Smallmouth Bass

Smallmouth bass a member of the black bass family cousin to the largemouth are an exciting fish to catch, leaping out of the water and performing great aerobatics. Similar looking to the largemouth, smallies are brownish with black stripes. Hence the name thier mouths are also “smaller” than the large mouth, with its jaw stops before the eye. This feature is a great way for the novice fisherman to tell the difference between the two. Smallmouth bass also differ from largemouth bass in their dorsal fins. On a smallie the hard and soft sections of the dorsal fin are connected where the largemouth is not.

In the spring when the water temp is about 60 degrees. The male will create a nest in up to 3 feet of water protected by trees, debris or rocks. The male lures a female in by nibbling at her side. Once in the nest they both deposit their eggs and milt at the same time. The eggs will then be guarded by the male until they hatch. Once they do the male keeps them together and does not eat until they become strong enough to leave, this can last over a month.

Smallmouth bass prefer cool clear water and have a great dislike of high water temperatures. You can find them in areas of gravel and rocky bottom with little aquatic plant life. Their main foods are crustaceans, insect larva, crayfish, and baitfish. When fishing for smallmouth bass use bucktails, spinners, flies, spoons and jigs as well as live bait. They can be caught with most largemouth bait but prefer them in smaller sizes.

Fishing For Lake Trout

Lake Trout prefer water temperatures in the high 40’s to low 50’s. Knowing this you can use the surface temperature to help you determine the depth you will want to fish at.

Early spring just after ice: Between 10 feet and the surface
Mid Spring: About 35 to 45 feet deep
Late Spring: About 50 to 65 feet deep
Summer: Summer is the tricky part. Many believe that the Lake Trout go to the deepest part of the lake and stay dormant. In actual fact, the Lake Trout stay suspended in 53° thermal layers. Why are they there? That's where all the bait fish are. Lake Trout feed on White Fish and Suckers which they find suspended in schools. There will be trout on the bottom but they are not feeding. When they do feed, they come shallower to feed on suspended bait fish.

Trout are easier to catch in the early spring as the weather permits them to feed throughout the day. This may not be the case for all lakes but as a general rule is accurate. In the summer time your best bet is to get out there early, from sun up until about 10am. They are creatures of climate and prefer calm water, clear skies and high barometric pressure to make them active other wise they tend to be more subdued. A depth finder is a good tool to use in locating possible lake trout feeding areas. They like to feed on bait fish that are suspended in the water. They will sit underneath them waiting for one to stray for the flock then attack. So look for schools of suspended fish and then fish around the edge of them in hope for that laker.

Take a close look at the structure of the shoreline and try to extend the elevation patterns into the lake. If you see a cliff, odds are the water is deep at its face. If you see a string of islands, odds are there is a shallow shoal that runs between them. Trout like drop-offs so you would want to troll parallel to the string of shoals and not over them. When you drop your line to the bottom, count how many times you let out line. You can get a good estimate of the depth. If you come across a spot and catch a trout, odds are there are more of them there. The wind is very important when trout fishing. Traditionally for warm water fish like Walleye or Musky, you would fish on the side of the lake were the wind is blowing. The logic being that the fish follow the surface food that is being blown in. With trout it is the exact opposite. The wind also blows the warm surface water which does not hold enough oxygen for the trout. Thus fish the side of the lake where the wind is coming from.

The time to catch Lake Trout in shallow water is in early Spring or late Fall when the water temperatures are colder. During the summer you will have to cast or troll baits 60 to 100 feet deep on average. The some of the most productive lures for catching Lake Trout include: Daredevils with Klickers, Williams Wobler Whitefish, Tadpolly, Hotshot, Diamond Back Daredevil red/orange Fishback, bucktail Jigs, Alligator # 2, Little Cleo, Millers Spoon, Sagamore Spoon, Flutter Spoon, Charger Spoon, Sutton Spoon, Preserved Minnows, Aabu Spoon and 5 of Diamonds. Troll with spinners tipped with minnows, cast or troll with white bucktail jigs, crankbaits, or flashy spoons. Lake trout are often most active at dawn or dusk.

Here is one technique used to troll for those tasty lakers (same as the one I used for walleye),

Tie two 4 foot pieces of line to your three-way swivel. Use a 3 oz. weight on one line and a light lure on the other. Lake Trout like small lures. Use #1 or #0 Mepps or Blue Foxes. Trolling, slow it down lead foot, you only want to troll fast enough for your lure to dance. This also allows you to find and keep your lure on the bottom. If you don’t have a trolling motor then you can always run in reverse, this allows you to make those big motors go slower. The most important aspect of Lake Trout fishing is letting out line to get to the bottom. Use a little finesse to find the bottom, let out your line and control its release with your fingers. Before you start to let it drop get your boast moving in a straight slow troll then start to let out your line. Letting out the line a foot or 2 at a time in a nice rhythm will make your rod bounce, this bounce will help you find the bottom. As long as you keep a good rhythm going when you hit bottom that rite will be interrupted letting you know you are there. Slow a rhythmic will also keep your rig from becoming tangled.

Be alert! Small Trout know when they are hooked and once they hit, they will take of letting you know they are there. The big ones, which we are after, you can say are a little slow they will take the bait and not know there meal had a hook in it. Because of this they will swim away slowly which may make you feel like you are getting caught up in something. For the big ones you want to give them some breathing room so decrease your drag so they can run a bit. This little dash will allow you to turn them easier to bring them in.

Spring Time Bass Fishing

The time is now boys and girls to start looking for those trophy bass. As the temperature starts to rise and spring is in the air the spawning season is upon us. Bass will start to move their way up from the deep recesses of your favorite fishing holes to the shallow spawning grounds. These now frisky fish have lots of desire to attack your bait and send you home with a bass to be mounted on your wall. Now these bass are not just going to throw themselves at you no matter how active they are there is still a lot of knowledge, equipment and skill needed to ensure success.

What are these tricks you need for success?

Knowledge:

When I head out for spring fishing I look for the location that bass will most likely be for spawning, points, coves and break lines. Points of land protruding into the water are an excellent place to find fish in our case bass. Coves can be any indention into the land; it does not necessarily have to be a large body of water. A cove offers great spawning grounds for our awaiting bass. The last are break lines. Break lines can be many different things, a drop off, a change from a rocky bottom to a sandy bottom, a change in water clarity, the edge of a bed of weeds, a fallen tree, anything that causes a change in the water you are fishing. Water temperature will also play a role. When it is colder out you will want to fish deeper, 10 to 15 feet keeping close to your break lines. In warmer weather you have a choice between the surface down to about 15ft again. And my last tip is to cover as much water as you can. Look for your bass by moving around because they are not always in the same place. But, when you do catch one, take that as a sign and be sure to fish that area well. If you don’t you may miss big an opportunity.

Equipment:

Be sure to stock up on the proper bass baits. And in the spring don’t be shy to go big, big lures mean big bass! For those deep water casts you want Crank baits, bladed or lipless but I suggest having the option of both available. Some of my favorites are, Bomber Fat A, Rat-L-Trap and my ever favorite Yo-Zuri 3D Series. For the in between depths you have Jig softbait, spinners and shallow crank baits. There are many softbaits you can use on your jig although I prefer zoom in watermelon/chartreuse, pumpkin/chartreuse and pumpkin. Spinners, oh yes spinners, Terminator has excellent spinner baits. My little trick is to add the tail of a lizard softbait to my spinner. The extra action has really done wonders in bring in the bass, try it. Now my all time favorite bass catching bait, the BUZZ BAIT. Make it noisy and make it a trophy catch. I have been trying all different brands of buzz baits and don’t have a favorite yet although I am partial to the double bladed buzz bait. It was this tip to Mongo that landed him a 6.48 lb bass last year. And last but not least your rod and reel. You want to use a medium-heavy to heavy rod with either a baitcaster or spinning reel. Good equipment will make all the difference in the world so don’t be afraid to spend a little extra to enhance your bass fishing enjoyment.

Skill:

Skill comes with practice and research. The areas you can improve your skill in are casting, retrieving, identifying good fishing locations, know the right bait to use, how factors such as line color, water temperature, water color, and rain can have on your fishing. Learn the correct techniques and practice, practice, practice. Even a little skill will go along ways.

Top Water Retrieving Techniques

Walking the Dog
keeping the rod tip pointed down toward the water at a 45 degree twitch or jerk the rod tip down toward the surface to approximately 90 degree angle. Create a rhythm that will have the bait dancing back and forth or “walking”, making sure to turn the reel handle about one revolution for every other twitch of the rod. Start out slowly, which will give the lure a wider back and forth action, then speed up the pace to cause the bait to jump, mimicking fleeing bait fish!

Deadsticking
This technique drives bass crazy! With a top water lure cast it out and let it sit until the ripples die out, count to ten and twitch the rod tip, moving the lure in place. Let it sit a while longer, then twitch it again moving a few inches and let lie there motionless. Patience, patience, patience is the key to this technique. The fish normally suck the lure under while it lays on the surface, so you have to be very attentive at all times or you may miss the fish of a lifetime!

Ripping
C ast the lure, let the ripples die out, and rip the lure by sweeping the rod down toward the surface or to your side causing the bait to “rip” thru the water. You can rip the lure slowly of very rapidly, depending on the aggressiveness of the fish. This is one of Roland Martin’s favorite top water techniques.

Wiggling
Lures such as th e Suspending Crystal Minnow from Yo-Zuri can be fished in a retrieve-pause, a slow to moderate steady retrieve, or in a twitch-pause-retrieve fashion. The lure is designed to produce radical side to side swimming action “wiggling” and its flashing life-like brilliance is too much for any fresh or saltwater game fish to resist- whether it’s on the move or suspended right where a predator wants it!

Tips For Your Walleye Fishing

What type of Rod to use:
Walleyes weigh in at average 1 to 4 pounds which asks for a medium to medium-light tackle and should 5'6" to 7" in length.

Jig Heads, what to use:
I prefer a 3/8 oz. but then I have done my walleye fishing in the spring time. During the summer you may want to consider a 1/4 oz. jig head as walleye go deeper to escape the sun and heat. If you use tails, they can be scented or not and should be between 2 to 4 inches, the color of the jig head does not matter but the color of the tail will. I use minnows so I use the color jig head that is appropriate for the season. In the spring, the hot colors are white, bright yellow, bright red and black. When summer rolls around the brighter colors lose their appeal, black always works but you should try a dark smoky yellow or a transparent green as the water warms up. It is believed that the bright colors work in the spring because the walleye are still defensive of their spawning grounds and attack your jig in defense not.

The most common minnows found in the north are: Common Creek Chub,,Yellow Chub, Red Chub, Horned Chub*, Shiners*, Stickle Backs* and Suckers.  Not all of these minnows should be used. Stickle Backs have spines that the fish do not like. The horned Chub gives off a secretion which leaves a bad taste thus they are not good for bait. Shiners are good for bait but it's very hard to keep them alive in a minnow pail because they need so much oxygen to survive. So when buying or catching minnows, try to use the other species.

Other spring time bait:
Rapalas or Thunder Sticks. In the Spring, another great way to catch a big Walleye is to troll along the shoreline just before dark or at day-break with a Rapala or Thunder Stick. A 3 or 4 inch Original Floating Rapala or a Thunder Stick with a little touch of liquid fish scent will bring in the big ones.

Summer Time Rig:
In the summer when Walleyes head to the deeps try drifting slowly in the deep water with a worm harness. A technique used when fishing for lake trout uses a three-way-swivel.

Walleyes are most active in low-light periods and prefer areas where there are structures such as weed lines, rock piles and sandbars, favouring the very bottom edges of such locations. In spring and fall you can find them 5' to 15' deep near the mouths of streams and shoreline-connected bars and weed beds. In rivers, walleyes congregate below dams and rapids, often lying in current breaks waiting to ambush prey coming downstream. Warm weather walleyes are often found much deeper, from 25' to 45', or suspended in schools roaming large lake basins.

What Fishing Line Should I use?

Fishing line can often be the difference between landing that 12lb bass or having your friends laugh at you as they watch it swim away. Choosing the right line will greatly reduce your chances of that kind of embarrassment.

Diameter determines the line's test strength and improves a line's durability. Typically the bigger the diameter the stronger the line, but nowadays technology has created thinner diameters with incredible strength and durability. A thinner line is more sensitive which helps you feel the fish when it goes after your bait. Diameter is also important when you take into consideration your reel. Smaller diameter lines work better with spinning reels and bait casters work better with larger diameter.

Abrasion resistance, rocks, tree stumps, the bite of the fish and the weather contribute to your fishing lines abrasion. Lines are designed to withstand these abrasions but remember the higher the quality the better the resistance. Yes you will spend more money on the premium lines but when you loose that lunker due to a nick on your line you will wish you spent the extra 2 bucks.

Why do fishing lines come in different colors? Sometimes you need to see your line; other times you don't want the fish to see the line.

Clear/blue fluorescent

Sunlight illuminates the line above the surface so it's easier to see when casting, retrieving or trolling. Under the surface, the line stays clear so it's nearly invisible to a fish

Low-visibility

This blends into most underwater environments so it's good in situations where the fishing is tougher either because they don't seem to want to bite or heavy fishing has made the fish a little smarter

Low-visibility clear

In clear streams or even in some lakes, the water runs clear. This color works well in ultra-clear water or when you know the fishing hole you have selected tends to have fish that seem unwilling to bite.

High-visibility gold

This bright color makes it easier to see when a fish strikes or to watch your line position when you troll several lines or go fishing in a current

You may also prefer this color for low-light conditions such as dawn, dusk and night

Coffee

If you are going fishing in muddy, stained waters, this color blends in with the water conditions

Green

This color works well in waters with heavy vegetation or algae

Stiffness or limpness, typically, the stronger lines are also stiffer lines. A limp line is made for certain types of reels for easy casting and for better feel when casting in areas where trees and rocks are a problem. Generally, the larger the diameter, the stiffer the line and stiffness also adds strength to a line.

Have you been to your local sporting goods store lately? There are many different types of materials used to make fishing line.

Monofilament/Cofilament

Monofilament is inexpensive which makes them popular. Made of nylon in a single layer they are prone to abrasion. Cofilament line add a bit more resistance while still providing sensitivity and stretch by using an inner and outer layer of nylon to improve the line's ability to withstand wear and tear.

Braided

The nylon is woven in a braided line which adds strength and keeps the line thin. These small diameter lines have great strength as well as great sensitivity. There are some caveats to using braided lines though, they are limp and hard to cast, you should use the type of knot recommended by the manufacturer or risk your knot coming undone and most of all you must be aware of abrasions as they greatly weaken the

Fusion

A variant of braided lines is a new fusion process. Micro-fiber nylon is fused together to maintain sensitivity, strength and a small line diameter while keeping the line limp for easier casting and distance. Some experts caution that the new super braided and fusion lines have limited stretch, a big plus in setting the hook.

Fluorocarbons

These newer fishing lines are made from a polymer of fluorine boned to carbon. This line also has low stretch to help with sensitivity in hooking fish. Its stiffness also means the line doesn't float, so it allows lures to go down deeper and jigs to fall faster. These are going to be your more expensive lines but you will gain many benefits when using fluorocarbon line. Improved Invisibility, this is a very big benefit, especially in clear water or finesse fishing Fluorocarbon line comes closest to the refractive index of water, so it becomes virtually invisible under water but is visible above the surface. Greater durability, the sun's ultraviolet rays don't affect the line so it last longer. Superior strength, fluorocarbon line doesn't absorb water so it keeps its strength. Some manufacturers say monofilament lines lose between 10-20 percent of their strength because of water absorption. And my favorite advantage, the line doesn't float, so it allows lures to go down deeper and jigs to fall faster.

So this year, take the time to determine what line is best for your type of fishing and reline all your reels. Remember your line can be the difference between a great day and total disappointment.

Fishing 101: The Evening Bite

The evening bite, what are bass most interested in when the sun goes down?

Once the sun is off the water and fading over the horizon it is time to start thinking of the evening bite.  At this time bass start to make their way up towards the surface of the water to feed on those yummy bugs and tasty little fish.

It is now you want to put on those top water baits, poppers, buzz baits, moss mice, jitterbugs, etc.  The bass are looking to the surface and these little babies will be what they are looking for.  Being surface bait I have found that color and pattern really don't make a difference.  That big ol bass is seeing a silhouette against the sky and nothing more.  I also like mine to be a little noisy, weather it is the buzz of the blade on a buzzbait or the rattle of little ball bearings inside your popper.  What the noise is going to do for you is tick off that bass so much he will strike to rid his waters of the pest.  Unfortunately for him that little pest will just happen to have a hook in it.  Also the best strategy is to cast in the same area 4 or 5 times.  The bass may not strike out the first few casts but when you continue to invade his space with all that racket he will surely strike to rid it of the annoyance.

I personally prefer the buzzbait. Why? As a friend said to me "ah yes that is your comfort bait, the one item in your tackle box you have 100% confidence in that you will catch a fish with."  I just happen to agree with him, which is why I have lots of the same bait just in case the one I am using is lost.  My experience with buzzbaits has been nothing but positive.  Since using it as my evening bite bait I have always been successful.  My technique for the buzzbait is a long cast, starting the retrieval instantly as it hits the water fast and steady.  I have had lots of strikes right at the beginning of my retrieval making me confident in this technique.

I am glad to say that Mongo took my advice and his first night out with his new buzzbait produced a 6.48 lb bass.

So when night time rolls around look to the top for your trophy bass, try a buzzbait and you will catch that prize you have been dreaming about.

A 20 Lbs Bass?

OK it's not a 20 lb bass but Barney gave Mongo a little advice on bass fishing and next thing you know he lands the fish of his life. 

After giving Mongo a few pointers on the proper bait to use and when to use it the advice proved fact.  I had already caught a 2 1/2 lb bass and about 4 or 5 smaller ones making Mongo a little frustrated with the only bite he had that got away. 

As the sun went down he switched to the recommended buzz bait.  Frustration was not easing up on poor ol Mongo as he was about to give it up when BAM!  He gets a strike. Not a big fight at first but still enough to think it is a good size bass.  Well we were wrong!  A flash of scales sent a loud "HOLYS%#@!" from us both.  Not sure what it was it proceeded to bend his pole in half dragging the 8lb test under the boat.  Mongo yells at Barney with a quiver in his voice "What do I do? What do I do?"  I give my advice and the mouth of the massive beast appears before my eyes!  The excitement at the size of the bass sends a sting of uncontrollable profanity from our lips.  Then realizing what he has and that he does not want to lose it Mongo franticly yells at Barney to get the F***ing fish in the boat over and over.

Now let me tell you a little story about a fish the size of Rhode Island that Mongo lost for Barney....

OK I won't go into that but it entered both our minds. Anyways I too did not want to lose this fish so I reached in, grabbed it by the gill and dragged the beast on board.  Wow was it huge.  We attached a stringer to prevent it prevent its escape as we placed it on the scale to see a whopping 6.48 lbs appear, the biggest bass by about 4 lbs that we have ever seen let alone caught.  Proof that the waters purchased by Mongo and Mr. Magabagoo did in fact have monsters growing in it.

Congratulations Mongo!  Now all you need is a Pope and Young Buck!

Barney, Mongo and Tard's Temple Bay Fishing Trip