Season Recap

Well another season is drawing to a close and after few personal best's and a few disappointing day's, I have to say the season was filled with a lot of small successes! It's been a long 7 months, busy family, uncertainty about future employment and mechanical issues made for a very frustrating summer.

My plans of fishing the Wal Mart Bass Fishing League Northeastern Division unfortunately fell through. After fishing the Quinte Bass Anglers Big Bass Champs event on the opening weekend I noticed some weird tire wear on my trailer. Long story short.... New axle, hubs, brakes, yada, yada, yada and a fair amount of time and money spent, I ended up missing the entire month of July. Now with what is essentially a 3 month season here in Ontario missing a 1/3 of it really sucks!! However, thanks to Ranger Boats for really helping me out with all new parts and putting a rush job on making and shipping me a new axle I was back up and on the water quicker than I expected.

Luckily for me though, New York is very close and with the early season opportunities available there I started bass fishing this year in March, (in shorts and flip flops by the way!!) fishing that time of year is pretty slooooow. But we managed to get some largie's going on rattlebaits and jerkbaits. We even got some shallow flipping fish off some submerged trees. Hands down though, the Jackall Squad Minnow 95 http://www.jackall-lures.com/products/jerk_squad_minnow.html was the big performer. That bait digs fairly deep, has a very erratic action and is one of my favourites the last few season's when the fish want a slow presentation. The Squad Minnow was paired up with a Shimano Crucial Jekbait rodhttp://fish.shimano.com/publish/content/global_fish/en/us/index/products/rods/freshwater.html, Stradic 2500 FJ and 30 pound Power Pro Slick with a 5 foot 2 pound Gamma Flourocarbon leader. A good friend of mine Dave Chong has me sold on the Stringease Bite Proof Tippet's. If you are fishing water with any toothy critter's, these leaders will save you a lot of money and they will not change the action of your jerkbait very much at all. http://www.stringease.com/products.php?cat=leaders&id=bite_proof_tippets

One thing I noticed fishing early season is the importance of great glasses, watching for bass following your jerkbait and looking for spawning fish requires a lot of staring into the water. Eye strain has always been a huge issue for me, but this year using NUMA Optics has been an absolute relief. I had no issues at all, they also look amazing and it is nice knowing that they also offer ballistic protection, good to have at high speeds in a bass boat or while at work. https://numaoptics.com/sport-optics/

Stay tuned for more updates on what worked for me this past season, with limited time to fish I really had to make the most of my time on the water and I really learned a few new tricks to help fill the livewell!!

Warning, Bass Porn Ahead!!

Every winter I tell myself that I am going to try a new technique or two (or three or four) once bass season starts. So I read all the magazines, online forums, watch fishing shows and attend seminars. The end result is I usually end up overloaded on all the new things out there to try..... I mean really, this year the Alabama Rig is the new hot trend. B.A.S.S has banned it's use and FLW hasn't, so it is going to be interesting to see if it has any staying power. So aside from maybe experimenting with it a bit, I do have a few new tricks up my sleeve for this year, some of these are brand new others have been around for a few years, but they are all new to me.

One of the new techniques I plan on using this year is called a Scrounger Head. It is essentially a polycarbonate lip (that's plastic before you ask, I had to ask my wife, she really does know it all!) attached to a jig head of varying weights and a hook with varying sizes. The general idea is it allows you to fish a grub or a swim bait through cover without hanging up and it gives it a real wobble like a crank bait. Some guys are even dragging them and ripping them up off the bottom to elicit strikes as well, so it seems like it covers a number of different option that play into my style of fishing. With the new swim baits coming out from Bass Magnet this season, this is one bait I am really stoked about rigging on a Scrounger Head.

An all new bait I plan on using a lot, I mean like most of the time when I am out fishing for largemouth, is the new Bass Magnet Lures Bomb creature bait. It comes in two sizes, the 4.2 inch model that will be a killer around docks, trees, lay downs and even rigged on a football head and fished for smallmouth. The other model (my personal favourite, because I love big creature baits) is the 5 inch model. This beast excels at flipping deep or shallow, with a heavy tungsten weight or a lighter one too. Any where you would fish a flipping jig is the kind of place to throw one of these, it is going to kill on the Bay of Quinte, trust me!! It is loaded with salt, is super soft and comes in a variety of colours. Rigged with 65 pound Power Pro and fished on the new Shimano Crucial Flip, Pitch, Punch 7'5 rod with a new Chronarch, it is going to be a mainstay in my boat.

Lastly is the Lucky Craft Pointer 100 DD. This bait is one that I tried briefly last season and it was a smallie killer. There were days where I fished deeper shoals and open areas adjacent to humps that the smallmouth were suspended near. While the regular Pointer 100 accounts for the majority of my jerk bait fishing the DD model was effective at getting big bites when the fish moved off the obvious spots. Fished very fast through open water the strikes were vicious and I found myself wishing I had bought more colours to experiment with. Now that Pro Advantage Paintball and Hobbies in Belleville is stocking high end jerk baits we can get these baits locally. I can't wait to try it out on the new Shimano Crucial Jerkbait technique specific series rods with the new Stradic FJ, this set up is going to be a game changer for sure.

One more thing, this winter I hope to be attending a Bass Talk Seminar again and strongly suggest everyone try and attend one as well. I have attended them for the last 5 years and they are honestly one of the best chances to really learn what works and what doesn't. My fishing success has improved immensely the last 4 years due in most part to attending these informative seminars and learning from some of the best bass anglers in Ontario. Even if you think you know it all (I used to think that until I got married) I guarantee you will walk away from one of these seminars with a new appreciation of what it takes to compete professionally and pick up ideas on a new way to catch bass this season.

So, with all these new baits and rods and reels to look forward to trying I better get back to work, only 3 more months until open water in New York and it will be time to start trying these new baits!!

NationalProStaff.com - A Day On Lake Ontario

NationalProStaff.com - A Day On Lake Ontario

Early Season Myths

So, 5 months of snow, ice, rain and cold. Winter in Ontario can be a numbing experience, both mentally and physically. As a bass fishing fanatic, winter is the worst time of the year for me. I do some ice fishing, plan for next year's tournaments, maintain equipment and attend shows and seminars as much as possible. It all helps, that's for sure, but let's face it there is no substitution for catching bass.

A few years ago I said to myself where can I go and fish this spring for bass? I did some research and found some lakes in New York that were close by and open year round or at least a couple of months earlier than Ontario for bass (catch and release only of course) and made plans to go as soon as the ice was gone and the weather was a little nicer.

May rolled around and I had a game plan. Oh I was going to put on a clinic. I travelled to Oneida Lake and stayed for a couple of days. My buddy and I fished hard, covered water and tried numerous presentations. So here is where I would insert a few money shots, big bass, pre spawn smallies and largies and big smiles on our faces.... Huh? No Pics? Oh yeah.... we struck out. I know, I am surprised as you are. I mean, all the research I did, all the new baits to try and we got skunked???  Unreal.

So no way was I going to take this lying down. I planned another trip a couple of weeks later. I had a new plan. I was going to forget all the stuff I read online, in magazines etc. and just go looking for stuff I like to fish. Guess what, it worked. Flipping jigs in weed beds with 6-8 feet of water, just a few yards from where the largies would be spawning in a week or so were on fire. Lot's of big females in the 4 to 4.5 pound range were caught that day on our jigs. We even got into a bunch of smallies on a point that just smashed our Bass Magnet tubes in Dark Melon Pepper. Double headers were common and the skunk was gone. So all was good, we packed up loaded the Ranger and headed back to Canada... Oh yeah, we ended up blowing a hub on my trailer. That was pretty awesome, so both trips ended up costing me about the same, but at least I had bass thumb this time around!!!

So fishing to my strength's was the key. Go figure huh, I tried to get too technical and I ended up wasting a weekend, a few hundred bucks and incurred the wrath of a buddy who really wanted to go walleye fishing instead... He forgave me later when I promised to take him crappie fishing though. So all was good on that front, but from there on out all my early season bass fishing always starts with a look at the water temp, then I head to the bank. Rocks that are exposed to sun are a great start, From there I just cover water, looking for the same things I would look for on a new body of water at home. Weedlines, docks, rockpiles and wood. Reaction baits do catch fish and you would be surprised how fast you can fish and catch fish in 55 degree water. Five years later and fishing in New York is one sure way to get ready for a season in Ontario and one of the things that help get me through a long miserable winter.