This week has been an odd one weather wise, we are constantly having cloud cover and rain. The Jigheads are still on the fish!
Tim headed out to local lake Congamond yesterday for a little while where the water temperature was 77 degrees, there was cloud cover, and it was spitting a little bit of rain. When Tim first got out here marking he said there were lots of fish 15 to 20 feet and he was able to land two that looked like they were underneath bait balls. Video game fishing at its finest! He took some time out from the deep stuff to fish some docks, once again, not very productive for him at first. He caught one 7 inch bass on a Senk and then headed back to the deep to see if he could get some more. Here’s a tip for everybody, when you get your line tangled up on some docks check your line re-tie; my mistake was I didn’t re-tie after getting tangled, throwing up underneath the dock lost a really big bite. I’ll never know what it was but if I had re-tied chances are, I would’ve landed it that’s your tip of the day. Tim said that a little while later, the dock bite finally heated up and he landed 8 solid fish all over two and a half pounds.
Shawn the Fisherman got out for a couple hours this week up da ‘shires. He said that it was a cloudy day with a touch of wind, and he was able to get ahold of a handful of toothy critters running Squarebill cranks over and through deeper weed beds. Shawn reported that although the bass weren’t exactly fired up, the Northerns made up for it.Try backing off the shallows on lakes with high recreational traffic. The fish want to be around jet skiers as much as anglers do in the summer!
Nelson didn’t get out locally but he did head out to the infamous St. Lawrence River (aka Smallmouth Disneyland) for the 4th Elite Kayak Fishing Trail event. This was the one tournament that I looked forward to the most this season. Nelson said that with only one day to pre-fish, he hit three different areas hoping to find some quality smallmouth. He did catch smallmouth at all three areas but said that with the biggest one only measuring 16.75 inches, he knew that wouldn’t be enough to place well; although five of those would have put me in the top ten.
Come tournament morning he decided to still try and find some decent smallmouth, even though the dock talk was that the smallmouth bite was way off. After two hours he only had two small smallmouth so he went searching in other areas; nothing. Nelson said that with three hours left he decided to give up on the smallmouth and go to his comfort zone: shallow water with weed where he went looking for largemouth. On my way to a shallow area I watched an Osprey swoop down and grab a fish very close to shore. It looked like a bass. His first cast up shallow yielded a bite but he missed it. Luckily, a few casts later at a lay down Nelson caught his biggest bass of the day. He proceeded to land several bass along that stretch of lay downs, boats, and docks filling his limit and upgrading a couple times. He said as he approached an area of lily pads and thick weeds he threw a frog and got a few blowups but they just weren’t grabbing the frog well and he missed every one of them. To add to the frustration of missing so many bites, with 45 minutes left in the tournament, Nelson then had to get off the water because of a strong thunderstorm and lightning hitting way too close. He finished in 22nd place out of 49 anglers. Not the worst but definitely not where I hoped to be. The not so stellar fishing was overshadowed by the awesome people I got to hang out with all weekend and the great time we all had.
He reports that he caught all of his smallmouth on a drop shot in 10 to 35 feet of water and the largemouth on tournament day on a weightless stick bait around lay downs, under boats and docks. He also added that there was a great frog bite but he just didn’t connect with any of them.
The St. Lawrence River is a bucket list fishing destination and I would encourage everyone to try and fish it. I can’t wait to go back and hopefully find some of those giant smallmouth that it’s known for. Get out there and get em!! Be safe!
Heading into the weekend the weather is looking like a nice weekend to fish! The temperatures are starting to taper off, unfortunately starting to feel a little more fall-like, but the weekend isn’t calling for rain! Get out there after them, and stay safe! Tight lines folks!
Wild Woman 