Today, I had the pleasure of fishing with a honeymoon couple from Maryland. Megan & Steven tied the knot this past weekend and joined me in Mississquoi Bay for smallmouth bass. Not since my own marriage had I ever come across a couple that loved to fish as much as we do. Congratulations are definitely in order for these newlyweds! The first half hour of the morning was a little slow as they threw spinnerbaits without any success. I slowed down the presentation with texas-rigged tubes and they began to hook up with regularity. The water conditions were poor with low levels and stained visibility. The temps were in the upper 50’s and the air wasn’t much warmer. Winds were once again from the N/NE at 10 to 20 knots and the skies were overcast, all day long. After several hours of battling the waves and the wind, the water became too dirty to fish effectively. I decided that relocation was in order and looked for cleaner water nearby. A slightly deeper flat provided us with the conditions I was searching for and it didn’t take long before the first bass came aboard. Steven had his work cut out for him, as his better half dominated the morning. Fortunately, there were plenty of bass throughout this area to provide action all around. If numbers were what they were looking for, they definitely had that! We lost count, but I am sure there were at least 50 or 60 bass caught & released up to about 4 pounds. Megan may have caught more, but the largest had to go to Steven as he redeemed himself during the second half of the day. They will have plenty of memories & stories to tell about how they spent their honeymoon in the years to come. I wish them all the best in their marriage and hope that this passion never ends!

I fished with Mario, Joe & Tony on Lake St-Francis today. The winds were out of the N/NE at 10 to 20 knots with three-foot waves greeting us on our initial run. The air temps were not quite 50 degrees and there was a light mist in the air. Water temps were in the lower 60’s and the fish were very inactive. A spinnerbait bite was the best choice as covering water was a must. No concentrations of fish were found with one fish here & there. By days end about 15 smallmouth bass were caught with a bonus largemouth of 3.5 pounds as well. A couple of the smallies went over 5 pounds but most were in the 3 to 3.5 pound range. Mario actually caught the biggest but Joe lost one possibly larger right at the boat. There were actually more fish lost than landed as many a fish strike came up empty or lost shortly after the hook set. Fortunately these were all quality smallmouth and some of the largest caught by today’s gang. All in all, a pretty good day considering this kind of weather. I will be glad when the winds finally change direction!

I fished Lake Champlain with Darren today and definitely got into the numbers! After postponing yesterday due to five footers, we were able to get out today. The water had turned to a terrible brown from the 30-knot winds yesterday and visibility was less than 6 inches. The fish were hitting a little short in the morning and we had to slowly crawl tubes in order to land just a handful of bass. Even the pike weren’t cooperative for us as we tried slow rolling spinnerbaits for quite some time without success! The air temps were a cool 55 degrees but eventually went into the upper 70’s by the days end. Water temps were a cool 60 degrees and climbed to almost 64 by mid afternoon. Light & variable winds were a welcomed change from the day before and made for a pleasurable, October outing. The afternoon bite was definitely better than the morning as we caught probably 60 or more smallmouth bass up to 4 pounds in the last 4 hours of the day. Definitely a great day for the numbers of fish caught in a short period of time. Once the water started to warm up, the bass seemed to come alive. On one area, we must have caught over 25 bass in an area smaller than the size of my 20-foot boat! That’s what I call concentrated! Being able to fish in a T-Shirt at this time of year is always a plus but catching that many fish while doing so is an anomaly! What a day!!!!!

Today, I had the pleasure of fishing with Jay & Max on lake Champlain in Mississquoi Bay. I had high expectations, having been there several times in the last week with great success. Unfortunately, the last two days had provided us with heavy winds and even heavier rain. The water temps had dropped from over 70 degrees on Saturday to 63 degrees today. The winds were from the N/NW at 5 to 10 knots in the morning and switched to a west 15 by afternoon. Cloudy skies soon gave way to sunshine, early in the morning with the air temps reaching 65 by late in the day. The aggressive, spinnerbait fish that I had been seeing had almost all but disappeared. Jay & Max did manage to catch about 10 smallmouth up to 4 pounds throwing these, but they weren’t very active. With the sudden drop in water temperature, I decided to get them into a slower presentation with tube baits. This was definitely a better choice as they began catching many more bass in the next few hours. We stuck with tubes for the remainder of the day and by doing so, increased the catch to over 40 bass by the days end. One last stop on an area I had not fished this season proved to be a great choice as both Jay & Max got into some of the best fish of the day. They caught about another dozen bass up to 4 pounds with the majority of them being over 3 pounds. A tough day of fishing, but by making these adjustments, a productive one!

Another day with Troy on Lake Champlain today, but this time the wind was there! We started with waves of about and ended with 4 footers. Temperatures went into the 80’s by afternoon making for a beautiful, fall day. We started dragging Carolina Rigs in about 12 feet of water and caught a few small smallmouth up to 2.5 pounds. I slowly moved out until I found some better fish in the 23 to 3 foot depth. We didn’t catch too many, but they were from 3.5 pounds up to 5 pounds. The larger fish were definitely in the deeper water in this area. We tried plenty of other areas and caught a few fish in just about every place we fished. When the waves got too bad to hold in any one area, I threw out a couple of drift socks and we drifted a long shoal and caught several more bass. By 5:00 we had had enough and headed back to the boat ramp in 4 to 5 foot waves. Another day with about 15 or so bass caught and several others lost. It was another tough bite, considering that we should be in a full fall feeding frenzy by now. I can’t wait for cooler weather!