I headed up to the cottage a couple of weeks ago for a bit of a break from the “Shawa”. Did some Bass fishing. I took out my youngest boy Cole and the next door neighbour’s kid Carter for a bit of a Rock Bass outing; they slayed em’. Cole in not only about catching fish but putting them in the livewell or as he says “can I put it in the box daddy… can I put it in the box?”  Of course this sounds cute and all especially coming from a 4-year old kid but after about the 20th time… you get it!

The next morning was planned to fish with my 2 nephews Codie and Marc (what ever happened to spelling like Cody or Mark… ) We were to get up at around 6, have a quick bite and go. I was up just after 6, went down stairs to turn the kettle on, knocked on the boys door, Codie was the only one there and when I asked him was he ready… he came back with something like “oh, I better stay here”. I laughed and remembered that when I was going to bed he was already looking for more beer… atta’ boy Code’… As for Marc… MIA… something to do with chasing chicks all night. It’s pretty funny in all because I know about 10 years from now they will break away from “the dark side” and be waking me up to get an early morning start (and probably be their wives and kids to GET AWAY).

I went fishing by myself (which I really enjoy by the way) and had a pretty good morning… around 6 Largemouth and a couple of Smallies. Caught the Largemouth on topwater, soft stick baits and a whacky rigged worm; caught the Smallies on a dropshotted finesse worm. Back by 10am.

Went out that evening with Leisa (wanna’ talk about spelling! It’s pronounced “Lisa” believe it or not… parents!!!) and my boys.  I took them to the Rock Bass hole that we fished the day before and BUNK… nothing. OK… only about a half hour of light left so let’s go to one more spot. We get there and almost instantly we start getting Smallies on a popper. 3 or 4 little ones came to the boat and one around 2+ pounds which Hunter got to reel in which he freaked out on. While all this was going on Lee was doing battle with a nice Largemouth close to 3 pounds. It was buried in the weeds and she was winching it up with spinning gear all while trying to go easy on an extremely sore foot… quite a show!

I told the nephews I was again going out again on Monday morning at 6am and again offered them a place on my boat. This time Codie had a somewhat clear head and Beaner (Marc) although groggy from getting in at 4am (again chasing the same chicks and again got no-where) both stepped up to the plate. We headed out about 6:30 and had a pretty good morning catching lots of little Largemouth as well as a 2+ and a couple over 3 (on soft stick baits, top water and a craw imitation). We saw a couple of really big fish but couldn’t get them to go for a bait. Codie actually had a Largie around 5 pounds grab his worm but spit it after a couple of reel turns… too bad cause’ she was a beauty! Marc lost a 2 pounder cause’ he was sittin’ on his tired ass at the edge of my boat with his feet dangling over the side on a log. The dude didn’t even attempt to get up… something like he did on Sunday morning!!! He did however give Codie the zinger of the weekend. Codie was razzing Marc all morning. Marc got a fish on and Codie asked “what is it, Large Mouth or Small Mouth” and Marc quickly responded “Smallmouth… opposite of you!!!!”

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I hope you’re all having a great summer so far (aside from the touch of RAIN every so often). I actually haven’t done a bunch of Bassin’ so far but it has been fun. Mike Miller and I fished a Bassmania tournament on Simcoe on opening weekend and had a great day except for of course the RAIN! The game plan went well. We started in a few spots I found for our limit of 4+ pounders and then made the big run for a couple of big fish Mike had located. We actually caught one of the 2 and that fish made a big difference in our outcome (4th place).

Our next Bass excursion was to Hastie Lake for a Fish’n Canada shoot. Again Hastie didn’t disappoint. Ang did a fantastic show on this crazy new topwater bait he discovered (looks exactly like a little white mouse) while Mike and I did a post spawn show concentrating on fish moving off of the shallows and into that 1st break area. Of course both episodes shooting were somewhat interrupted by a bit of RAIN! For more info on Hastie Lake go to www.lauzonaviation.com

I recently had the pleasure of fishing a small lake that I was told about by a new buddy of ours Shawn at Rama and what he told me was totally right… this is one awesome lake. I had some research to do in that the lake is mostly owned by Americans with private property surrounding it but there is a public access trail and that’s how I got there. I loaded my canoe on the truck and make the trek to the lake. I caught around a dozen Bass of both species with my best 5 Largemouth being 3.5, 3.75, 3.75, 4+ & 5lb 6oz. That’s a pretty good day out of a canoe… and I didn’t get there until after 2 in the afternoon. By the way, all but one of those big ones were caught on a topwater bait. It did RAIN but I really didn’t care. Thanks for the info Shawn!!!

My family and I just returned from camping at Charleston Lake near Gananoque. We had a great trip except of course for the RAIN (we bailed a day early because of it)! The fishing was good; nothing big but lots of fun. I found most of my Largemouth up shallow on Jigs and Senkos. I brought a bunch of kids out (including mine) and we had a hoot. Kelsey (a friend of the family) caught a nice Largemouth near the dam at the south end of the lake. It’s great to see kids freak out when they get a fish (and really freak out when they have to touch them!!!)

I took one day and ventured away from the park to Gananoque Lake. Man what a gorgeous little body of water! Again I didn’t beat the fish up but I did get a taste of this beautiful part of the country. I did the typical shallow water search for Largemouth but I really think that lake has a deep weed bite that could be killer!!!  Almost all the shorelines come out with beautiful weeds and grow out to well over 10 feet deep (some much deeper). My best fish (close to 4 pounds) came from a deep weedline. There is a great boat launch at Griffins Lakeside Cottages on Gananoque Lake Rd.

As far as the shallows were concerned, I found that most of the docks were ridden with Rock Bass. That being the case, try a Jig & Pig, a soft stick bait just gets pummelled by the Rockys. The problem with the jig though is the thick weeds right up to the docks.
The Hotspot for August is from this lake. It’s a little break area that is loaded with panfish and bass. I really feel with some effort that this lake could be a Bluegill/Pumpkinseed Killer. I caught lots of nice ones at this hotspot and a couple of other deep areas.

Thanks for reading and catch lots of fish for the remainder of the summer…

Just took my first trip to the Bay Of Quinte this year and was “very” happy with my results. Often times Quinte can be very humbling in the early part of the season. The good thing is that the water is warming up nicely and believe it or not, that’s good!

I planned on taking my wife Leisa and 2 boys Hunter and Cole but the forecast wasn’t very nice. Sunny skies but only 10 degrees and winds at 30k from the west. That morning the rest of the family opted to stay back at the ranch so I figured what the hell, I’ll take the big Princecraft (over my Bassboat) and hope for the best.

I headed down to the office to re-spool some of my reels and grab the boat. On the way I stopped at Canadian Tire in Belleville to pick up some worms and spent at least a half an hour shopping in their fishing department. I’ve got to say, CT Belleville has the best stocked fishing dept of all CT’s that I’ve been into. Another customer told me that the sporting goods guy is a tournament angler so it totally makes sense.

I hit the boat launch sometime before noon (I think) and luckily the wind was being broke from the dock. Once I got out into the big water… WOW… she was nasty! 3 footers were the average with sets of 5+ every so often. I’ll bet there were gusts of wind close to 50k! I literally had the Princecraft out of the water ripping against the wind. There is no way I could have done that with my Bassboat and it’s over 20’ long! Oh well, make the best of it and start fishing.
My first drift had me running a Slow Death rig behind a bottom bouncer at a nice “slowish” rate with the aid of a big drift sock. I figured that if the panfish weren’t too bad this would be a good post spawn/pre summer presentation. Unfortunately the panfish were there in numbers. Yellow Perch, Rock Bass & White Perch loved my swirling worm presentation… too much.

I didn’t like the angle of the drift so I re-adjusted my boat position and decided on running a deep diving crankbait. Since the speed of the strong wind would help an artificial lure I kept the drift sock in. On this (my second) pass I caught 6 great eating sized Walleye with one pushing 4 lbs. From there on it was basically simple fishing. I’d drop the crankbait out and either hand-hold the rod or use the rod holder on the boat. The wind and wave action must have had something to do with the bait’s action because I caught more fish in the rod holder than not. I was probably imparting too much action while holding the rod.

All in all, a great day and a NICE feed of beautiful golden pan fried Walleye!!!

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