This past weekend was the 5th annual Pre-Season trip to Lake Chautauqua and Lake Erie, and by pre-season I mean pre-Ontario Bass season. The 3 old guys (sorry Brian) and I loaded up two vehicles and made our annual trip over the Memorial day weekend.
Unlike the past few years the weather co-operated, and very unlike the past few years the fish.. not so much. The bite was tough and I'm not really sure why? yes our trip was later in the season, meaning slightly warmer water temps, but the areas we slayed fish on previous trip not only didn't product this year but often left us scratching our heads. We went deep into our bag of tricks to salvage the weekend and make sure some fish made it into the boats.
Obviously as you can see from the above image, the trip wasn't a total bust, a day one smallmouth topping 6lbs left us all smiling for days. Rick as usual finished the weekend with this, the trips biggest fish.
I personally lost a nice smallie at the boat (should have taken the net help offered) and broke off a jumbo bedded largemouth that Brian and I had put in some serious work on. Short line and a long hook set makes this my fault and I'm still kicking myself today.
enough rambling, onto the pics...
The early morning commute Day1 ... the 6 hour drive is worth it each and every time
Kenny with the first fish of the trip, its small but a bend in the rod is always a good thing
My First fish of the trip, 4 hours into our dock fishing, we finally moved out to find some fish. I love a good spinnerbait bite.
When fishing the docks didn't work, Kenny and I moved to throwing smaller swimsbaits on the outer edges and quickly found some active fish.. not big ones, but fish.
My favourite spot on the lake, didn't help us this year but I was happy to say hello
With the hot weather in full effect it was time to break out the Salt Armour gear. I couldn't believe how comfortable it was, and how quickly it cooled down my neck and ears.
Just another bucket mouth falling victim to the Reaction Innovations Skinny Dipper.
Sunrise on day 2... not a bad sight
Yep, us Kawartha boys just can't pull ourselves away from the shallow water and docks. This might have hurt us this weekend, but it was still a blast.
Surprise spinnerbait smallie
This is about the cookie cutter size of largemouth we found this year. This is common but usually we run into a few kicker fish.. not the case in 2016
I think this might be my first tube fish in 2+ seasons, I just don't throw them enough and when I do, its usually a drag (no pun intended)
Another gorgeous sunrise. I'm never happy to see 5am, unless I'm fishing
Kenny and I working a large rock/gravel shoal ran into a couple back to back smallies nearly identical in size, although he tells me his was larger.
I could make this journey every morning. The long walk to work.
The return of the Senko, another bait that has seen limited to no action in my boat the last couple seasons was one of the most productive lures on Chautauqua. Almost every boat we pulled up on has at least one guy throwing them... you know my thoughts... can't beat'em join'em
The Last trip across the lake... time to go home.
And the Lake Chautauqau curse strikes again. 1 hour into our drive home and we blow a tire. After a quick run to a local auto parts store to grab some tools, and back again when our jack wouldn't work.. 2 hours later back on the road and head home.
Weapons of Choice:
As mentioned it was not one of our more successful trips, but in case you're wondering, here are the weapons of choice
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