Biggest Bass of the season in practice!

July 26th, 2009

I was fishing with Caro and Marc-André today and we were trying to establish a plan for my next tournament on the Ottawa River in Lefaivre. I wanted to make sure to cover a lot of water with different baits to see where and what the fish were after. As usual.. Caro was hammering them but with a worm this time and on light line... I was actually surprised that she was able to boat them with a spinning outfit. The water is still very dirty from all the wind and rain we've been having but the fish were still biting... Caro caught 2 good largemouth and 1 very nice smallmouth in less then 1 hour of fishing. I was mostly throwing a frog and Marc-André was flipping a jig. I wasn't getting any attacks on the frog.. I think the wind might of been a bit too strong for the frog so I switched to a worm for awhile but I wasn't getting bit either.. We finally got to a tiny bay that was covered from the wind and Marc-André decided to give the frog another try and got a hit almost instantly but missed it. He threw the frog back and that's when a GIANT largemouth came out of the water and smashed it! It was probably the biggest largemouth I had ever seen... I couldn't believe that it measured only 19"... It's back was so wide it was impossible to be under 5lbs... In fact we weighed it twice and it was 5lbs11oz!! She wasn't fat, but she was as thick as a linebacker. I would've love to see her in full spawn!

I marked the area and decided to go fish for smallies for the rest of the day. We caught a few smallies but nothing huge so I think I will concentrate on largemouth for my tournament next saturday... The water was around 68-69 celcius and we had mild east wind for most of the day.

I think we could've had about 13-15 lbs today and considering the results I've seen this year for the Ottawa river I think it was a good day.

Fishing with a guide on Lake St-Louis

July 25th, 2009

My friend Jack invited me today to fish with a guide on Lac St-Louis for some bass and walleye. We were meeting him at the dock in Lachine at 6am. We started the day fishing a shoal for smallmouth bass but we couldn't get one to bite... we had a few follow our baits but none of them would commit. We relocated a few times but the same thing was happening... We decided to go fish for walleye to see if they would cooperate a little more. On the first spot we caught 3-4 small ones and a few tiny bass as well. The guide finally missed a nice sized walleye and caught another decent one. We were drifting and jigging on a 200 yards stretch and it seemed like it was a good spot for walleye but for some reason, I think I would've fished it differently.... I'll make sure to try it again some other day to see if I can get some decent walleye. The area we fished was nice because we had nice walleye and bass spots really close to each other. About mid day we decided to try for smallmouth again and he brought us on a spot that had a lot of nice smallmouth but it took a lot of work to convince them to take our baits... I finally caught 2 good sized smallies and missed a few more.

At the end of the day the guide said he wasn't satisfied with his day and that he was going to bring us back for free in the fall. Apparently he catches monster after monster in the fall so i'm looking forward to this!

Top Water smallies

July 21st, 2009

I was on Lake St-Louis tonight with Caro and I wanted to see if we could catch 'em on top water baits since the wind was down. We had less then 2 hours on the water so I wanted to find a spot quickly where we could throw pop'rs and sammys. Our first spot was nice but I think I approached it wrong and I might of spooked a few fish... Caro missed a fish before we decided to try another area nearby. It ended up being the right decision since I got a nice smallie on my first cast with the pop'r. Caro also missed a nice one on the jerkbait and I caught a few small ones on tubes... The wind picked up all of a sudden and we had a bit of a chop that prevented us from throwing top water lures. I'm pretty happy about our little outing tonight since I was able to catch some nice smallies and I now have a few more waypoints on my GPS.

Tournament fishing

July 18th, 2009

Our day wasn't as good as I had anticipated but we still managed to finish in 8th place with a bag of 13.124lbs... We started the day by throwing moving bait for our smallies and by 9:30 we had our limit in the boat. We started culling on our second spot when I caught a near 3lbs smallie on a jerkbait. We didn't stay there very long though.. there was a spot where we had caught many 4-5lbs fish in the past that I wanted to try so we headed there around 10:45am. We dragged tubes and senkos for about an hour and managed to switch almost all of our fish but only by a few onces... We decided to try a shallower area and that's when we came across some giant smallies... We spooked about 3-4 very big fish before I managed to get our lunker of 4.728lbs in the boat.. She was in less then 2 feet of water.

From there we decided go try for some largemouth since the wind was becoming stronger and stronger. I missed 2 very big largies on the frog (as usual) and I wasn't able to convince her to bite on the worm or the jig... It was hard to get the boat in the proper position without spooking them with the trolling motor... That's when a power pole comes in handy...

My dad also caught his biggest walleye to date. A 8lbs 2oz monster that bit on his tube in about 10 feet of water. We obviously released him after a few pictures.

Next weekend I will be practicing for our tourny on the Ottawa river and I should be fishing with a guide on Lake St-Louis for bass and walleye.

Practice with Quebec's elite!!

July 12th, 2009

I was fishing with no other then Brian Attwood today for a little practice/learning session on Francis. Brian is a great guy and I learned tons of new things today. Not only did I learn a lot of new fishing tips but also with the boat, GPS, rods, lines, lures, etc...

For those who care... Brian did not "give" me all his spots.. We fished some new areas using his techniques and not only did we catch some nice bass we also saw some nice ones just cruising around or following our baits. Brian is a real pro when it comes to power fishing.. He keeps things very simple and he gave me one hell of a wake up call. I need to get back to basics and stop trying to make things complicated. For one, I now know that I have WAY too many baits... He basically throws the same thing over and over and it works!!! One thing I learned is that even if you spook a fish.. you can catch him a few minutes if not seconds later. He sure put my trolling motor to the test with his extreme driving!!! No push pole for him that's for sure.

We must of caught around 10-15 bass but no giants... We saw a lot of 3lbs+ fish that I hope to convince next time I'm on the water! I have a good idea of where i'll be fishing for my tournament next weekend with today and last week's practice.

St-Francis Practice

July 5th, 2009

Even with today's wind my girlfriend really wanted to go fishing (yes I know.. I have the best girlfriend in the world!!). I figured we could go practice for my next tournament on Francis. I did the mistake of trying a spot I knew had fish... but I just wanted to catch a decent smallmouth!! I actually missed one on my first cast and it felt heavy!! On my second cast I caught a perfect eating size walleye which ended up in my livewell! We drifted a bit over a spot in about 15-20 feet of water and I hooked a 4lbs+ smallie but the line broke at the boat... It was too bad because she was about 3 inches away from going in the net... I lost another fish that felt like a 3lbs+ smallmouth not long after that and I hooked another walleye... We had never caught walleye in this area so I was surprise to catch 2 in the same hour...

We left that spot to go try for some largemouth nearby and Caro missed a nice one with the frog... She tried setting the hook way to early but she was fishing the frog for the first time... I told her to either wait for the frog to dissapear or simply count to 3 before setting the hook... You should've seen her face when the bass jumped on the frog.. She got scared and screamed as if she was being attacked!! haha! I think it got her hooked on topwater fishing.. She might give a break to her favorite yamamoto bait afterall.

I'm a bit dissapointed that we didn't try more new spots... We tried maybe 2 new spots and spent the rest of the day fishing areas that I knew had fish... From now on I will try to maximize my practice time so I can find new spots.

All in all it was a fun day on the water... We missed a lot of good fish but at least I know where i'll be fishing for my tournament in 2 weeks. I should practice again next weekend and i'll make sure to try completely new areas.. At least we have some nice walleye for diner!

Tournament day!

July 4th, 2009

I was fishing my first Econ-O-Bass tournament today with my dad. I had a good idea of where I wanted to start fishing but when we got there there were already 6-7 teams there. We started throwing frogs and senkos and it wasn't long before we started hooking some largemouths but most of them were in the 1lbs to 2lbs range.. Nothing that was going to help us win the tournament. We stayed there for a while and caught a limit early but we needed bigger fish if we wanted to make a top 10... We decided to go try a for smallmouth around noon but the wind made things complicated... It didn't take long before we decided to go back to our original spot. We were finally able to hook a decent fish which was close to 3lbs but that was it...

We finished 12th with just a little over 8lbs... I am really not happy with the outcome but next tournament should be better..... I have fished St-Francis quite a bit and i'm confident we can do way better then 8lbs! Congrats to Alain and Carole who took first place with over 16lbs of largemouth! Funny thing is that they were fishing about 100m from me almost all day and we were throwing something very similiar... Oh well!! I guess I was on the wrong side of the bay!!

You can check Econobass.com for pictures of the event.

Beat the storm!

July 3rd, 2009

I was fishing with my friend Jack today for smallmouth on a local lake and a big storm was chasing us around... We were able to find a few fish in areas of the lake I had never been before. In fact, I think I found a GREAT spot for smallmouth... I can't wait to try this spot again. I am convinced it holds plenty of quality smallies. Jack was fishing a berkley grub on a drop shot and he was hammering them!! I am getting more and more confidence in the drop shot but I had never thought of fishing it with a grub... Seeing as he was getting so many smallies in the boat I will definitely give it a shot on my next trip. We finally ended up having to face the storm but it was more rain and wind then anything else.... It only lasted for about 15 minutes but it rained so much the bilge pump actually came on!! I caught a good 18 incher and Jack took a picture of it but we think the rain killed his camera so I don't know if we'll ever see this picture..

The ride back was a bit rough since I couldn't hit the waves properly and they were at least 4 footers... We tried another spot before calling it a day where Jack had caught some good 3 and 4 pounders but only caught some small ones. We got hit by heavy rain again on the way back to the launch and we were sooked by the time we got in the car...

It was a good day on the lake but I could've done it without the rain today... Next stop is my first trail tournament for Econ-O-Bass.. I hope we'll do better then what we did in practice!

Largemouth hunting!

July 1st, 2009

I was fishing with my girlfriend and my cousin Martin today trying some new spots for some good largemouth. We stopped for a few cast before heading to my new spot to see if we could tempt a few smallies to bite and only Caro was able to catch one with her favorite yamamoto bait! A storm was coming our way pretty quickly so we decided to hurry up and headed for a weedy bay where I knew we would find some decent largemouth. When we got there there were already a few bassboat but they were fishing a sandbar closer to the main lake. I headed for the thick stuff and I was not careful enough and I think we scared a few fish.... Caro missed a decent largemouth on her favorite bait twice.... At least I know this area holds quality fish now.... Of course I had to catch a pike there. I don't think I have gone on the water this year without catching at least one pike... go figure. We didn't catch any big fish today but at least I got to try new areas and I have a few new waypoints on my GPS for upcoming trips on this lake.

Vacation Fishing!

June 30th, 2009

I was fishing a local lake with my friend Mat today hoping to connect with some nice smallies. We didn't fish for a long time but I still managed to hook a few fish. Water is still reletivaly cold and I managed to find a few smallmouths but no giants!!! Pikes seem to be everywhere this year... I don't think I have ever caught that many pikes fishing for bass... At least they are not cutting me off everytime! We had a good time on the water today even if Mat didn't catch a single fish... Instead of fishing areas that I knew I decided to try all kinds of new spots and even if most of them didn't pay off, a few of them did and I made sure to mark them on my GPS! Here is a nice smallie I caugth today with only one eye!!

Damn musky!! Where is the bass?!

June 28th, 2009

I was practicing with my girlfriend for my first trail tournament on the Ottawa River in Rigaud today and it didn't really go like I had planned... I don't think I had ever seen water this muddy before.. I tried using large, bright and noisy lures but all I got were ferocious attacks of pikes and musky!!! I did manage to catch a few largemouths but nothing big enough for my upcoming tournament... We fished a bay where we can usually do 15lbs + no problems but we barely got a bite there. We had to relocate a few times before we could get a bite and even if the water was like coffee it was a dark worm that did the job....

At least I caught my first musky and boy did it give me a good fight!!! It's really not the type of fish I was looking for but it was well worth the battle!!