The JohnnyFisher Challenge

October 26th, 2008

I was back on the water today with my dad for a friendly tournament against Marc and Felix. We left the boat launch at around 9 am for what was going to be an awesome day to catch giant smallies! Water temperature was around 50 in the morning and warmed up to 54 in the afternoon with a light wind from the S. The day started a lot slower then last week and we had to relocate a few times before we finally found a few fish. The first fish we caught was a tiny walleye that was way too small to eat! I didn't have any fish following my jerkbait so I quickly switched to tubes and gobies and it paid off!! I recently bought some new gobies on the internet and I was anxious to see if there were going to be good here... On my 3rd cast with my new lure I caught a 5lbs smallmouth!! In less then 15 minutes I had 3 other bass eat the goby!! Thank god I bought a big bag!! I have a feeling I'll have a rod rigged with them at all time from now on! When I noticed the water had warmed up by almost 4 degrees I decided to go back to a spot where we usually catch a lot of fish. We began catching fish on almost every cast but nothing bigger then 2lbs...

At one point Marc called me up to see if I could take a picture of a nice sturgeon he caught by mistake so we met up for a little photoshoot. I had never seen a sturgeon in person before. It's pretty impressive!

I think seeking for warm water got us our last 2 quality fish... The next spot we tried had water temp over 54 and my dad caught a nice 4lbs 10oz smallmouth and I caught another keeper of about 2.5lbs. We met up with Marc and Felix for a few pictures and the official weigh in but when we took our bass out of the livewell they didn't even want to weigh they're fish!! Overall we had a great day, not only did we catch about 20 bass but we caught 2 very nice ones! The season is NOT over yet!

The new boat is insane!

October 25th, 2008

They were announcing a lot of wind today with an insane amount of rain but it didn't stop us from going fishing!! There are only a few fishing weekends left and I have to take advantage of every single one of them before winter gets here! The wind was blowing at 25-30 km/h but from the SE... We had a 2-3 footers most of the time with a few 4 footers but nothing the boat couldn't handle!! Let's just say we were the ONLY one on the lake!

We only fished for about 3 hours and caught nada! Not a single fish, not even a bite! The strong SE wind made it very difficult to drift... Hopefully tomorrow will be a bit calmer!

Fall Feeding FRENZY!!!

October 19th, 2008

I was on the water today with my brother Raph and his friend Paul. Water temperature on this body of water has finally reached 55ish and I think it's the magic number because the smallies were completely nuts. We had very little wind and it gave me the chance to see my fishing spots a lot better then usual. The water was clear for this area.. usually it's never this clear. I saw things I didn't even know where there before.. It took about 3 casts for my brother to hook is first smallmouth and maybe 5 more for his second one... I really don't know what happened but the bass were feeding HEAVILY. We could seem them chase bait fish right in front of us sometimes even jumping out of the water. I was casting a jerkbait and I had a bass following it to the boat 9 cast out of 10. It was almost like we were fishing for starving pikes... I've seen pikes follow lures like that but never smallmouth bass. It's almost like they didn't care about the boat or us... Looking back at things I should've tried more lures seeing as they were biting almost everything. Today was by far the most productive day I've had fishing for smallmouths. A few times we no only had 2 fish at the same time but even 3! I can't wait to see if it's going to be this good next weekend. Overall we caught close to 40 smallmouth if not more and we missed quite a few as well. Most were in the 2 - 2.5lbs range with the biggest ones being close to 4lbs.

New fishing spots!

October 18th, 2008

I was fishing with my Caro and my dad today and we were looking for new fishing spots for future tournaments on a local lake near my house. With the new boat I can now try areas of the lake that seemed way to far before... Water temperature was about 57-58 and we had almost no wind. We started casting tubes, worms and jerkbaits but go no bites. We found a few promising rock piles and I made sure to mark them on GPS. I'm sure I'll find fish there in the future... it has all the ingredients for a great smallmouth habitat! We tried a few areas nearby but couldn't hook a fish so we finally decided to try a known good spot to at least hook one bass. It didn't take long before we hooked our first fish but it was pretty small... I had a good strike from what seemed to be a good sized smallie but she never made it to the boat... We caught a few more bass but nothing big so we decided to try another area closer to the boat launch. When we got there we saw a few roaming smallies in about 2-3 feet of water but as soon as they saw us they were gone.... I marked that one on the GPS as well!!! I'll get them next time! Overall it wasn't the best day but at least I got to find new spots.

Tournament Day!

October 12, 2008

I was doing my first tournament today with my dad. It wasn't part of any trail but most of the best bass guys in QC were there. Since practice had been awful I decided to try an area where I had caught good size smallmouth in the past and it paid off!! Water temp was in the mid 50's in the morning with a 10km/h wind from the South. It was the perfect weather for jerkbaits and it took about 10 casts to get my first hook up and it was a NICE one. I was soo nervous being in a tournament and knowing I had a 5lbs + bass at the end of my line so early in the day... I didn't want to lose it. Call it luck or whatever you want but I had my biggest smallmouth of the summer on my first tournament 15 mins after the launch! It weighed in at 5.25 and was the second biggest fish of the day. Pro Marc Levac came in with a hawg of 5.85lbs to win the lunker. Marc was fishing with one of the best musky guide in the world, Mike Lazarus.

After my big fish I was really pumped because I knew I had a good chance at winning the lunker but since it was a 3 fish tournament I only needed 2 other quality fish to win the tournament. I tried 2 other nearby area where we had caught decent smallies in the past but we got nothing so I decided to move a little further to another good spot. The jerkbait paid off once again... I had left my line in the water for at least 2 mins and I guess a smallmouth had seen it and couldn't take it anymore so it bit the last treble hook and got hooked. It ended up being very close to 5lbs so there we were at 11am with more then 10lbs with 2 fish in the livewells. I couldn't believe it... I don't think my dad had seen me this happy before... I was totally FREAKING OUT. We fished the same area for about 45 mins and got our last fish but it was tiny!! It was about 1.5 lbs and we needed more then that to win it. I knew we needed at least 12-13lbs to win it. We caught a few more fish on the same spot but nothing bigger then that last one.... At 1pm I decided to give a shot at largemouth hoping to get that kicker fish... Again, we caught a few of them but only small ones so we headed for the weigh in with a decent bag afterall.

We got to the weigh in and one team had already weighed in over 12lbs so I knew we weren't going to win it but I was still hoping for a top 3. Our bag came in at 11.23lbs and we had the lunker at that point. Levac and Lezarus came in first with a bag of 13.94 followed by Brian Attwood with 13.54. We finished 7th and still managed to beat a few pros like Daniel Cousineau and other known veterans so I was very pleased afterall. We got to meet a lot of people and it was nice to talk about fishing with people who share the same passion.

I should do at least 7 or 8 tourney next year maybe even more.. who knows!

Lockjaw Smallies

October 11th, 2008

I was on a local lake today with my brother and a my friend Mounir. I decided to try the same area as last week where I had seen so many giant smallies. Water temperature was in the high 50's and the wind was very light from the SW. We were throwing tubes, jerkbaits, drop-shots and gobees but they were simply not biting. The water was so clear we were able to drop our baits right infront of them and they would simply move a few feet and stay there. We drifted all day in this area hoping to get a bite eventually but we got nothing! It was a bit dissapointing since Mounir had never caught a bass in his life and I wanted him to at least catch one... We only fished for a few hours because I wanted to be back early to prepare for the tournament the next day. I was able to remove most of the stickers on my boat so I snapped a few pics.

Where did they go?!

October 5th, 2008

I was back on the water today with my dad and Marc hoping to find some smallies in deeper water. Water temperature was 56 to 61 most places we fished and we had a light wind from SW. Aside from the recent water temperature drop we had over the last few days everything was in order for a good day. We started the day by trying out a new promising spot but we didn't even get one hit... We moved on to try a known spot where we usually catch a lot of fish and we didn't even get a hit there either. We tried fishing deeper with drop-shot, tubes, gobees, etc... and got NADA! We tried more new areas hoping to find a some spots for next weeks tournament but we couldn't even catch ONE BASS. We tried every possible dept with every lures we had and it just wouldn't work. Looking back on our day I realized we are going to have to make a few adjustments for the tourney or we're going to show up at the weigh in with an empty bag. At least the weather should be in our favor for next weekend and from what I hear the bass are starting to feed heavily so I'm still confident we are going to do good.

Tough fishing

October 4th, 2008

I was on a local lake today with Marc and Felix for both smallmouth and largemouth. I had a feeling fishing was going to be tough with the water temp dropping by almost 10 degrees since last weekend. Add to this the INTENSE 25+km/h wind and the result was pretty much what I had expected.... I have to say that I was hoping for at least one or two bass but we caught NOTHING! Actually, I caught a 15lbs+ catfish that gave me a hell of a fight... I don't know what's going on lately but I'm catching everything except bass!! At least I got to try out my new boat in 3-4 footers and I was more then impressed with the ride. Who said bassboats are not good in waves? I was going 40-50 mph in those waves and the boat was taking it just fine! Needless to say my friends were VERY impressed with the boat. I missed a good size largemouth but that was the only action we had besides the catfish. I should be back on the water tomorrow to practice for a tournament next weekend.