tools needed to fish Lake Ontario for the big kings, whenever I want. I will be back next week for another go at the silver salmon of the great lakes again!!

Today I fished with Denis & Tony for another mixed bag kind of day. We headed out just after 7:00 A.M. and raced across the lake in hot pursuit of some walleye and northerns! Tony had never caught either of them and I planned on getting him into both species. The weather was a little overcast with a slight breeze from the N/W cooling the air slightly to 63 degrees. Eventually, sunshine would overtake this and raise the air temps to an unbearable 80 degrees with no wind, but at least we had the cool morning air to begin with. I had noticed that the overnight monsoon that we had, dropped the water temps by almost 3 degrees and slowed the bite for a while. We eventually got into some fish with a slower troll and had success by doing so. It wasn’t fast & furious, but we managed to get into some quality walleye up to almost 6 pounds and some decent northerns as well. Somewhere late in the morning I decided that the trolling pattern we had been doing was slowing down even more and opted for casting to smallies with senko’s. This was definitely the right choice as Tony landed a nice 4-pound bass almost immediately. Nice starter fish!! Denis wasn’t too far behind with a few of his own and we were off to the races! After that, we were all into fish on a regular basis and things were looking up. Senko’s were catching bass in the 2 to 4 pound range regularly and everyone was having action. We hit several other places and had the same success with fish off and on. By the time we were ready to leave, there had to be at least 15 or 20 bass landed and plenty of pike too. They even got to take home a few walleye for dinner as well! All in all a pretty good day with close to 40 fish landed.

Craig joined me once again today with his son Mitch and this time he brought along his other son Jared to sample some of the fish as well. We launched the boat and ran across the lake in flat calm conditions to our first spot to troll for pike & walleye. Air temps were in the 70’s later to climb into the 80’s and the water temps were about 73.5 degrees in most areas. Clouds soon gave way to broken clouds & sunshine as we made our first pass along the weeds. It didn’t take long for the reel to fire and Jared was into the first northern of the day. Mitch soon followed with another decent pike before Craig got into a nice walleye around 5 pounds. We tried different passes in and around the weeds but only managed a few more fish in the next hour & decided to try for smallmouth bass at another location. This was to prove to be a better choice as one of the first bass to come aboard was a 20 inch, over 5 pound smallie that was just giant! Jared was the lucky one and after a few quick pics, she was returned to fight another day. We covered several areas with rock & weed and managed to get into plenty of average bass along with a few above average 3.5 to 4 pound ones before we called it a day. They had to be somewhere in the later part of the afternoon and we headed back before 2:00 P.M. in order to ensure their arrival. It was just as well as we had just about enough of the heat, humidity & “Dog Pecker Knats” and were ready to leave. Craig definitely had the hot hand this afternoon, landing many smallies on senko’s but Jared held his own on the Gulp baits too. Mitch struggled a little, but managed to get into a few of his own, despite all of the elements we were faced with. It was also showing signs of potential storms approaching, so we were unanimous in our decision. All in all a tough day with no wind, lots of midge and plenty of high heat & humidity to roast a turkey!!!!