tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23465672624886497362024-03-08T18:29:15.200-05:00Jon BelangerJon Belangerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04131119981358044581noreply@blogger.comBlogger132125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2346567262488649736.post-55560245515721624532015-08-04T16:14:00.001-04:002015-08-04T16:16:45.961-04:00Tournament win and Team of the year for 2015August 4th, 2015<br />
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Wow.. It's been a while! More than 2 years without an update.... Lots has happen since my last update.<br />
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Ben Woo and I started Montreal Bassmasters last year and I had the pleasure of fishing the trail as well. It was my first year fishing with my new partner Remi Laurin and we had a blast. We have a similiar approach when it comes to fishing tournaments and practicing.<br />
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We had tough year in 2014 but still managed to get a 3rd place finish on Lake St.Louis and a 2nd place at the classic. I also got a 1st place at the new Ultimate Bass Tournament. The tournament consist of pairing a conventional angler with a fly fishing angler for a tournament. The fly fishing angler has to bring in at least 2 bass out of the 5 that we have to catch. <br />
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This year has probably been my best season since I started competitive fishing in 2009. Remi and I were on a mission to get the Team of the year title and worked hard at every event in order to get it.<br />
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Out of the 3 regular events we placed 2nd, 2nd and 1st to clinch our first Team of the year title. We won the last tournament of the season on Lake St.Francis with a personal best tournament weight of 22.77lbs. This also makes it my 3rd tournament win on this lake with 3 different partners. It was awsome to have my wife and kid at the weigh-in to witness this amazing bag of smallies.<br />
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Next up is a Pro/Am on the St.Lawrence river in Long Sault. I've had good fishing days in Long Sault this year and I am really looking forward to the event. Unfortunatly, I will not be able to get some practice time for this event. I'll have to figure out the smallies quickly if I want to have a chance at winning this one.<br />
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<br />Jon Belangerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04131119981358044581noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2346567262488649736.post-27279901555702186472013-07-07T22:57:00.000-04:002013-07-08T08:16:51.424-04:00Big win on Lac St.Louis today!July 6th, 2013<br>
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Wow!! Totally unexpected win today for the 2nd Econobass tournament of the season on Lac St.Louis out of Melocheville. We took 1st place out of 63 teams and the 1st lunker of the tournament.<br>
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My partner Bar and I had practice a few times during our vacation and 13-15lbs was the target for the event as we were unable to find enough 4lbers to get closer to 18 ... <br>
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For once, our plan was executed to perfection. Except for a few dropped fish that would've upped our weight a little, everything we had planned worked out really well. We started the day for smallies and had our 13-14lbs limit by 8am. We continued to fish for smallies and almost managed to upgrade but Bar and I both had fish that broke off before we could get them in the boat. Around noon, we decided it was time to go look for a kicker largemouth. The sun was out and it was a little windy but thanks to the powepole we were able to see the largies roaming in the reeds. I was pitching a texas rigged beaver in the reeds when I saw a largie move towards my bait. I kept my eyes on her between every flip and all of a sudden I saw her grabbed the beaver.. Thanks to my custom St.Croix Legend Xtreme I was able to lift her head in a few seconds for Bar to put the net under her. The bigger largies were hard to find in practice and we are very happy to be able to find that one fish we were hoping for.<br>
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We weighed all the fish in the afternoon to have an idea of how much we had and we figured we had around 15lbs give or take. Luckily, my scale seems to be a little light and I often get a surprise at the weigh in. Our bag finally tipped the scale at 16.11lbs with the biggest fish of the day, a nice 4.45lbs largemouth.<br>
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This is now my 3rd Econobass win and very happy to have done it on Lac St.Louis. Next stop is Econobass tournament #3 on the <a href="https://maps.google.ca/maps?q=long+sault&hl=en&ll=45.027254,-74.890022&spn=0.051381,0.132093&safe=off&hnear=Long+Sault,+South+Stormont,+Stormont,+Dundas+and+Glengarry+United+Counties,+Ontario&t=h&z=14" target="_blank">St.Lawrence river in Long Sault</a>. We had a tough tournament there last season and we are going to have to do better this time around.<br>
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<br>Jon Belangerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04131119981358044581noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2346567262488649736.post-86762333760934602202013-06-28T20:33:00.001-04:002013-06-28T20:42:39.963-04:00Updates!<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">June 28th, 2013<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Yes this website
is still alive! Without getting into details, let’s just say 2013 has been a
BIG year for me. I got engaged, had a baby boy and bought a new house.
It's no excuse though... I have been slacking off on the updates but I'll
try to do more this year.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Last season was a
bit disappointing but we still managed to finish in 8th place overall for the
season. Overall I had a good season and learned quite a bit.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Fishing wise, 2013
has been tough so far. Were already 3 tournaments in and I placed
37th/63, 11th/22 and 13th/110. Water is high on the St. Lawrence River
and I find it has the bass spread out more than usual. Spawning is ending
on most body of water and post spawn fish are skinny! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">I've been spending
a lot of times on Lake St. Louis with 3 tournaments early in the season on this
body of water. Practice has been steady with most fish in the 2.75-3lbs
range. Hoping to find a few 4s before next weekend's tourney.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Going back at it
tomorrow with Caro and my dad!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Few pics of fish
caught this year : <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Jon Belangerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04131119981358044581noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2346567262488649736.post-49753697585105139872012-07-21T23:15:00.000-04:002012-07-22T22:54:32.494-04:00Frenzy on Louis!July 21st, 2012<br />
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I was fishing with my buddy Remi today on Lake St.Louis. Weather conditions were perfect to look for new areas so we started somewhere we had never been and spotted smallies almost instantly. With no wind and bright sun it was easy to spot the smallies on sand flats. We were originally heading to this area looking for a largemouth bite but Lake St.Louis is awesome for this... You will often find smallies and largies schooling together.<br />
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Our second stop was an obvious feeding spot and we were able to catch 2 decent largies in the 3lbs range. Some good sized smallies were seen roaming around our baits but unfortunetly none of them bit. We spent the rest of the morning working a new sand flat quickly on the trolling motor and found tons of smallies in all sizes. At this point we had a nice mixed bag with no fish under 3lbs and plenty of time to fish!<br />
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The afternoon was spent fishing another area with rock piles and sand and the result was very similiar with plenty of fish in the 2.5 to 4lb range. We had a beautiful day so far but we needed a kicker fish to make it even better. About mid-afternoon I hooked into a monster smallie that bit a 3/8oz tube..... She gave me one hell of a fight and had Remi running around with the net like a madman. One of my biggest smallmouth on Lake St.Louis in a while that's for sure!<br />
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Great fishing, great weather, great company! I have a feeling we'll be doing more fishing together very soon!<br />
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<br />Jon Belangerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04131119981358044581noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2346567262488649736.post-32515532801009558152012-07-18T20:25:00.001-04:002012-07-18T20:25:32.916-04:00Ottawa River practice time!July 16th, 2012<br />
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Bar and I were fishing the Ottawa river today. We have a tournament in 2 weeks and seeing as this is by far our toughest event of the season we felt that starting early was a good idea.<br />
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We were on the water early and the weather was just perfect for practice. As usual for this river, it was hard to get a good bite going but we were able to find a somewhat reliable smallie bite. We flipped for a while and finally hooked into a decent size largemouth. The chance that I catch her again in 2 weeks is slim to none but at least the area seemed like it could be holding more fish.<br />
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We mainly fished for smallies for the rest of the day and caught some more in different scenarios, but nothing spectacular. We ended the day flipping a nice weedline and missed 2 bites... Let's hope we can catch 'em in 2 weeks!! The overall weights on the Ottawa river have been low for most and we are no exception. Perhaps we can find more stuff next weekend and have a solid plan for our event on July 28th.<br />
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<br />Jon Belangerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04131119981358044581noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2346567262488649736.post-39066619615697162202012-07-18T20:03:00.000-04:002012-07-18T20:03:05.952-04:00Fishin-Canada.Net Ripple - Lake St.LouisJuly 14th, 2012<br />
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Fishin-Canada.net along with Basscat Boats and Simmz Baits were organizing a 3 bass limit fishing tournament today on Lake St.Louis and my partner "Bar" and I just couldn't miss it!<br />
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We didn't really have a chance to practice for this event but looking at past data and fishing reports I had a good idea where the fish would be holding. We knew the smallie bite would be on all day so we decided to look for a "kicker" largemouth right away. To my suprise, we caught a close to 4lbs smallmouth in our largemouth spot. Unfortunatly, the largie bite didn't work for us so we headed for smallies rather quickly. On our second stop we found both smallies and largies schooling in a feeding spot. We were able to get 2 more fish in the livewell quickly for a limit of about 10lbs. Our 3rd spot was fish after fish but nothing to up our bag...<br />
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Stuck at about 10.5 lbs, we knew we were missing a big fish to have a chance at winning this event so we decided to do a run for another spot across the lake. It proved to be the right move when Bar hooked into a well over 4lbs smallmouth on a tube that decided to give him a big fight! He fought her well but ending up losing the fight on the 3rd jump.... only a few inches from the net. Looking at the results... this was the winning fish as we had predicted but hey, it happens and we move on! We fished the area for a while but mostly caught clones of the fish we already had in the livewell.<br />
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We went back to our largie spot for a few cast before weigh in but it was too late. We weighed in 10.40lbs good enough for 6th out of 27 teams.<br />
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Congrats to Jacques Chopin for his win. A nice bag of 11.30lbs of beautiful smallies!<br />
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Pics of the event can be seen here :<br />
<a href="http://www.fishin-canada.net/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=5628">http://www.fishin-canada.net/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=5628</a>
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<br />Jon Belangerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04131119981358044581noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2346567262488649736.post-56238962074282233512012-07-18T19:34:00.000-04:002012-07-18T19:34:05.602-04:00More big smalliesJuly 13th, 2012<br />
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I was back on the water with my dad today. He hadn't been on the water for a while so I asked him what he wanted to fish and his answer was no surprise.... He wanted to catch big smallies! I headed for a new area I've been exploring lately and we spoted some good ones right away. We were fortunate to have blue skies and low winds to be able see them cruising on sand flats. Catching those shallow smallies was no easy task... We had to creep up on them very quietly and stay as far as possible.<br />
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We caught most of our fish on senkos and tubes both shallow and deep today. We didn't catch a ton of fish but quality was definitely there with most of the fish in the 3.5 to 4.5lbs range.<br />
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Some of the fish we caught today</div>
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<br /></div>Jon Belangerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04131119981358044581noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2346567262488649736.post-51443615159056506512012-07-08T23:44:00.000-04:002012-07-08T23:44:04.171-04:00Sweet revenge on Lake St.FrancisJuly 8th, 2012<br />
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I was back on the water today with my good friend Gilles. I really wanted to get my revenge from my bad tournament yesterday and boy did we catch 'em. Our first stop was a nice sand flat with 2-3 ft of water and thankfully the smallies on it were on fire and BIG! It was an area I had never fished before so we started by throwing spinnerbaits and got a follower on the first cast of the day. We quickly switched to tubes and senkos and had a 2.5lbs smallie in the boat almost instantly. We moved around the flats and found a nice school of big smallmouths roaming. Luckily, we stayed far enough and I managed to catch a 5.25lbs and a 4.75lbs. Gilles missed a few fish while I was still in awe about the 2 giants I had just caught back to back.<br />
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We decided to drift an deeper channel close by and Gilles caught a 4.25 on the first pass..... We did a few more passes and managed to catch a few more fish between 2 and 3.5lbs.<br />
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Gilles is just starting to fish for bass and I wanted to show him a few tips on our to catch largemouths as well so we headed for a nearby bay and started casting frogs. I was able to catch a nice one and Gilles missed 2 fish that blew up on his frog but for someone throwing it for the first time he was doing very good.<br />
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We finished our day on a more familiar spot were I caught a nice 4lbs but saw some big ones roaming... Lake St.Francis is such an amazing fishery and in my opinion a world class destination for some giant smallies. I won the Econobass event back to back 2 years in a row on this lake and to win it a 3rd time would be unreal. With Charles Sim, Jason Gramada and Nick Gendron fishing the trail this is year is not going to make it an easy task that for sure.<br />
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Giant brown fish from our day</div>
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<br /></div>Jon Belangerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04131119981358044581noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2346567262488649736.post-70315463908392718382012-07-08T23:08:00.000-04:002012-07-08T23:08:39.447-04:00Econobass - Long Sault 2012July 7th, 2012<br />
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As it happenned many times in the past, practice was unfortunatly much better then tournament day. We started with great confidence and were pumped for an awesome day of fishing on this beautiful section of the St.Lawrence river. Overcast skies made our first area a little difficult to fish... We knew the fish were very spooky and couldn't position the boat without being seen by them. We came back to this area several times through out the day and just couldn't convince this 4lbs + smallmouth to bite any of our baits. Our second and third spot didn't seem to have fish on them and by 11:30, we still hadn't put a single fish in the livewell.<br />
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It's only when we decided to put plan C in action that we started catching fish..... We fished an old road bed in a section of the river that we had never been and were able to finally put 2 fish in the boat. An area where we had caught a few decent largemouths in practice was close by so we decided to give it a shot. My partner Bar missed a nice one on the frog and I caught another one that didn't even make 12 inches.... Nothing to help our cause.<br />
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We decided to rotate our morning spots one last time to see if maybe the fish had moved in but only started getting bit at 2:30pm.... With 15 mins to spare I caught a 4lb and a 2lbs but weren't able to get our last fish. We had the fish infront of us again but ran out of time and had to get back in time for the weigh in.<br />
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We are kind of dissapointed seeing as we had a good practice but these things happen and we should do much better next time were there.<br />
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Our 2 biggest of the day</div>
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<br /></div>Jon Belangerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04131119981358044581noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2346567262488649736.post-9109981607138108092012-07-08T22:41:00.000-04:002012-07-08T22:41:22.966-04:00A few hours of fishing after workJuly 5th, 2012<br />
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Went out for a few hours after work on Lake St.Louis today with Caro and my buddy Dave. We started flipping thick mats and found some nice fish under 'em but we had a hard time getting them out of there.... We got a few largies but the smallies seemed to be way more active. We hit one rock pile that had quite the school on it and just kept on catching almost every cast. Nothing huge with the biggest one around 3lbs but still a lot of fun when the bite is on. Water temps are in steady in the 70's now and both smallies and largies are definitely in full summer pattern and eating!<br />
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Dave with a nice chunk</div>
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Vacation time means fishing time! I spent 6 of the 7 last days on the water fishing 4 different bodies of water near home this week and dedicated a few of those days to practice for our next tournament on the St.Lawrence river in Long Sault.<br />
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It was the first time for my partner and I in Long Sault so we studied maps and looked at satellite images and marked a few key areas for our practices. Unfortunatly, weather conditions were far from ideal for fishing a new body of water... We had winds up to 50km/h on most of our practice days which made sight fishing nearly impossible. Luckily, our last day of practice was calm and went a lot better. We were able to find both smallies and largies relatively close to each other which makes me think we might have a mixed bag at the weigh in next week.<br />
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Few pics from our practice<br />
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<br />Jon Belangerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04131119981358044581noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2346567262488649736.post-92135954745240395632012-07-01T20:14:00.001-04:002012-07-01T20:14:04.497-04:00FLW Tour - Lake Champlain 2012June 28th, 2012<div>
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Caro and I decided to attend as spectators an FLW Tour event on Lake Champlain today. I watch these guys on T.V all the time but to be able to be see them fly on the lake in person was very impressive. We tried taking good pictures while staying very far from them but it was no easy task. We did a bit of fishing and caught a few small largemouths but we were mostly there to see the show.</div>
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We got off the water in time for the weigh-in and what a show that was! Granted it was only the first day of a 4 day event but I was still impressed with the whole setup FLW puts up for these events. I can only imagine how crazy the weigh-in must be on the final day. I've probably said this before but Lake Champlain is one heck of a fishery and I feel privileged to live less then an hour away from it.</div>
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Pics of the event</div>
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<br /></div>Jon Belangerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04131119981358044581noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2346567262488649736.post-67033693925130773722012-06-23T23:31:00.001-04:002012-06-23T23:31:44.879-04:00Fishing new waterJune 23rd, 2012<br />
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I was fishing with my friend Bar today on the St.Lawrence River in Long Sault for the first time. It's always a fun challenge to fish a new body of water. We expected this stretch of the St.Lawrence seaway to be very similiar to the water we find on the other side of the dam but instead we were faced with different conditions. For one the current was much less that what we are used to.<br />
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By looking at the map, we decided to try an area with nice rocky/sandy bottom and started casting. After about 5 mins Bar missed a fish that hit his bait right at the boat. We were able to see that it was a decent sized fish with a buddy of about the same size. We marked the area and move along looking for similar structures. While I was looking around to find a nice bottom, Bar hooked into a 4.5lbs smallie that made his reel scream as if he was stuck on bottom. We fished the area for another 20 mins and decided to go try another section of the river. We struggled for about an hour when we found another small school of 2-3lbers. While moving around we found some protected bays that looked promising for largies and ended up catching 2 small ones that are not going to help us at the tournament in 2 weeks.<br />
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At that point we decided to drive around and look for areas of river with more current. We lost a few hours trying all kinds of spots only to come back to our original shallow water pattern and started spotting fish right away. We spooked most of them but the important thing was to mark the area for next week's practice.<br />
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All in all I think it was a good practice and I can't wait to go back to this beautiful body of water.<br />
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Bar with the biggest smallie of the day</div>
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<br /></div>Jon Belangerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04131119981358044581noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2346567262488649736.post-89530481392786832952012-06-23T23:02:00.001-04:002012-06-23T23:02:52.645-04:00Econobass - Lake St.Louis 2012June 16th, 2012<br />
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I am fishing with my good bud M-A Barretti this year and today was our first tournament of the season on Lake St.Louis. We picked #50 for our starting position in the morning and had to battle the waves from all the other competitors to get to our first stop. Marc's Basscat Cougar ran TOP NOTCH through those waves and we were able to get to our first area quickly enough. I hate making excuses for losing fish but I've had terrible luck with my fluro leaders lately. Trying a new type of line today was NOT a good idea.... My leader broke on my first hook-set which was on my first cast. I grab another rod to cast again and guess what.... I break another leader on the second cast of the day to lose a second fish in less then 30 seconds of fishing. To make things worst, my partner "Bar" breaks his leader on his first fish. Leader testing was officially over for the day and decided fish straight braid from there.<br />
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As it happens so often, most of the fish we had found in practice were not where we had found them and we had to re-adjust. We found them schooling close by just a bit deeper. We caught a decent limit of smallies by noon and decided to go look for largies in the afternoon hoping to get an upgrade. The plan worked.... the only problem is that the largemouths we caught were only a few ounces heavier. We ran out of time and brought back a disappointing 14.17lbs which was good for 16th position.<br />
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Huge congrats to my buddy Remi Laurin and Julz Tremblay for their win today with an impressive 18.83lbs.<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_omcth1BSyI/T-aDDK6q40I/AAAAAAAAAns/h1Wq-Pl8EBU/s1600/319786_10151830666100591_1693372301_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_omcth1BSyI/T-aDDK6q40I/AAAAAAAAAns/h1Wq-Pl8EBU/s320/319786_10151830666100591_1693372301_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Jon Belangerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04131119981358044581noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2346567262488649736.post-68182893231224811982012-06-18T20:06:00.001-04:002012-06-19T23:02:08.257-04:00Lake Champlain spring fishingApril - May 2012<br />
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For the past 3-4 years, we've been taking advantage of the catch and release season in NY since bass is completely closed in QC until late June. I don't have any fishing reports but I can say is that fishing Lake Champlain has been awesome again this year. Most of the bodies of water I fish around Montreal are all extension of the St.Lawrence river therefore we are constantly trying to figure the how the fish position themselves in the current. Lake Champlain has very little current if any and it makes it a totally different type of challenge. This year we fished the south end of the lake for 2 days and it was really interesting to see how much warmer it was from the North end. You drive about 2 hours to find yourself almost 2 weeks in the future in "fish time". We witnessed the full spawning season from pre-spawn to post-spawn and tried to learn as much as we could about the spawning process.<br />
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Few pics from our numerous trips to Lake Champlain this spring :</div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-SKCxkBXQYU0/T9_BYXdBbLI/AAAAAAAAAmM/NKHe4lSJILg/s1600/20120408_092824.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="background-color: white; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-SKCxkBXQYU0/T9_BYXdBbLI/AAAAAAAAAmM/NKHe4lSJILg/s320/20120408_092824.jpg" width="240" /></a><br />
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-fRLOjbbub2I/T9_BkBSkSSI/AAAAAAAAAmU/8GRm31xqmQ0/s1600/20120408_135548.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="background-color: white; clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-fRLOjbbub2I/T9_BkBSkSSI/AAAAAAAAAmU/8GRm31xqmQ0/s320/20120408_135548.jpg" width="240" /></a><br />
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Nw5pDg8qM7s/T9_BpKmNNgI/AAAAAAAAAmc/7UsI8X5nY30/s1600/NYBassA-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="background-color: white; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Nw5pDg8qM7s/T9_BpKmNNgI/AAAAAAAAAmc/7UsI8X5nY30/s320/NYBassA-2.jpg" width="251" /></a><br />
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-M1fyru-ul1E/T9_Bx9u62OI/AAAAAAAAAmk/xO-wlkxpJ2w/s1600/20120504_110317-001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="background-color: white; clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-M1fyru-ul1E/T9_Bx9u62OI/AAAAAAAAAmk/xO-wlkxpJ2w/s320/20120504_110317-001.jpg" width="289" /></a><br />
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9hPIAvd-KRA/T9_B6Xa_o6I/AAAAAAAAAms/jnoAkFBuHx4/s1600/20120504_132649-001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="background-color: white; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9hPIAvd-KRA/T9_B6Xa_o6I/AAAAAAAAAms/jnoAkFBuHx4/s320/20120504_132649-001.jpg" width="240" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wcCR4OEXY_0/T9_CE2RypmI/AAAAAAAAAm0/EmgXuH6MU2s/s1600/20120504_160546-001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="background-color: white; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wcCR4OEXY_0/T9_CE2RypmI/AAAAAAAAAm0/EmgXuH6MU2s/s320/20120504_160546-001.jpg" width="230" /></a><br />
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<br /></div>Jon Belangerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04131119981358044581noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2346567262488649736.post-45747924195369062832012-06-18T19:32:00.000-04:002012-06-18T19:32:36.049-04:00I'm back!June 2012<br />
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It's been a while since I have a posted a message here but it's never too late I guess. A new site was in the planning but it didn't work out. Who knows... maybe I'll find the time and inspiration to have something up by the end of the season.<br />
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<br />Jon Belangerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04131119981358044581noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2346567262488649736.post-28002169866165027862012-06-18T19:26:00.000-04:002012-06-18T19:26:01.554-04:00Berkley B1 2011Sept 24-25, 2011<br />
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This year was the 3rd edition of the Berkley B1. Having fished the previous two events I can say that Mike, Ben and their team were able to make it even a better this year.</div>
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I was fishing with Marc Barretti aka "Bar" again this year for this event. We obviously didn't put the practice we had originally planned due to my lower unit misfortune from my last tournament but we were still able to put in 2 full weekends confirming stuff and looking for new things as well. I felt we found something interesting in practice but needed more time to have it completely dialed in so we spent most of our time on areas that we knew well.</div>
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On day one we were hoping for a shallow smallie bite in the morning and never got it going. To our surprise we caught a 2.5lbs largemouth there instead.... It took about an hour before we decided to go deeper to see if we could get more bites. After few adjustments mostly due to the NE winds I finally caught a fish on the drop shot while Bar was dragging a tube. It was a nice keeper that got us pumped and from that point the fish started to come in the boat... In less then an hour we were able to get a decent limit. We only had 1 small fish to change and plenty of time to find it. We spent the rest of the day "runnin and gunnin" on our favorite and most constant areas and brought back a decent limit of 18.73lbs good for 14th place and a place in the top 25 drive-by weigh-in the next day.</div>
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We started day 2 knowing we were out of the race to win it but we still had a chance at a top 10 position. The shallow bite had to produce and it simply didn't..... The area I was fishing was very crowded this year and practice had not been very good on the flats either so we decided to do what we do best with tubes and drop shot. The results would've been similar to day one had we not dropped any fish but hey... it happens! We finished the day with 16.81lbs and dropped down to 19th place. </div>
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Unfortunately, we weren't able to beat last year's performance but we'll take the top 20 and try to do better next year.</div>Jon Belangerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04131119981358044581noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2346567262488649736.post-10606813156004292742011-08-31T21:06:00.011-04:002011-08-31T22:04:34.110-04:00Number 13 : Luck or bad luck?August 13th, 2011<div>
<br />Caro and I will remember this day for a looonnng time! For once, the lake was nice with a reasonable SW wind.... it's wasn't dead calm but there was a nice ripple that wasn't going to bother the basscat one bit.</div><div>
<br /></div><div>I'm not really superstitious but Caro couldn't help to notice that we had 13 rods rigged and we were August 13th.... To make things even weirder I picked #13 to launch in the morning. I didn't make anything of it but about 100 yards from my first spot I heard a noise that nobody wants to hear coming from my engine.... I slowed down and tried giving it a bit of gas once again but the noise was back and even louder. That's when I told Caro it was the end of our season.... thinking my motor had just "died". We were almost on a spot so we made a phone call to the tournament director and asked if there was anyway we could still fish and they said that I could find someone to transport my fish in a seperate livewell or get someone to tow me back to the launch (which I ended up doing).</div><div>
<br /></div><div>While I was on the phone, another angler (not in the tournament) was catching big smallies less then 30ft from me and although I was a bit dissapointed I was surprise to see that the fish were "on" in this area. When I got everything confirmed with the tournament director I started fishing the area thoroughly as I had no where else to go. The first fish to hit my wacky worm was my biggest fish of the year at 5.4lbs.... A beautiful smallmouth that made me forget about my motor for a few minutes.... Moving around with my trolling motor only, Caro and I were able to boat 3 more quality smallies in the 3 to 4lbs range. It was around 10am when my dad gave me a call to tell me he was on it's way to pick me up. Now I started thinking that I should've called him later but I didn't think I had a chance to win an event with no motor. With my dad waiting for me on shore at 11:30am I put the trolling motor to 100% and put those Demone batteries to the test. On our way back to meet my dad, I had a waypoint marked on the GPS and we just had to give it a try to catch our 5th and last fish. On the first pass, I got a nice "thump" on the drop shot but never managed to set the hook.... I wasn't going to miss it twice! The 2nd pass produced the fish we needed to at least have a shot at a top 5.</div><div>
<br /></div><div>We got back to the launch at 1:00PM but we weren't aloud to fish after being towed so we had to wait 2 hours to weigh our fish. Unfortunately, we had a fish die at the weigh-in and lost half a pound for a total weight of 19.30. To my surprise, nobody was able to beat us today and we won the event for a second year in a row with #1 lunker on top of that.</div><div>
<br /></div><div>I'd like to thank all my sponsors today but especially Demone batteries who didn't slow down one bit even after 1 hour of 100% power on my Minnkota. I was able to fight the current and make my way back to the dock safely.</div><div><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-w1z9wFGm7Ig/Tl7lACU97HI/AAAAAAAAAhc/2Vt_Uk26HTU/s1600/image103-1.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-w1z9wFGm7Ig/Tl7lACU97HI/AAAAAAAAAhc/2Vt_Uk26HTU/s320/image103-1.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5647202771556756594" style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 250px; " /></a>
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<br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-SFZScU0QbxA/Tl7k_nJhYCI/AAAAAAAAAhM/PaUPi1tb7Lc/s1600/_W1_9553-1.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-SFZScU0QbxA/Tl7k_nJhYCI/AAAAAAAAAhM/PaUPi1tb7Lc/s320/_W1_9553-1.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5647202764260991010" style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px; " /></a></div>Jon Belangerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04131119981358044581noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2346567262488649736.post-10960637645917342802011-08-31T20:40:00.002-04:002011-08-31T21:05:08.724-04:00St-Francis practice time!August 6-7, 2011<div>
<br /></div><div>With Econobass next weekend and the Berkley B1 in september it's obvious I will be spending a lot of time on lake St-Francis for the next 2 months. It's no secret that I love this body of water but I would like to find some BIG fish this year in order to defend my Econobass title from last year and do another top 10 at the Berkley B1 2011.</div><div>
<br /></div><div>I was able to put in 2 days of practice with Caro and my brother Raph but it wasn't a big success to say the least. The objective was to find new big fish area and validate other spots from previous years. My stuff from previous years is still very good but finding new big fish is quite the challenge. I find the weed has grown differently in most places and some of my prime areas don't produce quite as good as last year but fortunatly the deeper water smallies are still locked down on my GPS and biting well!</div><div>
<br /></div><div>I tried looking for largies has a "Plan B" and found a nice deep weedline that produced some decent size. I don't think I will be needing them but I can't wait to go back to check it out before the B1.</div><div>
<br /></div><div>Overall, practice wasn't very good in the sense that I couldn't find any new stuff that I am confident to fish at the tournament next weekend but there is a lot of time left to figure it out before the B1.</div><div><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HgGE7Kk2g20/Tl7aJKXJ-0I/AAAAAAAAAhA/db2zQJ4tlCs/s1600/IMG-20110731-131.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HgGE7Kk2g20/Tl7aJKXJ-0I/AAAAAAAAAhA/db2zQJ4tlCs/s320/IMG-20110731-131.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5647190833704336194" style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 299px; " /></a>
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<br /></div>Jon Belangerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04131119981358044581noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2346567262488649736.post-11306237768766258352011-08-29T21:22:00.002-04:002011-08-29T21:36:10.909-04:00Econobass - Lac des Deux-MontagnesJuly 30th, 2011<div>
<br /></div><div>I've had such a hard time on this lake in the summer that Caro and I had a simple objective : Catch 5 fish. I don't know if it's because we put the bar so low but we were able to get 5 smallmouth in 20 mins on our first spot. We were pretty happy about that because we knew that a lot of teams were going to struggle to get 5 fish in the livewell today. We stayed there awhile hoping to get one of the decent size smallies when had seen in practice but couldn't get anything much bigger then 2.5lbs. It's too bad because the fish were feeding heavily on minnows and were jumping on our Dumz sticks on almost every cast.</div><div>
<br /></div><div>We then went upstream to fish another area for both largies and smallies and only got short bites... From there it was spot hopping until we decided to hit a main bay for largies and lost some more time there... I believe I was in the right area but probably too late when I saw how many boats had fished the area already. We decided to hit our main area once more before the end of the day and caught some other fish but could never upgrade any of our fish.</div><div>
<br /></div><div>We finished our day with a mediocre weight of 8.95lbs good enough for 18th place. I can't say we are satisfied but it's an improvement over last years results nonetheless. </div>Jon Belangerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04131119981358044581noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2346567262488649736.post-2823945274405415302011-08-10T19:39:00.004-04:002011-08-10T21:15:29.229-04:00Vacation fishing!July 18 - 22nd, 2011<div>
<br /></div><div>It's no surprise that Caro and I spent most of our vacation fishing again this year. We spent 2 hard days of practice looking for smallmouth and largemouth on lake 2 Mountains. I know this lake has good smallies but it's also the most dangerous lake we have around here and I don't like risking losing my lower unit every time I'm out there looking for them. I was able to fish some new water but again the conditions made it difficult and the reward was somewhat interesting but too risky for the tournament, unless we get very little wind. I really wanted to concentrate on finding new smallies and put very little time on the largies.... Most of the largies are all in the same area and a lot of boats are fighting for the same spots. Practice ended up not being so good but we did find a few interesting stuff on the last day just before getting off the water that was promising for the tournament.</div><div>
<br /></div><div>We were also on lake St-Louis, St-Francis and other local lakes for some fun fishing.</div><div>
<br /></div><div>Here are a few pics from our vacation: </div><div><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-iLPFLRTHh8Q/TkMtEm7_kLI/AAAAAAAAAgk/Fk8Mgs2h7wA/s1600/IMG-20110731-131.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-iLPFLRTHh8Q/TkMtEm7_kLI/AAAAAAAAAgk/Fk8Mgs2h7wA/s320/IMG-20110731-131.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5639400715592896690" style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 299px; " /></a>
<br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4HExWumwSME/TkMtEUMAG7I/AAAAAAAAAgc/xmKoPjAHSfc/s1600/IMG-20110722-126.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4HExWumwSME/TkMtEUMAG7I/AAAAAAAAAgc/xmKoPjAHSfc/s320/IMG-20110722-126.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5639400710559767474" style="cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px; " /></a>
<br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RRCXpGOZlBE/TkMtEB7c43I/AAAAAAAAAgU/JLJJcNhjCEo/s1600/IMG_20110723_203556-2.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RRCXpGOZlBE/TkMtEB7c43I/AAAAAAAAAgU/JLJJcNhjCEo/s320/IMG_20110723_203556-2.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5639400705658512242" style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 230px; " /></a></div><div>
<br /></div>Jon Belangerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04131119981358044581noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2346567262488649736.post-22380082020031985822011-07-11T12:55:00.002-04:002011-07-11T13:57:41.849-04:00First time out on St-FrancisJuly 11th, 2011<div><br /></div><div>I was back on the water today with Caro and my friend Aaron for what felt like a revenge for our awful day on the water yesterday. We had NW wind blowing at around 10kmh which picked up to about 20km/h in the afternoon.</div><div><br />We started fishing fairly shallow and Caro caught the first 3 fish with the biggest one around 3lbs. We looked at new and old spots but the shallow bite was not really working for us so we decided to go deep. I caught a nice 4.5lbs smallmouth in about 25ft of water on our 3rd deep water spot but we had a few good hits in the 20-30ft range. We moved quite a bit today and didn't have a huge bag at the end of the day but it was my first time out on St-Francis and it seems like the vegetation was much different from last year. I should be fishing it a few more times over the next few weeks and hopefully do better then today. Aaron caught one shallow in the afternoon on the spinnerbait and I missed 2 more on the tube. Caro caught the majority of the fish today as usual and we would've probably had a little over 16lbs which is not bad at all... but we could've done better!</div><div><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GnBVbbyZIu4/Ths5jZCNI0I/AAAAAAAAAgI/YymFw3zS4ow/s1600/IMG-20110710-00111.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GnBVbbyZIu4/Ths5jZCNI0I/AAAAAAAAAgI/YymFw3zS4ow/s320/IMG-20110710-00111.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5628155439507907394" style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; " /></a></div>Jon Belangerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04131119981358044581noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2346567262488649736.post-59639768555813892512011-07-11T12:12:00.002-04:002011-07-11T12:47:10.079-04:00Econobass on the Ottawa RiverJuly 9th, 2011<div><br /></div><div>I was fishing the Ottawa river for the 3rd time this year and I was confident we could get a similar weight then the two previous trips but I was wrong. Again, July seems to be a tough month on this river as we were only able to bring back 2 fish to the weigh-in. Conditions didn't seem to bad in the morning with a NW wind of about 5-10km/h which made for a nice boat ride to our first spot.</div><div><br /></div><div>The first area we stopped at had a few laydowns that were holding quality largies in practice but after trying to convince them for over 30 mins we decided to move on to another area close by where they had been hitting the frog pretty good a few days before. Unfortunatly, the frog bite was completly off and seemed to attract only pike. We missed a few bites flipping isolated patches of lily pads but it was no easy task when the wind picked up. We had to move quite a bit before I finally hooked a small largemouth that ended up being the only largie of the day.</div><div><br /></div><div>It was about noon when we decided to give the smallies a try. After only a few minutes I got bit with what seem to be a decent size smallmouth but it came off very quickly and we didn't get to see it. We fished a very shallow rock flat and a nearby drop off when Caro hooked her first smallmouth of the day but like me, it didn't stay on for very long. Caro still managed to get a tiny smallmouth for what was going to be our last fish of day. We tried maybe 3-4 more spots but couldn't get another fish in the livewell. We even tried some new areas in hope to find a place that hadn't been hit so hard by the last 3-4 tournaments over the last few weeks and eventhough we found nice stuff and saw some fish, we weren't able to convince them to bite.</div><div><br /></div><div>The ride back to the weigh-in was simply brutal with all the pleasure craft out on the water. I wish I could practice more often on this river but it's a bit of a drive from where I live and to be honest, I can't say I love the fishing there. Regardless, I will have to go back and figure it out once and for all!</div>Jon Belangerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04131119981358044581noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2346567262488649736.post-91405382886646891882011-07-06T12:37:00.003-04:002011-07-06T13:10:30.196-04:00First win of the season!July 1st, 2011<div><br /></div><div>I was fishing a charity Pro/Am event from <a href="http://www.fishin-canada.net/">Fishin-Canada.net</a> today with Christian Grenier. Christian had been the observer in my boat on day 1 last year at the Berkley B1 and he was happy to be able to fish and not only "observe" today.</div><div><br /></div><div>We started fishing a few shallow areas for smallies and couldn't get a fish to bite for the first hour or so... The 2nd area was a spot closer to the main lake and had a lot of fish on it. We drifted a few times over it and both had our limit quickly. Christian had a 4lbs + smallmouth jump out the water and spit his tube back at him..... It was there that he learned to put his rod tip down when the fish is about to jump! We then proceeded to a main lake sand flat that I was checking out for the 2nd time... we had a few fish follow and bump our baits but they wouldn't take it fully. I tried throwing plastics for awhile but seeing as I didn't really know the area I decided it was time to go hunt for a largemouth kicker!</div><div><br /></div><div>The first area we did had decent largies swimming around us but no matter what bait we threw, they didn't care one bit. We tried all kinds of baits and techniques for about 30 mins and couldn't get a fish to bite. That's when I realized I had to try Caro's favorite bait.... To my surprise, I caught a 3lbs largemouth on my first cast and a smallie on the next one. Seeing as I had already about 9 lbs in the livewell... I gave Christian a hook and the special bait for him to start catching. He started catching fish immediatly but not the size we were hoping for. We moved around a little bit and tried tossing the frog hoping to catch a big largemouth at the end of the day but couldn't really upgrade what we already had.</div><div><br /></div><div>My 3 fish weighed-in at 9.85lbs good for 1st place on the pro side and Christian's fish got him 4th place I think. All in all we had a very fun day on the water. I always have a blast fishing with new people and I hope they have this event again next year.</div><div><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4gr-Y-0byiY/ThSWUMnIiYI/AAAAAAAAAfk/0Rp7f_rMHMs/s1600/IMG_0425.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4gr-Y-0byiY/ThSWUMnIiYI/AAAAAAAAAfk/0Rp7f_rMHMs/s320/IMG_0425.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5626287108219505026" style="cursor: pointer; width: 213px; height: 320px; " /></a><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MvsemdNuqbU/ThSWT3upb5I/AAAAAAAAAfc/JOzPvFTcvNI/s1600/20110701_proam0041.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MvsemdNuqbU/ThSWT3upb5I/AAAAAAAAAfc/JOzPvFTcvNI/s320/20110701_proam0041.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5626287102613876626" style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 213px; " /></a></div><div><br /></div>Jon Belangerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04131119981358044581noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2346567262488649736.post-71259273176409779532011-06-28T16:40:00.004-04:002011-06-28T17:32:21.728-04:00Lefaivre Lions 2011June 25th, 2011<div><br /></div><div>Ben Woo and I left friday night for a motel in Plantagenet for the Lions tourney. We did not practice at all for this event but with the high water levels, we were confident to find the fish quickly compare to last years conditions. </div><div><br /></div><div>We had a strong East wind in the morning but it died down a lot in the first hour of fishing. We started fishing for smallies and managed to put 2 fish in the box quickly and missed maybe 2 more. They were taking the bait very lightly and it was hard to get a good hookset on them. After about 45 mins we decided it was time to go look for largies. We had to move fast and figure out a pattern quickly... with no practice we had to try a few different patterns in order to see what the fish were doing. We spent about 15 mins on an main river outside weedline but the water was so high and dirty that we didn't think the fish were there yet. The next move was to go deep into a bay and see if we got more action there. I was tossing the frog as far as I could and Ben was flipping different type of covers until I got the first fish on the frog. This fish wasn't holding tight to any cover and was kind of just roaming so I decided to continue casting the frog around and started getting more and more bites. It wasn't long before Ben decided to do the same and we were able to put a decent limit together very quickly. We probably had around 13lbs with a few hours left to fish when we decided to go back to the smallies hoping to cull 1 or 2 smaller largies that we had.</div><div><br /></div><div>It was a bad choice since we weren't able to find even one smallie... We then headed back into another bay close by to find a kicker fish but it was too late... Too late too even get back at the launch in time for weigh-in apparently! We didn't calculate the run back properly and got back 8 mins late good for a DQ....</div><div><br /></div><div>Our final weight would've put us in 25th place with 13.25lbs which is a considerable improvement over last year (without the DQ obviously).</div><div><br /></div><div>Lesson learned I guess.... Now we know exactly how long that run takes! Overall we had a very fun day though and caught a lot more fish then we usually catch on the Ottawa River... All we needed was last year's 5lbs + kicker to have a shot at a top 10.</div>Jon Belangerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04131119981358044581noreply@blogger.com