steverowbotham

In my last report, we were crushing largies in the deep weeds. Since then, that bite has died off a bit, but not before my buddy smoked a 6+ pounder, his biggest of the year. On Sunday we had a club tournament on a smaller lake and the weather was nuts. It was 8C (46F) with 40kmh winds and pouring rain. I could not figure the fish out. I tried fishing smallies, I tried largies in milfoil, on rocks. I fished slow, I fished fast. I had 1 small fish at 1pm. Then I punched a mat and got a fish over 4. I kept going. In the next 2 hours, I landed 12 more keepers and managed a 3rd place finish. Punching mats in 1-2 ft of water. I spent this past week exploring a bunch of smaller lakes in the Haliburtons. I went looking for big fish, but was instead rewarded with numbers. Big numbers. Over 2 days I landed close to 100 fish, mostly on jerkbaits in 18-45 feet of water. So much fun. Had a trip out to the main lake Simcoe yesterday, Found lots, but with high pressure and lack of wind, it was a tough bite. Still managed some good ones though.

Biggest was a bit over 6, lots in the 3.5 - 4.5 lbs range

My last report, I was catching my fish in really shallow cane, but last week when I revisited these areas, they were pretty empty. Still some fish around, but they had shrunk significantly. The water was up 4 degrees and I knew the fish had headed deeper. I hit some of my deep milfoil beds in 12-16 feet of water and they were loaded. Over a few days, we crushed a lot of big fish dunking jigs and craws in the best milfoil we could find. Here's some of the results... Let Em Go, Let Em Grow!!

I can offer no science in this thread, but I'm a smallie fanatic and the darkest smallies I've caught have all come out of shallow water on sunny days. My belief is that they change their pigment to absorb more sunlight, especially in cooler water. No proof, but I 100% believe that. This one came out of 2 feet of water.

Strike King Burner. I fish it fast enough that it creates a wake and big smallies CHOMP it

I enjoy fishing small lakes here and there. But I enjoy the hunt in big water. Big water = Big Fish. They can just be a lot harder to locate. My home water is 178,000 acres.

I took a year off of tournament fishing last year because I didnt have the fire. I spent too much time on lakes I didnt want to be at and in weather I didnt want to be in. I had my first son last year and used my free days to fish my favourite lakes and learn new techniques. It was exactly what I needed.

Thanks lo n slo

If they're busting, then I'd throw a spook or a jerkbait. Don't look past a senko either

It's all seasonal. My go-to smallie flat in the fall is between 28-36 ft. If they're not there, they're on the adjacent flat in 42-48 ft. I've caught them in 60ft, but not consistantly.

I've had better days since, but the one that really stands out for me was 8 years ago. I'd never had a 20+ pound bag of smallies in my life, and my best friend and I decided to head out for a few hours one afternoon. It was last minute and I was actually heading home from a tournament on a different lake when he called. He wanted to take his brother's "new" boat for a test run. We werent expecting much as we were in a different area than we normally fished and only had a few hours. After a biteless hour, I got bit slow rolling a spinnerbait over deep water and it was a 5+ lbs fish. When we got it boatside, there were 10 or more fish swarming with it. All giant. We spent the next two hours landing 20 or more fish in the 3.5 - 6 pound range. It was by far the best day I'd ever had and will always stand out when people ask this question. We didnt have a camera so I called my girlfriend at the time (now wife) to meet us at the ramp for a picture before we released them.

Spent a good amount of time on the water in the last couple weeks. I tried some new "back lakes" looking for that one giant bite, but it never came for me. Went back to my home waters and put together some good days. Smallies and largies have all been shallow, so I havent spent much time deeper than 10 ft. I had a club tourney last weekend that I was able to win, despite tough conditions. It was tough on everyone. I was pretty disappointed with my bag, but it was enough.

Here's some pics, a longer report to follow. Had a few days to fish with Callum from Happy Go Fishing charters, he needed a break from lake trout so we fished largies on Thursday and crushed a good bag on squarebill cranks and throwing sticks to isolated rock. On Friday we hit big water smallies and smashed em up on 2-5ft flats throwing prodigy tubes.

River smallies love craws. I would back off where you cant see them and throw a tube at them. Light fluorocarbon will increase bites too

Last year with the baby being due in early August, I decided not to do any tournaments as it would be really hard to commit. I missed doing them, but certainly dont regret it. My wife actually went into labour at a time when I would have been fishing a tournament, so it was probably best that I wasnt. This year, I re-joined our local B.A.S.S. chapter where I got my start. I missed the first tourney due to a work commitment but was able to get out a couple weekends ago for a club tourney on Lake Couchiching. I work overnights, so I skipped a couple hours early to get to the ramp on time. Apparently, they had changed the launch location, so I had to hook the boat back up and drive another 20 mins. Anyways, we go to my best early summer spot and wasted 2 hours catching nothing but rats. Time to keep moving... It was really tough fishing for us, we couldnt put together any pattern. At noon, the boat felt heavy, so I flipped the bilge on and nothing. Reach back to pull the pump out and it was all water. Uh oh. I have an aluminum hull, so I pulled the plug and ran for 10 minutes to drain it, before putting the plug back in. It kept us fishing and we managed to put some decent fish together for a 3rd place finish, including this nice smallie below. Couchiching is one of my favourite lakes, but I really couldnt put it together. Our club has a different system, where each person in the boat keeps their biggest 4. Our individual bags go towards AOY points and our combined weight is for the tournament placing. I had 11.75lbs and my non had 11.10lbs. Not bad, not great. So I get the boat out and I'm looking for leaks. Cant see anything. Once I got home, I put the plug back in the boat and filled it up with a hose to see where it was leaking from. There was a small 1 inch crack underneath the trailer bunk which is why I couldnt see anything. A good friend of mine riveted a plate over it and got me back on the water just in time for my next tournament. Wednesday we fished Simcoe. When I got to work at 9pm that night, it was 27C (80.6F) and when I left work at 4am, it was 8C (46.4F). Crazy front had rolled in, with 45 km/h (28 mph) wind gusts on big water. I figured we would tuck into some bays and look for largies. By noon, we had 3 small largies in the livewell and decided to brave the wind and make a long run. We would have about an hour and a half to fish. It was the right move as we started crushing good sized smallies, throwing dropshots at isolated boulders and rock piles. My big 4 were over 17 lbs and I took first place and big fish with a 5.30lbs smallie. Simcoe is capable of way more than that, but under those conditions, and having spent just 3 hours bass fishing out there all year, I was happy to get what we did.

Got out for a few hours today to look for some big smallies. With the full moon this week and water temps still in the low 60's I expected some smallies would make another push shallow. There werent as many bedding fish as I expected and the ones that were on beds were paired up and spooky. It's not a tournament, so I really didnt need to bother those fish. Let them do their thing. I moved out to some gravel ridges a little deeper than the bedding fish and threw tubes on the edges. The bite was tough, but I landed 7 or 8 fish, with the biggest 5 going around 23lbs. I dont mind a tough bite when the fish are big.

The rod I use for tubes is a 7' M Johnny Morris carbonlite. the boat is a Legend Xcalibur 179. it was a combo of simcoe and Georgian bay

Bass season finally opened up on Saturday and it has been good so far. We've got smallies as shallow as a foot and as deep as 15. A 4" prodigy tube and a 5" impact stick has done most of the damage so far. Lots more to come.

I'd be throwing tubes and swimbaits.

Those perch are in the 14-15 inch range, there were some giants around this year. Big numbers of 12+ inch fish. As for smallies, I've definitely tangled with a few during the pike season, but they are still out of season here so they dont make it into the boat.

Hope you enjoyed the pics

It's been a while since I've posted, but I've been fishing quite a bit. I started the open water season fishing for perch and steelhead, then switched over to lakers and pike. I target lakers a lot through the ice, but this summer I've been spending lots of time with my good buddy Callum at Happy Go Fishing charters, downrigging for them, which is new to me. It's been a good season so far, cant wait to see how the remainder of it goes.

Hey everyone. I had some time off work starting on the 11th and I was praying we would have ice by then. I wouldnt want to spend a week off sitting at home or fishing perch. Timing worked out perfectly and I was able to get out on the bay for my first vacation day. I spent 4 days on the ice this week with Callum from Happy Go Fishing and got into some good fish each day. The size that these lakers are growing to out there is incredible. I really do expect to see some high 20's caught this season. I'd love to see someone break 30. Each day was different, so I landed fish on a variety of baits. Swimbaits, tubes, crankbaits and an Imperium Ace did the majority of the damage. There were some spoon and jigging rap fish in the mix as well. The first couple days, the fish were relating to the bottom, so the bottom 20 feet was most productive. The last couple days out, they were mostly mid column fish. Always experiment and don't rely on a single go to lure. That will help you ice more fish. Lots of smaller fish this week too, but here's some of our better ones. I don't keep em too often, but one day we kept a limit of our smaller fish for the smoker. Can't wait to munch em. Thanks for reading. Happy Fishing!

Simcoe will cough up a 10 lber. Just a matter of when

Sweet! Thats a big sack of northern green!