Ben & Luc were to accompany me today on a lake that was to yield only big bass all day long! The weather was a chilly 60 degrees when we arrived, but sunshine throughout brought the temps to over 80 degrees by days end. Winds were from the S/SW at about 10 knots creating a nice smallmouth chop! The water temps were below 70 degrees at the start and up to 73 by the end as well. A slow presentation was definitely going to be the ticket today as the fish seemed to be really lethargic. Senko’s accounted for the bulk of the fish with tubes and soft plastic jerk-baits catching a few as well. Luc drew first blood as he battled a fish of almost 5 pounds almost immediately on our first spot. Ben doubled up with a smaller one at the same time too. The next fish was almost equally as large as Luc managed to bring another big smallie to the boat on a senko again. A few more huge smallies were seen just looking at the baits, but not really interested in commiting to the bite. Luc had a shot at one of almost 6 pounds twice, but didn’t manage to get the hooks to her on either occasion. I found the fishing to be rather slow in the morning with one or two fish coming from each spot and decided to try deeper water instead, for the afternoon. Apparently it was to be the right decision as we found aggressive, schooling smallies eager to eat our baits. Both Ben & Luc had multiple hookups and several doubles for the next few hours. These fish were also huge and eventually became wise to our offerings and just shut down. We had to slowly finesse them into biting in the end and just picked one here & there for a while. I decided that we had put enough pressure on them and switched locations once more. For the last hour or so all we could do is pick one here & there once more and called it a day. Both Ben & Luc had managed to land over 20 bass combined today with the average size being over 4 pounds. All in all a slow but productive outing once again!!

I picked Leonard up at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in downtown Montreal this morning at 6:30 AM and headed to a local lake for smallmouth bass. Being from Oklahoma, he doesn’t get a chance to tackle the brown bass as much as the largemouth and was really looking forward to fighting some of these big smallies. Mother nature wasn’t going to make it an easy one as we drove through the first heavy rain of the day on our way to the boat ramp. It was a cold rain that chilled the morning air to below 60 degrees. The winds were almost non-existent as we began to fish our first spot of the day. Sunshine greeted us upon arrival and water temps were about 67 degrees at the start of the day as well. Not having fished Senko’s before, Leonard was about to see just how effective they really were! The first couple of bass caught were on the small side at 2 to 3 pounds, but some of over 4 pounds were caught a little later. Several huge fish were seen just cruising the areas we fished, but they had absolutely no interest in feeding at all. We fished several rocky areas before we were forced to retreat to a sheltered area when thunder & lightning began. These storms seemed to last for more than an hour before we were able to venture back out, safely! We got into a great largemouth bass bite immediately after the storm and pounded them for almost an hour on senko’s, up to 4 pounds or so. When the sun came out again, we opted for the smallmouth once more and headed back onto the open lake. I thought I would try something a little different and had Leonard cast spinner-baits to aggressive smallies on offshore rock-piles for a while. The hits were viscous as they really didn’t want to be caught. Aerial displays were amazing as some of these fish just seemed to go ballistic! A few more were caught on soft plastic jerk-baits before the winds kicked up so bad that we were forced to move. We tried a few other places for smallmouth before we decided that largemouth was the way to go and got completely out of the wind. Leonard landed some more green bass and almost another brown bass before we called it quits for the day. A pretty good day with plenty of bass caught & released and many more lost as well!!!

Andre, Jim & his daughter Careen were to be my guests today on a local lake for bass. Jim had waken his daughter up at midnight to drive the over 6 hours without telling her why. It was going to be a surprise for her as he called it “Daughter Appreciation Day”! She was about to experience an unbelievable smallmouth fishing day as we were soon about to see. With the air temps a warm 73 degrees at the beginning of the day, it climbed to over 80 degrees by the end, making for a comfortable fishing day all around. Sunshine and light winds soon changed during the morning to heavier winds of 10 to 20 knots from the S/W. The water temps went from 69 degrees to 71 as the day went on causing the fish to get more active as it rose. We had a slight delay as I towed a fisherman to shore with engine problems even before we were to wet a line. It’s an unwritten rule to aid anyone in need of help while on the water and I wasn’t about change that. We were rewarded for our good deed with a hookup almost immediately after as Careen landed a smallie of 3 pounds on a senko. The next fish was going to be a giant for her as one of over 5 pounds soon came to net. Andre got in the game a little while later with another fish over 4 pounds and Careen followed it up with another 5 pounder almost on the next cast. This went on for a while with fish being caught on every spot we fished. Andre managed to hook into a real beauty in the afternoon that went almost 6 pounds and had big fish of the day! Jim eventually got in the game with several hookups in one spot and managed to land a couple of the smallies that bit his line. With the wind blowing terribly on the lake, we decided to try a sheltered area for largemouth bass instead. Plenty more fish were caught & released by all parties before we braved the elements and headed back on the lake once more. The winds were gusting even stronger than before and a couple more smallies were caught before we headed back to a sheltered area once more for largemouth. We fished it for about fifteen minutes before we called it a day. All in all a great day on the water with 25 or so fish landed and released up to almost 6 pounds!!!

I was back on the water again today with Jim & one of his brothers Howard once more for smallmouth bass. Unfortunately, Jeff had to fly back home early this morning for business. What a day to miss! The morning began with air temps almost 70 degrees, overcast skies & virtually no wind. The water temps stayed around 64 degrees overnight and rose to 66 by days end. Almost immediately after wetting a line on our first spot, Howard was into the first acrobatic smallie of over 3 pounds. It put on quite a spectacular aerial display as it spent more time in the air than the water. Senko’s were definitely the ticket today as about 20 bass were caught & released up to almost 5 pounds. Most of these fish showed the same amount of energy, as they all seemed to put on amazing battles as well. Boat control was definitely a lot easier as I hardly needed the electric motor at all. We spent plenty of time fishing all the offshore places that we just weren’t able to yesterday and caught fish on all of them. In fact, if Jim had been able to monopolize on all the hits he had, there would have been more than 30 bass landed today. All in all it was just a fantastic day to be on the water!!!

After a short time away from the water, I was back again once more on my local lakes. Today I had the pleasure of fishing with 3 brothers from Chicago & Washington for smallmouth bass. We started the day by driving to the lake in an intermittent rain, which seemed to stop upon arrival at the ramp. The air temps got up to over 80 degrees and the water temps were as much as 64 in certain areas. By afternoon, the sun was shining and the winds were howling from the S/W at 20 to 30 knots. This definitely made boat control a difficult task! Jeff drew first blood with a smallie over 3 pounds caught on a senko, but Howard soon followed it up with one slightly larger on a small crank-bait. Jim was having a difficult time with the hook sets, but soon learned patience & restraint was what was needed for these bass. Every spot we fished seemed to be holding some fish, but we had a hard time holding in the wind and soon found ourselves heading away from the main lake spots and into some sheltered areas for the remainder of the afternoon. Plenty of largemouth bass and a few northerns were caught in the last hour of the day and Jim managed to pick a few too! One of his bass was thought to be just a weed by Jim until it began to move. Pretty active weed we thought! By the time it was all over, they had caught close to 20 fish with a mix of northerns, smallies and largemouth up to almost 4 pounds. One of the northerns was probably 8 pounds as well. All in all a great day with the wind being the only problem we had!