Practice for Lions de Lefaivre

June 23rd & 25th, 2010

Caro, my dad and I practiced on the Ottawa River for 2 days while Ben, my partner for the event, spent 2 days there as well with his boat. I spent 1 day fishing familiar water and it was hard.... We caught some fish but nothing of the size I was looking for... We spent the second day of practice trying to to find new areas that I had never been before hoping to find something but ended up eliminating water instead... Ben was confident we could bring a decent bag of smallies and then hunt for a kicker largemouth.

Nothing picture worthy!

Practice on Two Mountains for Econ-O-Bass

June 20th, 2010

I was on Two mountains today with Caro practicing for our first Econ-O-Bass tournament... The water levels are beyond low... Most places I usually fish for largies have less then 2 foot of water. We started out flipping jigs and beaver tails and Caro hooked a near 4lbs largemouth and I followed immediately with a 2.5lbs. We had only been on the water for about 30 mins and already had 2 fish.... Unfortunatly, no other fish came after that except a few walleyes... We had a W wind today at about 10-15km/h.

We then tried to go for smallies on the main river but the boat traffic was very intense and I couldn't find anything I liked... We fished rocky drop offs and shallow rocks without a single bite... I should be back on 2 mountains this week with my dad but this time we will try to fish the main lake and see if we can find some big smallies.

Season Opener and 5th place finish

June 19th, 2010

Bass fishing is finally open in QC and what a good way to start the season with a tournament! I fished my first tourney with Ben today and even though we aren't completely satisfied with our overall weight we still managed to finish 5th out of 35 teams. We knew that most of the largies had been pressured in practice so we decided to go for smallies. We knew that with the right conditions our pattern could get us around 17-18lbs. Winds were howling at 30km/h with gusts over 40 but we stuck with our plan and managed to get a little over 14lbs in a few hours. We were on Ben's new Bullet and it was only it's second time out on the water and still needs a bit of fine tuning with the motor... I can assure that once everything is finally setup.. this thing will FLY!

With 2 hours before weigh in and very little battery remaining we decided to see if maybe we could find a kicker to up our weight a little. Unfortunatly, the wind made things complicated and the batteries quickly gave up.... We had to stop fishing almost an hour before weigh in but we were confident that our 14lbs bag was going to be somewhat decent considering the strong winds everybody had to deal with.

Biggest bag that day was 17lbs of largies and we finished in 5th with 14.22lbs... Not bad for the first tourney of the year.

Now it's time to practice for the Lions the Lefaivre next weekend.

Champlain at it's best!

May 15th, 2010

I was back on Lake Champlain this weekend with Marc for another shot at these big green fish often referred as largies! Before we even got there, I told Marc that if the water temp was under 50 we would go for smallies.... We were both very surprised to see that the water temps had climbed to 54. Needless to say we started flipping right away and we were hooking fish almost instantly. Wind was blowing quite a bit at 20km/h coming from the NW and made it very difficult to position the boat properly but the fish were biting well so we just sticked with the pattern we had. By noon, we had around 15lbs of largemouth caught and released but I knew we could do better then that. By then the water temps had climbed 57 so I decided to try another area and I started hooking some very decent fish. Marc was a bit rusty with his flipping but still managed to boat a few decent looking bass.

At the end of the day we had at least 22lbs of largemouth and decided that since the wind had died down it was time to try to get a few nice smallies. On our first 2 casts we both had a fish on with Marc's fish being a better one. We caught a few more but nothing over 3lbs...

I'm starting see how tremendous this fishery is... I'm used to fish river systems and I like not having to fight with current for once! We will definitely have a few more trips to champlain this season.

First time on Lake Champlain

May 11th, 2010

I was out with Ben today for my first time on Champlain. Coming off a big cold front we knew it was going to be a hard day on the water. The water had dropped down to 47 compared to 57 the week before... We started flipping anyways and although it was a slow bite we still managed to get a few largies in the boat. We moved around looking for warmer water but it wasn't until the afternoon that we were able to finally get temps over 50. The fish were very tight to cover and they were not going to chase anything... we really had to put it in their faces if we wanted to get a bite. We explored the lake a bit for smallies just to see if maybe they would've been more cooperative. We were able to locate a nice flat where I caught a small one and Ben had a giant follow his jerkbait but nothing more. Seeing as the water was warming up we decided to go back to see if the largemouths were more active.

It was nice to finally be able to fish lake Champlain... Conditions were tough but I got to see the huge potential this lake has. I am looking forward to my next trip there and hopefully we'll get higher water temps and better results!

What a start for 2010!

May 1st, 2010

Marc, Caro and I were on Lake Massawippi for not only our first trip of the year but it was also our first attempt to catch a lake trout. Water temps were ranging from 46 to 50 depending on where we fished and we had a no wind in the morning and maybe a 5km/h S wind in the afternoon. We casted hair jigs, crankbaits and jerkbaits for most of the day but only found bass so we relocated often. I got tired of casting my jerbait so I decided to troll a bit seeing as it was a very popular technique. After only about 5 mins, I hooked this big laker and the fight was on! It took a few minutes before we were able to see her but I knew I had a decent fish on the line. We forgot the net but thanks to Marc we were able to bring her in anyways. She weighed in just under 10lbs and she was back in the water after a few pictures. We will definitely be going back to this beautiful lake this season and I will be there next year again for the opener.

Almost ready for 2010!

April 26th, 2010

It's been over 2 months since my last update.. I spent a lot of time and money on the boat to make sure the upcoming season will be problem free. Finally got the boat back for good this weekend but there is still a bit of work to be done on it. I had the obvious tune up done, a little repair on the hull, got a new trolling motor and a new set of tires for the trailer. I still have some minor work to do with my electronics and I should have new seats in a few weeks. Hopefully everything will be ready by the time bass is open in QC!

I managed to get a test drive yesterday and everything ran smooth!! I really wanted to try the new Minnkota and what a difference! It's obviously more powerful being a 101lbs thrust but it's also much quieter then my motorguide was. I'm confident it will help me a lot when i'm fishing thick vegetation this summer.

I have also completed my "rod collection" for this season and it's one hell of an upgrade compared to last year. I'm happy to say I will be fishing exclusively with St.Croix rods this season. I have 11 technique specific rods ready to catch some big bass!!

Nothing is planned so far for the next few weeks but I might be able to squeeze in a trip to Champlain or Massawipi before I get my new seats.

Water temps on Louis were ranging from 53 to 57 yesterday!! We should be way passed the spawn by the time bass opens in late June.

Econ-O-Bass Registration day!

Feb 21st, 2010

We had a blast at the Econ-O-Bass meeting today. It was nice to see everybody again and talk about fishing. We were already at 40 teams by the end of the day with some very good teams registered this year. The competition should be very interesting even if the best anglers will be fishing with either their son or their wifes. The season should start very soon with some walleye fishing in March and some Bass and Trout in April. CAN'T WAIT!

You can see pics of the meeting on fishin-Canada.net (http://www.fishin-canada.net/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=3053&PN=1)

Part of the Fishin-Canada Pro-Staff team

Feb 7th, 2010

I am now officially part of the Fishin-Canada.net Pro-Staff. I would like to thank Mike and the fishin-canada crew for letting me be part of the team. Fishin-Canada is one of the few good Canadian fishing website with a quality forum where people can exchange and talk about fishing. We just created a new french section on the forum and I will try to be as active as possible and maybe even recruit a few guys to get it going!

I am looking forward to representing Fishin-Canada both in french and in english for 2010!!

B1 Registration & Fishin-Canada Swap and Sell

Feb 6th, 2010

Although there was no fishing involve, this was kinda of a big weekend for me. It started saturday morning at 5:45am for my B1 registration. I wanted to send my registration as soon as possible to secure a spot in the top 50. I ended up with #4 which is not bad considering at least 30 people were up trying to the same thing!! Now I know I will be launching with the first wave. For more info about the Berkley B1 visit Fishin-Canada.net .

I then proceeded to the first ever Fishin-Canada Swap & Sell at the anglers club in Lachine. It was nice to see the guys and finally be able to talk about fishing. I was also there to pick up a few orders I had placed for next season. I don't think I've ever bought this many lures before but at least they are all the same color now... or almost! I think I won't have to buy any tubes for the next 2 years with this order.

A few pics of the meeting: