Got the call early afternoon from my buddy Andy to head up to his cottage in Quebec for a few hours of fishing. Although skies were grey and drizzly on the way up, I arrived at 2:30pm to sunny conditions. Loaded up the Stratos and off we went....
Fish were fairly active and wound up this day. With the sun shining brightly, many of the largies were up shallow - relating to isolated rock boulders and sparse clumps of weeds. Two to six-feet seemed to be the magical depth.
I have really jumped on the swimbait bandwagon this season and love throwing these baits. The YUM Money Minnow (5" size) has a tremendous action, and the hooking percentage is very good when fish are slamming this bait.
Smallies were also fairly active....and we found many up on sand flats. This fish was one half of a double-header we scored:
A couple decent pike were also swung in the boat - they certainly hammer these baits:
Weather conditions were constantly changing out there, going from full sun to overcast drizzle. Temperatures were still warm, and if anything, I think the storm rolling in turned the fish on even more.
After recognizing the fact that the smallies were relating to sand flats, we picked apart a few more. Most had a few decent largies thrown into the mix.
Here's Andy working one of our prime sand flats:
And the result:
Another one for me:
We also picked up some of our bigger fish from rock points and fingers. Most of these fish came from 8 to 15 feet of water, and flipping jigs, tubes and football jigs were the lures of choice.
Here is the big fish of the day - a 4lb 1oz largie. Came from 8 feet of water on a Strike King 1/2 oz Jig and Berkley Chigger Chunk:
Sadly, minutes earlier I lost a BIG smallie at boatside that came on the same jig...
We ended off the evening at a favourite rock finger. This piece of structure extends out from shore a good 50 yards, and peaks at 12 feet with 22 feet off each side. Always coughs up a few decent fish.
This girl came on a Fin-tech Football Jig and 3.75" YUM F2 Mighty Bug. This "new-on-the-market" bait looks like a real winner for largies and smallies when tossing jigs.
With the rain falling harder and night upon us, we did the 30 second boat ride back to the cottage. Four hours of fishing put 24 bass and a few pike in the boat. Great afternoon overall!!!
Sharing a steak and cold beer back at the cottage with Andy and his wife was just icing on the cake for another sweet Quebec outing...
Until next time...
Good Fishing,
Justin
I notice that you were fishing them with a weighted hook (?) and also weightless?? Is this right? How deep did you work these baits, and also do you work them with a slow-medium steady retrieve or a sporadic jigging retrieve? I could use some advice on what works best for these big baits.
