As someone who fishes year round, I have spent more time than I could ever imagine measuring traveling to and from the water. Loading up the boat (or kayak in the past), ice shelter, or waders, pounding pavement and coming home late at night after a long day on the water (or ice) was just the norm. Hey, I’m not complaining by any means as I feel so fortunate to have ENDLESS water to explore in Southeastern Ontario and beyond. I’ll never grow tired of the fishing opportunities all around me or driving to reach them… however, a pretty incredible and big change in my life recently took place.
Lake life! Last week myself, Eric, and our pup Blitz moved to a home situated right along the shorelines of one of our favourite lakes. After a week of waking up each morning, looking around and realizing ‘Yes, it really happened!‘ we are getting settled in quite nicely. Although far from being unpacked, we’ve been out fishing practically every day (at least for a few hours) since moving in. Priorities, right?! It has been nothing short of a dream come true! And the fishing… it has been pretty stellar too!
This chunky smallmouth I reeled in last week nearly hit five pounds! I was out fishing solo and caught this porker on a drop shot off a 20-foot main lake hump that was stacked up with baitfish as seen on my Humminbird side imaging. I placed her in the livewell until Eric got home from work and was able to snap this photo. It was a pretty exciting moment and the phone call that followed went something like this:
A: “Hey (out of breath), I just caught a monster! Hurry home!”
E: “I’m on my way. How big?!”
A: “I don’t have the scale, bring it when you come! It’s the biggest I’ve caught on this lake though!”
E: “OK, meet you at the dock around five.”
This time of year can prove to be tough to locate some species of fish, especially bass. The trick is to really pay attention to not only baitfish on your sonar, but healthy vegetation too and water temperatures. The water temps are now in the high 50’s here and dropping as the weather is cooling. We’ve been successful each trip out targeting largemouth bass, smallmouth bass and northern pike.
We’ve been finding smallmouth offshore roaming and chasing bait in various depths. They’ve been schooled up for the most part and it’s been a blast getting on top of active fish! Drop shots or soft jerkbaits on jigheads have been effective in getting down to bottom-hugging fish. When they’re fired up and feeding near the surface or suspended, spinnerbaits or jerkbaits have worked well. This little smallie had a mouth full of 2 alewife and yet still ate my drop shot!
We’ve been most successful in targeting largemouth on spinnerbaits and crankbaits following shorelines or on weed lines. The remaining healthy green vegetation mixed with warmer water has been key. Areas mixed with rocks and weeds seem to produce more action. Eric caught this beauty largemouth in less than a couple feet of water on a spinnerbait. Northern pike have been in much of the same areas as the largemouth.
As for Blitz, he is loving lake life too! Each chance he gets the opportunity, he bolts to the dock and jumps in the boat. Our biggest hope was to get him comfortable on the boat his first year and ensure positive experiences from the start. We hoped he would love joining us on our fishing adventures. I think it’s safe to say, mission accomplished!
He often gazes out the window when I’m working from home as if to say “Please mama, can we go?” 🙂
To keep up with our lake life adventures, follow my social media pages below! I’ve been posting daily photos and updates. Thanks for checking in 😀
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