I fished with Mark today on a local body of water for fishing 101. He hadn’t really ever fished for anything larger than panfish before and needed to learn a little about other species for work and wanted to experience it first hand. We met at the boat ramp around 7:30 A.M. and headed out for a crash course in everything from the basics to catching. The weather really turned out great with sunshine and temps exceeding 70 degrees. There was almost no wind until the afternoon when it began to blow 5 to 10 K from the S/W. This was a welcome change from all the N winds that we had been experiencing lately and the warm air felt great. Water temps actually increased during the day to just over 66 degrees. I still wish that it would fall and bring the fish in from deeper water for the fall bite. We began by jigging in deep water and managed to catch a few fish quickly on tubes. Although this seemed foreign to Mark, he eventually got the hang of it and landed a few nice smallies. I thought I would teach him a little about casting as well & gave him a spimnnerbait to throw in shallower water, hoping for a reaction strike from an aggressive smallmouth bass. Just when he thought about daydreaming, a 3 pounder hammered the lure and the fight was on. He couldn’t believe the power of a fish only that size as he struggled to land the fish for a picture. This was to prove to be the largest one he caught throughout the day, but at least he got to feel the strength of the smallie! He lost several others while fishing deep but only managed to land a few smaller ones in the end. He did get to see a couple of walleye too and now he knows what they look like in real life, instead of just pictures! Although this wasn’t the greatest day for catching, sometimes it isn’t the most important thing. The learning that he received from this outing will remain with him for sometime to come and benefit him in his work as well.

Hughes & his son, Olivier joined me today on a local lake for what was supposed to be a day of smallie action. To our surprise, it turned out to be more of a day of largemouth bass instead. The weather started out cloudy and dismal and never got any better with air temps barely over 62 degrees. Winds were light from the S/W making for easy boat control everywhere we fished. The water temps remained pretty much the same all over at 66 degrees and the clarity was pretty good as well. Both Hughes and Olivier managed to get into fish in the first couple of minutes, casting spinnerbaits and tubes. Although they weren’t huge like we were seeing, they were decent ones nonetheless. Olivier eventually hooked into a giant smallie and was overwhelmed when it took to the air for the second time and came unpinned. It was all of five or more pounds and gone! There was a bit of a competition going on between father & son and Olivier was winning. Each time his father caught a fish and thought he was gaining, Olivier followed up with one of his own. He even managed to get into another giant smallie later in the afternoon and unfortunately this one came off at boat side too. Hughes caught a bunch of largies and a couple of smallies, but never got into anything like his son did and had to settle for 3 pounders instead. By the time the day was done, Olivier had definitely landed more fish than his father, but both had lost their fair share as well. It wasn’t the day I had expected, but with a few adjustments, it turned out to be a good day overall.

After postponing yesterdays outing with clients due to horrible weather forecasts, we decided to give it a try today. The lesser of two evils! Both days were expected to have heavy rains and high winds, only to end up with overcast skies and practically no breeze at all. Mike managed to get a replacement for his dad, when we switched the days and Peter was more than happy to accommodate him. The weather was once again cloudy with a high of almost 70 degrees and a light N wind of less than 5 K. Water temps were 65 to 66 degrees in most areas and stained with sediment. We began fishing deep at 20 to 30 feet of water and immediately began hooking up with both smallies as well as walleye. Tube jigs were the hot ticket today with almost everything falling victim to them. When I didn’t see any signs of large fish being taken, I decided to try other areas in hopes of finding some real bigguns! This wasn’t to be however as we jumped all over, trying about 10 places before we landed back where we began. A few bass were caught on crankbaits in these areas, but the action was really slow. Obviously, deep was the place to be and we were going to fish slowly to see if we could manage to get a few more. Both Mike & Peter were hooking fish and after several drifts, we decided to call it a day by 5:00 & head back to the ramp. Although there weren’t really any big bass caught today, they managed to land 30 or 40 fish including many walleye. Overall, a decent day with lots of smaller smallies!!

I was on the water today with Darren for a little more smallmouth bass action. The weather was a little better than the last couple of days with cooler air of 70 degrees and overcast skies. Winds were non-existent and the water temps were around 45 degrees. We wasted no time getting into fish, fishing deep water of 25 to 40 feet and hooking up consistently. Unfortunately, these were smaller fish than I wanted and the largest would have gone slightly above 3 pounds. We jumped around to several areas doing the same thing, catching in every place we stopped and even managed to get a few walleye for Darren to take home for dinner. It wasn’t until late in the afternoon when we finally started to catch some quality and Darren hooked fish up to 5 pounds in one area. He also had a few that were over 4 pounds along with some smaller 3 pounders to add to the catch. There were probably 40 or so fish landed today in a variety of areas from 3 feet all the way to over 40 feet deep. I can’t wait for the water to cool off a little more and start to concentrate the bass in larger volumes. Overall, it was a pretty good day!!

I was back on the water again today with Jim once again, but this time we opted for a different lake in hopes of catching more & bigger bass. The temps had fallen overnight and the winds were from the north at 10 to 15 knots making the air feel even colder than it really was. The overcast skies didn’t help either as sunshine might have warmed us up a little bit more. The air was 50 degrees & the water was 67 degrees but the air temps almost matched the water by late afternoon as they reached 65. This coupled with the sunshine and stopping of the winds almost felt Florida like as we cruised the shallows sighting bass all over. Unfortunately, it was a lot like yesterday as we picked a few fish here & there and really had to work hard to get them to strike. Tubes were the baits of choice as almost all of the bass today fell victim to one colour or another. There were a few that were caught on crankbaits and a few more on spinnerbaits, but the better fish came on the tubes. While dragging in deeper water, searching for a concentration, I managed to get into a huge one that would have been close to 6 pounds. Jim wasn’t as lucky with his largest going a little over4 pounds. He did however catch a bonus largemouth on a spinnerbait and that was a real surprise to both of us too. Somewhere around 5:00 P.M. as the sun was falling along with the air tempos, we decided to call it a day and head back to the boat ramp. He will be back in a few weeks with his wife and I ensured him that the fishing could only get better. All of these cruising fish will likely be on the feed by then and big numbers will follow. Although we didn’t catch a ton of fish today, there were still plenty of quality smallies to keep us happy!