After a no show from clients today and total frustration, I headed onto the water in the afternoon with my wife Christiane, for some smallie action. Yesterday’s large total had me wanting more and she was just the person to take advantage of this easy fishing. The weather had broken from the early morning showers and was now just cloudy with light & variable winds. It was a perfect fall day! Water temps had gone down another degree since yesterday and were now 62.5 at best. The air had a damp chill in it and never even reached 60 degrees with the lack of sunshine. The first spot was a little disappointing as neither of us landed a fish in it and yesterday it had put out almost 20 bass up to 4 pounds. I had a couple of bites, but nothing landed. The second spot however, had Christiane locked up on her first cast and this was a 4.5-pound smallie. I showed her how to use the boga grip to easily land the fish and she was well on her way to safely unhooking many more after. I took a few quick pics and returned the bass safely back to where it came from. We were fishing fast current with weeds and some rock and the fish were all over the place. She managed to get into at least 10 fish in a short time by me positioning the boat so that she could hit the high percentage areas. After about 20 or 30 minutes of this, we relocated and did the same thing in another area nearby. At this time of year, all you have to really do is find a couple of fish and there’s usually a bunch more. One more area had us locking up regularly as a few doubles came aboard and these were larger fish as well. At one point, it was every cast! Tubes and some crankbaits accounted for the fish today and in just a few short hours; we had landed over 35 bass up to 4.5 pounds. I wanted to see if I could get her into another Muskie after last Sunday’s 53.5-inch monster and decided to troll for a while. It took about 30 minutes and while I was cleaning a line, the fish hit. I never got to hear the reel fire, but having the rod in my hand when the muskie ate the lure was just as good. I knew the chances of it being as big as her last one was going to be disappointing, but just getting into a muskie was worthwhile. It decided to go airborne during the fight and jumped completely out of the water with a spectacular, Olympic leap. I boga gripped the fish beside the boat and carefully removed the one hook that was in her before bringing the fish aboard for a couple of quick pics. The release was a simple one as the 38-inch fish bolted immediately when I returned her to the water. We continued trolling for about 20 minutes more and decided to call it a day. It was another successful short day on the water and we were fulfilled. Anytime you can spend 3 or 4 hours out and have these results, it’s a great day!

I was back on the water again today with Marco & Jacenty for a mixed bag type of day. The weather was a complete duplicate of yesterday with less wind and unbelievable for this time of year again. Jacenty wanted to try for a big Muskie so we set the rods and began trolling first off. Around 20 minutes into the troll, the wire line went off and the reel began its typical scream. I yelled, “Fish” and Jacenty was on the rod almost immediately afterwards. It was hard to tell how big it was on this meat stick, but I knew it would be around 20 pounds at least. When both Marco & Jacenty saw the 43-inch fish behind the boat, they couldn’t believe their eyes. They thought it was enormous and freaked when they caught a glimpse of it coming to the boat. I managed to lip grip it with the boga and had to snip one of the hooks out before I brought it aboard for a few pics. I guess the fish was still a little green, because she gave Jacenty a hard time posing for the pictures. She spiralled while he was holding her and did a nasty job on one of his hands and fingers. The fish went away unharmed, but that’s more than I can say about the fisherman! I had to play doctor and close all the wounds before we resumed our fishing. I was hoping on getting Marco into one of these and continued trolling other areas for a while without another strike. We marked plenty of good-looking hooks, but no takers! Eventually, we went for smallmouth and they began catching some decent bass. Jerk-baits and tubes were once again the ticket with an occasional spinnerbait later in the afternoon. We had all kinds of fish following the lures in every place we hit, but there weren’t too many takers and it was beginning to get frustrating. There’s nothing worse than seeing fish and not being able to get them to strike! We moved all over picking a few here and there and later in the afternoon decided to try for Muskie once again. Just like the morning, we marked plenty of good hooks in several areas, but couldn’t get a reel to fire. We ended up leaving around 6:00 PM without getting Marco into one of those toothy critters. It was a pretty good day, but a few more bass and another Muskie would have made it a great one. All in all, they had fun but somebody did get hurt! I know that Yacenty will always remember his first Muskie and he now has the cuts & scars to prove it!

After a disappointing day yesterday due to hurricane like winds and pounding rain, we were back on the water again today with a vengeance. Craig & Herm were with me on a local body of water in pursuit of smallmouth bass and oh how they caught them! The weather had taken a 180-degree turn for the better with sunshine and temps that maxed out at 65 degrees in the afternoon. Water temps were barely over 63 degrees and had fallen from yesterday’s rain and the overnight lows we suffered from the cold front. The winds were strong from the NE and heavier gusts at times blew at 20 to 25 knots. This eventually died almost completely leaving us with light & variable winds. I believe that each & every spot we fished today produced multiple fish, hook ups and even a few triple-headers. I can’t remember how many doubles we had but there were many of them as well. Tubes were the lures of choice and most of the bass fell victim to them dragged in anywhere between 5 & 20 feet of water. Once we found fish in certain locations, we usually stayed there until the action slowed and then found another area just like it somewhere else. Some places yielded 20 or more bass before we had to move. There were a lot of fish in the smaller than average size of two pounds or so, but there were also plenty of bass 3 pounds or better. We didn’t catch any 5 pounders today but there were quite a few 4 pounds and a few in the high fours. These fish are just starting to move into the fall locations and with cooler nights ahead, will actually group up heavier in the next few weeks. Eventually, there will be better than average sized bass mostly in the 3 to 4.5 pound range with many 5 pounders caught each day as well. I can’t wait! Fall is a great time to catch both size and numbers of football like smallies that just gorge themselves, knowing that winter will soon arrive. Falling water temps make these fish more active and they usually feed all day long! Today was the first day this fall that 2 anglers exceeded 100 bass caught with many, many others lost. There will be lots more of these days ahead to come as well!

I had the pleasure of fishing with Wes today on a local lake for a real Multi Species type of day. We primarily fished for smallies, but had a variety of other species during the day as well. This trip was actually an early anniversary present that Wes’s wife had gotten for him several weeks ago. They were scheduled to come into the Montreal area for the thanksgiving weekend and she wanted to surprise him with a day on the water. Great wife! The weather was unseasonably warm today with the highs reaching into the upper 70’s and the skies were full of sunshine throughout the entire day. The winds were out of the SW at 5 to 10 knots at the worst of times and the water temps reached 66.5 degrees in some places as well. We began the day trying to get him a Muskie by trolling, but had no takers and decided to go for smallies around 10:00 AM. It didn’t take long before he was locked up on a jerk-bait and many more followed. Tubes were also accounting for some of the bass, but he stuck to the jerk-bait due to the violent strikes that came with throwing it. Every time he hooked up there were several others that followed and I was able to pick one here & there on a tube when this occurred. In one of the areas drifting tubes in slightly deeper water, the rod snapped tight and we were into another fish, that didn’t look like a smallie. It turned out to be a 20-pound Muskie and it was on light bass tackle! I was finally able to boga grip this creature and bring it aboard for a few quick pics before releasing her unharmed. Pretty good, we trolled for over 2 hours without a touch and hooked up while fishing bass! This wasn’t the end to the madness either. There was a big sucker caught, a 36-inch northern and a sturgeon as well. All of these were taken on tubes while fishing for bass too. We hit several areas in hopes of finding the mother load, but only encountered smaller pods of bass all over the place. Spinnerbaits were also taking some of the larger fish up to 4 pounds in practically no water, while casting to rocky shoals surrounded with weeds. The bass action went all day long with some lulls in the afternoon, but we caught throughout. I thought I would give the trolling another try for Muskie late in the day and managed to get him into a decent fish of 42.5 inches. When the reel finally fired, it was like music to my ears and Wes was on the rod almost instantly. It was on the long line and he had a great fight with this fish. A few quick pics and back she went unharmed once more! We hit a couple of other places for smallies before calling it a day and managed to get into them once again. All in all it was a tremendous day full of action and probably 30 to 40 smallies not to mention all those bonus fish too!

I was back on the water again today, but up north on a Laurention lake with Jay & Mike. Yesterday, Mike had fished with Jay for Muskie and had gotten him into a few giants. Today however, Jay was fishing bass and Mike thought he would like to join us as well. The trees were beautiful with all the reds, yellows and oranges and would make great pictures, if we caught some fish. Water temps were 62 degrees and some areas 63.5 degrees with a light chop from the SE from winds of 10 to 15 knots. The first area was a small hump that put Jay into the first fish of the day. That’s just bad luck when you hook up right away and time would tell. Mike hooked into a couple of beauties almost immediately after and the livewell was beginning to fill up for later pics. We tries plenty of areas, some old and some new, but never really got into them good. There were a couple of fish here and there and we had to work to get the few bites that we got. Mike even managed to get a small muskie of about 36 inches while throwing a muskie jerk-bait off one of the deeper points while we fished for bass. Tube jigs definitely worked the best today as every smallmouth bass that was caught, came from them. Jay even hooked another muskie from a dock that instantly had both Mike & I sure it wasn’t a bass. It came by the boat like a submarine and just let go. Usually, they just bite you off, but this time it let lose before I had a chance to even get the boga. We tried unsuccessfully for a while casting for Muskie and then switched back to smallmouth once again only to have limited action once more. Sometime after 6:00 PM we had just had enough and decided to call it a day. We took a couple of pictures of the fish and released them back to the lake. There weren’t a lot of fish caught, but the average size was really good. There was even one bass that measures 21 inches in length and would have gone in the mid 5 pound range for sure. All in all a pretty good day with quality bites!