Désolé, cet article est seulement disponible en Anglais Américain. For the sake of viewer convenience, the content is shown below in the alternative language. You may click the link to switch the active language.

Joey & his son Johnnie were looking for some big fish today and I was planning on making it happen. We began by trolling an area in hopes of getting into some pike and walleye and caught both. Johnnie managed to catch several nice northerns along with a pretty good walleye before we changed to a different species. The fish weren’t really active where we were and I wanted them to have more action. We were heading for smallmouth!

After a long run, I set up on a shallow flat and had them cast soft plastics for the bass. It didn’t take long before both were into fish and from that point on, the action never stopped. Joey landed his personal best from here along with many other quality ones too! Johnnie was also hooked up multiple times and he caught his personal best smallie as well!

Once the bite slowed from this spot, we moved to another place a little further away and got right back on the bite again. It wasn’t easy holding them in position due to the big winds but with the aid of the anchor mode on the electric motor, I got it done!

For several more hours they battled fish after fish and Johnnie even bettered his previous personal best from this last area. They had never experienced so many quality bass before and just loved it!

With a little time remaining in their day, I thought we would try something different in slightly deeper water. I ran further offshore to an area and set them up to drop shot. The winds were going to make it difficult but I thought we’d give it a try regardless! We were fishing out in the middle of the lake and in three footers! The drift was a little faster than I would have liked, but it was doable. Too bad they didn’t hook anything but it wasn’t for lack of trying. Both of them had a couple of hits that never became pinned and we called it a day. After 4 drifts over the area with nada, it was time to go!

Despite our last attempt at catching more fish, today was a big success. They had boated three different species and Johnnie had landed fish that he had never caught before! Both of them had even caught their personal best bass too! Hopefully this won’t be the last time I see them as they were already talking about a return trip in the near future. With any luck I will have them back for sturgeon and show them a few of the giants that inhabit our local waters. Either way, I’m sure the fishing will be great once again!

Désolé, cet article est seulement disponible en Anglais Américain. For the sake of viewer convenience, the content is shown below in the alternative language. You may click the link to switch the active language.

Ken & his son Grant were with me this morning, as well as his father Dennis and brother Rob. We were going to be trolling with this many bodies in the boat and I headed right to where I hoped the fish would be.

With 4 lines in the water, it didn’t take long for the first reel to fire. Unfortunately it was short lived when the line broke before I could pass the rod to Grant. No worries, there would surely be more!

About 20 minutes passed with only one mishap and I was beginning to wonder what was going on. A slight adjustment in depth and I had my answer! These fish were shallower this morning and for the next hour or so, the reels were firing often. We had singles, doubles and even a couple of triple headers! The action was just insane, with big pike and some really nice walleye making it to the net.

For a while it seemed like every fish in the area wanted to eat but that was all about to change. Way off in the distance we saw lightning and I was done! A check on the radar confirmed my worst fear as the storm was heading straight for us. We packed up quickly and raced back to the dock, trying to beat the storm.

We may have managed to stay ahead of the thunder and lightning but we passed right through torrential rains along our way. We even drove right into the clear skies once again! I knew that I had made the right decision when I arrived back at the dock. I couldn’t see the other side of the lake and witnessed several more lightning flashes in the sky, from dry land. I wasn’t sure if we would be able to get back out or not but when I looked at the radar again, I knew we were done. In fact, my afternoon booking was also not going to happen with what was expected to follow!

Although short, this morning was filled with chaotic action! Once the bite started, it was fast & furious. Mother Nature definitely won out today, but not before we threw in a few good punches! The prefrontal weather system had the fish super charged and it was just on fire! Too bad we had to pull the plug, but safety always comes first. There will always be more fish to be caught tomorrow!

Désolé, cet article est seulement disponible en Anglais Américain. For the sake of viewer convenience, the content is shown below in the alternative language. You may click the link to switch the active language.

Well Monday came and unfortunately it also came with the wrath of Mother Nature. She blew the lake up giant making for tough fishing, but Dan & I stuck it out until the end. We still managed to catch some nice ones, but the deep water smallmouth fishing was cut short when we just couldn’t continue to vertically fish in the open lake!

Today was a better day with Rick & his wife Penny as we trolled almost the entire time out. Plenty of big northerns were landed by both under the comfort of the roof. A light SW wind kept the bugs away for most part and the shade made it quite comfortable to fish. There was no need to do anything else, as pike were the primary choice of fish to catch. We did manage to get a couple of other species though, with bass & walleye coming aboard as well. Overall it was just a relaxing day of fishing!

Désolé, cet article est seulement disponible en Anglais Américain. For the sake of viewer convenience, the content is shown below in the alternative language. You may click the link to switch the active language.

Today was another double trip day with a morning family and an afternoon mother & son. The first half of the day saw plenty of action with pike & big walleye coming aboard by trolling. As they were hoping to take some fish home with them, I decided to relocate with a couple of hours remaining. It was here that they finally put a couple of keeper eyes in the livewell by drop shotting. Plenty of other unders were boated as well before their time was done!

Melissa & her son Levi joined me for the second part of the day and we decided to try for bass. I made a long run to an area that I was sure would produce. Within minutes of our arrival, a small one jumped off the hooks confirming that they were definitely here. For about an hour we scoured the shallow flat but were only fortunate enough to land a handful of decent sized smallies. There were plenty of others missed as well though, before we relocated again.

Our second area wasn’t much better with more lost fish here. I even saw all kinds of cruisers that just didn’t seem to want to eat! Eventually I just pulled the plug here and shifted gears completely! We were going trolling!

With the lack of wind and bright sunny skies, we were feeling the effects of the heat and the run felt great. I wasn’t sure where I was going to go but after all the boat traffic, I realized that trolling was definitely the right decision. The roof was going up!

I quickly got the lines in and soon after the first reel fired, Levi was into a keeper walleye. It was his first ever eye and worthy of a pic. The remainder of the time here provided them with plenty more action and another first. They both landed several more northerns and even had a quality double header!

Today was an interesting one to say the least. Both trips yielded nice fish with plenty of action on the troll. Although I wasn’t able to get to most of the places I wanted to fish, I still made it work.

With a full schedule again this coming week it will be nice to be out with fewer boats on the water. Nice weekends always bring out the worst and this Sunday was definitely bad! Fortunately I stayed away from the crowds and was able to fish effectively in all areas. Taking out at the ramp however was a complete $%#& show but eventually I got the job done. I can’t wait for Monday and the peace and quiet of the work week!

Désolé, cet article est seulement disponible en Anglais Américain. For the sake of viewer convenience, the content is shown below in the alternative language. You may click the link to switch the active language.

Jeff joined me this morning and it was looking like a great day on the water! I began by searching an area right at the start for sturgeon but was unsuccessful at locating any numbers. Not to waste any more time, I decided to head to open water for some smallies.

With overcast skies and occasional sunny spots, I made my way over to a shallow, rocky flat hoping for a few big bites. The wind wasn’t helping much as it was out of the east and messing up the current we were fishing. The fish ended up positioning themselves in different areas, but I eventually found them. Jeff hooked a smaller one casting a swim jig while I was fan casting open water with a more aggressive presentation. It was a tough early bite with the moon having just set and I soon realized that we were going to have to fish slower.

Jeff tried a bunch of things including a spybait, but most were unsuccessful. At one point I had him toss a topwater to an area that usually holds good ones and he did manage to hook into a couple. The first one crushed the bait but the second one had it in the top of his head. This showed me that they didn’t really want the lures and it was time to change to the soft plastics. At one point, we were just using the current to drift the baits with barely any movement. This gave us several more fish with the dead weight pickups. It was looking like it was going to be a slow down kind of day!

Our next spot was a little deeper and we were going to be casting drop shots for hopefully bass & walleye. Jeff nailed a bass almost immediately, but we never caught another fish. A few missed bites was all she wrote! Time for another change again!

The inactivity of everything was definitely visible as I barely saw any fish or bird movement. Usually the sturgeon are jumping everywhere but I could count on one hand the number of fish I saw breach. It was going to be a struggle for a while just to get a few bites!

I decided to try steep breaks and different lures to see if we could bring anything up. When this failed we moved up on the shallows again and began covering water. This too failed and Jeff began to slowly work a drop shot instead. To give you an idea of how inactive the fish were, after casting he answered a text without even moving his line. When he was done and started to reel, he felt weight and set on what turned out to be the best fish of the day. Thinking we might be on to something, I began making a few adjustments for the balance of the area we were fishing.

Unfortunately, our day was about to be cut short when he received a phone call and some bad news! Not to get into details, we packed everything up and headed back to take out. Unforeseen circumstances had us pulling off the water early.

The bite may have been slow this morning, but Jeff was enjoying catching bass on a new body of water. He generally fishes the upper St. Lawrence, closer to Lake Ontario and was quite familiar with river smallies. I’m sure that if it had of been anyone else in the boat today that the results would have been different. Too bad about the short day but it was the right thing to do!