Econ-O-Bass - Lake Two Mountains

July 3rd, 2010

Today was our first official Econobass tournament of the season and it was hard for everybody. Since we were able to get there first, we decided to fish a very popular shallow bay where we had caught some good fish the previous year. My dad caught a fish as soon as we got to our spot and I followed with another one shortly after. Unfortunatly, both of them were very small but it was a start. We stayed in that bay until the W wind picked up to a brutal 20-30kmh. I decided to go see if maybe we could catch a few smallies on the main lake and what a mistake that was! We ended up losing over an hour only to come back right where we had started. I was able to catch 2 more fish flipping a jig in isolated cover but again, not the size we were looking for. I had 2 more good areas to check out before the end of the tournament but the trim on my motor stopped working... I had to ask another team to help me out seeing as I had no clue how to bring my motor down manually. We finally managed to bring the motor down in time for the ride back to the weigh in but we only had 4 fish in the livewell....

I knew it was going to be a hard day for everyone but I had no idea our mediocre 6lbs + bag was going to put us in 15th place out of 45 teams...

Huge congrats to team young guns who finished in 7th place and to my good friends Felix and Marc who caught the biggest smallies of the day for a 6th place finish! Also, way to go Brian and Lyse for an amazing weight of 21lbs..... It's going to take awhile for someone to beat that kind of weight on 2 mountains... especially with only largies!!

Someone caught a few cool pics of my while I was flipping.. Next up is Lake St-Louis!

Checking things out on St-Louis

June 27th, 2010

Caro and I had enough of the ottawa river and lake two mountains so we decided to go check out lake St-Louis for a change. We got on the water just before noon and headed straight for largemouths. The water is abnormaly low for this time of year but the fish are still there and biting! The first area we tried had deeper, ultra clear water and some very interesting cover. After about 30 mins and only a 2.5lbs we decided to go check some other areas that had produced some good fish in the passed. This proved to be the right decision because in less then an hour I had over 15lbs with only 4 fish!! It was fun to finally catch some decent fish... especially since most of them were caught sight fishing where I had to convince them to bite for at least 5 mins! The largies have no problem adapting to the low water levels.... Some healthy fish as you can see!

I should be back on St-Louis with my good friend Mark on thursday trying to see what the smallies are doing! :)

Tournament Day - Lion de Lefaivre

June 26th, 2010

We got there early hoping we could test a new prop seeing as the last one didn't get us out of the hole quickly enough... Sadly, the new prop didn't help. We thought that maybe it was the motor that had to be raised so we took the boat out of the water 10 minutes before blast off. We figured we didn't care to get to our spot 10 mins late if it was going to help us get out of the hole faster... We ended up losing 20 minutes for nothing since no matter what we did, it seemed to make things worse. The prop ended up being too small and was spinning to fast and didn't pick up water properly causing the motor to overheat... We couldn't go over 45mph all day on top of not being able to get out of the hole!! Hopefully everything will be setup properly for Ben's next tournament on two mountains.

We started flipping a weedline and only managed to get one small largemouth in the livewell... After about an hour we decided it was time to fill that livewell with smallies but when we got to our spots... nobody was home. We spend about an hour in an area that usually always holds a few good smallies and only caught a pike. We decided to go back to largies to see if we could find some post-spawn females that were in transition areas. Again, we caught some small fish that didn't help the cause but filled our limit... At around 2pm, Ben hooked into a monster largemouth of 5.40lbs that got us all excited but unfortunatly, we coudn't get another decent fish. We thought we might of had a chance at a lunker prize but the biggest fish of the tournament came in at a whooping 6.83lbs!!! Our total weight for 5 bass was 11 and change for a dissapointing result...

Even with all the problems we had that day we still had a lot of fun.. It was nice to see everyone and I will be attending the event again next year with hopefully better results!!

Next up is two moutains and it's going to hard!!

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.