steverowbotham

The wife and I went camping a couple weeks ago and since the bass fishing kind of sucks on the lake we go to, I always spend some time chasing down muskies. They were tough this year, but managed some good ones. The first morning, as I was leaving the dock, I looked down and there was a musky sitting right there. I made a half ass cast with the blades and figure 8'd a 41 incher right at the boat while my wife watched from the dock. PRetty cool. Spent the rest of the day grinding. Raised 3 more, but no takers. Fished well into the evening. Gorgeous area! The next day, we did a long hike to see some awesome views, then spent the afternoon chasing critters. Raised 4 fish and had one commit after what felt like the longest figure 8 ever. OVerall, very fun trip.

I live in Ontario, though Lake of the Woods is still a 16 hour drive away. Where I'm at, the mid summer topwater bite is generally best in the first two hours after sunrise and before sunset. There are days that they'll crush it all day, but as a general rule, mornings and evenings are best.

Have you tried graphing the lake? If you're not getting them fishing shorelines and points, there's a good chance they're suspended on bait.

I did a day trip for some largemouth in Cuba about 12 years ago. The "guide" wasnt so in tune with the fish I dont think, but we made some adjustments and caught a good number of fish. Most were 1 - 2.5 lbs. My old man lost one in the 6 - 7 pound range. It was a cool experience, flipping flooded mangroves that we certainly dont have in Canada. I have a lot of areas much higher on my list that I would rather visit.

I am by no means a musky expert, and I only target them a handful of times per season. Double 10 inlines have been most productive for me, though I certainly spend the most time chucking them. I have landed some good fish on Grandmas and Jakes also. When trolling, my success has come on Jakes and Believers. This one came on a buchertail inline This came trolling an 8 inch believer I'm still trying new things. That's your best bet. Keep experimenting, always.

1. The most challenging thing is staying tuned with the fish. I struggled for years to find the "right" fish. At this point, I feel like I am very good at finding the right ones. Fish move, fish feed, then dont. Pinpointing small details is the most difficult thing. It's also the most exciting.

My home lake (Simcoe) receives a TON of ice fishing pressure. 3 or 4 seasons ago, the main lake didnt freeze. What we found the following season was more fish, bigger fish and fish much more willing to feed. It sucks at the time, but I think it's good for the lake.

I got this smallie close to 8 lbs a few weeks back on a 6" swimbait

nice set fun day flipping Fall It may seem I’m getting lazy with my typing now, kinda. Fall is one big season that I always look forward to. I love fall fishing. The fish become predictable and they eat. Enjoy some photos from the fall season, and thanks for reading. first day really whacking them in early fall Jon and I won the Imperium Baits fall brawl with around 25lbs Cal met me on shore so he could come slay them when the bite was on. Greg and I won the Barrie Bassmasters Open with 29.95 lbs… so close to 30!

Successful day One of the darkest smallies I’ve ever caught July/August I’ll group these months together since it is just one big blur of bass fishing. I do a lot more largemouth fishing once the water warms, but still target transitioning smallies for the first little while. won my first clubbie of the year on Simcoe fun day largie fishing Cal thought he had a giant smallie Biggest largie of the season, well over 6 lbs

My biggest pike of the year came on opening day, just passing the 46 inch mark Another solid pike Good solid fish from a solo trip June Bass season opens this month, which I always look forward to, but there lots of time before then. Some more rigging and pike fishing, then when the last Saturday of June comes around, it seems not much else matters. My last targeted pike of the season my biggest laker of the rigging season first smallie of the year was a good one

April I literally didn’t fish in April. Brutal. May I missed steelhead opener, so I got out one time on May 1st and went 3 for 5 or something. Nothing crazy, but always a good time. Perch fishing took up the next couple weeks until lakers and pike opened up. May is always a favourite for me. So much variety, that I rarely experience once bass season opens up. We got some big fish throughout the month. some slob perch more giant Simcoe perch nice laker to start off the rigging season

February February started off slow. I think I had 2 skunks and took a couple weeks off. We started running and gunning for whities and bumped into some nice lakers along the way. The fish were a lot tighter to bottom and needed more enticing, as the often do during the February blues. nice shallow laker hit a bunch of good whities on this day, they would move through in schools and every school had 1 or 2 that would commit. This was my first spreader fish in years. Decided to try it out and it was a good time handlining them in. March Last ice is always my favourite time. The fish just seem to get hungry. The days are longer, the sun shines more and the comfort level is more enjoyable. I mix it up between lakers and perch for the last bit of the season. The lakers get to swim home, the perch feed me for a while.

Every year around this time, I enjoy recapping my season. The boat is put away and I may still get out a few times with buddies, but for all intents and purposes, my season has come to an end. Looking back, I had a very memorable season, and with a wife and young son at home, I was certainly lucky to get out as often as I did. Let’s start off from the beginning. January First ice is always something I look forward to. I don’t enjoy ice fishing as much as I enjoy fishing from a boat, but until our climate changes drastically, that’s my only option. First ice came in decent time this year and I believe that January 11th was my first day out. I planned a vacation from work for the 3rd week of January, so it came at the right time. I was out for first ice on the Sunday that my vacation started. The bite was solid for the first couple weeks, as it often is. We fished deep water chasing Simcoe lakers. There wasn’t an awful lot of bait around in the areas we were fishing, but the fish were very willing to commit to moving baits. The good bite continued into February. This was my first laker of the season, not a bad way to start it off. This fish came on the first drop on my second trip out nice, long fish I only keep fish once or twice a season, these ones made it to the smoker and we enjoyed them as a snack back out on the ice. My biggest of the season in the 18 pound range.

we get a fair number of fish like that up here also. Smallies and largies. They never look sick.

This. I knew immediately that she was my biggest, i'll have no doubt I'll know next time too. 5-6 pounders are common here, 7+ fish stand out from the others.

One fish came on a jerkbait, the others came dragging plastic in 35-40 ft of water

We throw 6+ inch baits for smallies up here all the time. 2-3 pounders will eat them, so do the giants

That's a donkey. Congrats

After winning the tourney with our 29.95lbs bag a week and a half ago, I headed out the other morning with a good buddy. We're both new dads, so planning trips isnt easy. If I have time, I usually dont know until that morning. I'm incredibly lucky to have a wife who understands my passion. We had about 4 hours that we could scoot out for. High sun, 10-15 kmh winds we knew it wasnt going to be a stellar day, but we should be able to drag some up. We didnt mark near the number of fish around that we have been, but enough to keep our interest. Our first pass over the school and I hit a 5 pounder. Good starter fish, but still not the reason we fish Simcoe in the fall. Next pass, I load up on a fish that doesnt feel like anything special. Fought nearly the same as the other 4-5 pounders. As soon as it got near the boat, it "tried" to jump. Thats when I knew she was a toad. I've caught a number of 7 pounders and I knew this one was my biggest yet. Unfortunately no scale on the boat, but I imagine she went somewhere between 7.5 - 8lbs. A truly giant smallie that photos will not give justice too. Now time to go get my 9.

nice fish

I spend the majority of my fall season on Lake Simcoe. It is my favourite lake of all time and I have fished lakes all through Ontario and 10 States. Still lots of lakes to visit, but this one is my favourite. I'm lucky that it is local for me. I've had an excellent season with big numbers of 5-7 pound fish showing up. I don't do many tournaments. I'm not much of a gambler and with a wife and young son at home, I cant justify the entry fees for most of them. Lately, I've had some kinda funny facebook comments and messages. Apparently, I sting too many fish, I dont care about the resource and there's no way I could do that in a tournament. Alright, let's see. The Barrie Bassmasters had their Simcoe Open yesterday. Let's do it. High winds, so a lot of people stayed home, but some of the lakes best anglers turned up, including a couple of my hecklers. We had a great day, put good numbers of fish in the boat and weighed a giant 29.95 lbs sack to take first place. I don't need to do tournaments to justify myself as an angler, but it felt good, maybe I'll show up more often. That 0.05 lbs away from 30 is a little haunting though. one of the fish got cut off in the photo for some reason, but here they are.

Amen

Ever get em on jerkbait in 30 feet of water? Thats the hot bite right now for the most part, and its about as fun as it gets.

I love fishing. I love fishing for almost every species of fish, and I love opening day of the seasons for those fish. There are two times of year that I get super excited for though. Spring pike fishing, when the big giants invade the shallows to bask in the spring heat. The other is fall smallmouth. The days are getting shorter, the water is cooling down, the baitfish are moving and the smallmouth are chewing! I fish smallies all season, but I spend the majority of my summer hunting big largemouth. Once the first leaf changes colour, my focus shifts. It becomes quite bronze. In my last report, I got into my first batch of early fall smallmouth and it has only been getting better. We have been targetting fish in the 20-30 foot range and bottom composition isnt important. The only thing we're looking for is bait, and there is lots of it. Jerkbaits, swimbaits and dropshots have taken the majority of our fish thus far. We have had dozens of 5+ lbs fish and numerous double headers in the past couple weeks and even managed a good solid 4 digit paycheck through winning the Imperium Baits open tournament a couple weekends ago. It's only getting started. Enjoy the pics and a double header video. Enjoy the video. Always love these days. 3 doubles and almost 40 fish that day.