I was out on Francis again today with Caro and Marc-André to look for more deep water smallies. The winds were strong again but they were from W and SW and what a different it makes!! The ride there was very smooth compared to yesterday and even if I forgot my rain suit I didn't have to get wet. We went to the exact same deep water spot we tried yesterday to see if the opposite wind would have positive or negative effect on the fish. The result were quite the same... a lot of fish in the 2.5lbs range with a few near 3lbs. On our first spot, Caro got stung by a wasp on the neck... Those wasp have been all over the place recently and I hate them!! Caro continued fishing like a champ and even had the lunker smallmouth for most of day.
We relocated a few times and everytime the fish were getting bigger. Water temperature is around 71 in most areas we fished. The last area we fished was not as deep (20-35ft) and this time, the tube outfished the drop shot. I don't know if they were on crayfish but they were definitely looking down and not up! Marc-André shorten his leader a few times but the tubes were still catching more fish. We tried the drift sock to slow down our drift but the trolling motor ended up being the only way to slow us down enough. I wanted to try a few cast in shallower water close to a point that had been bugging me on every drift and I caught a big walleye on the tube!! We didn't weight it but it was over 6lbs for sure. For a minute I thought I had a huge smallmouth... For a walleye it gave me good fight. Before we left I caught a nice 4lbs+ smallie on the tube and on a new color... It's nice to be able to find new spots, new fishing technique, new baits and new colors all in the same weekend!
Overall, i'm really happy with what we learned this weeekend. We didn't catch any giants but I think were on the good track.
