45 minutes to fish - the Art of Lunch break fishing 2016

I didn't get to spend as much time on the water as I would like this season.. even more so when it came to lunch breaks. But I made the most of each and every 45 minutes i did get... Here is a photo journal recap from this seasons "Lunch Break Fishing"

to see more check out my Instagram page: @Bass_Junky 

 

 

 

Chautauqua Lake 2016 - Photo Journal

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

1) Spinnerbait - Dobyns DX744, Daiwa Zillion, War Eagle Spinnerbait

2) Flipping Jig - Dobyns DX743, Daiwa Tatula HD,  BassTek Jig

3) Senko - Dobyns DX742SF, Daiwa Procyon EX, Yammamoto Senko

4) Tube - Dobyns SSM704C, Daiwa Tatula CT,  Bass Pro Shop Teaser Tubes

Chautauqua Lake Photo Journal - Bass Fishing in May - 2015 Edition

This past weekend was my 4th annual Trip to Western NY in search of jumbo bass on Lake Erie and Lake Chautauqua. I really look forward to this trip and as usual the lakes and the fish did not disappoint.

Here are some pics from our adventure...

The Dunkirk Harbour on Lake Erie is always our first stop, depending on weather we either fish fish the harbour and more secluded spots, but if weather (meaning wind) permits we venture out in the big lake in search of big fish.

(Kenny's Smallie)

Unfortunately this year, a sick co-angler and a drained battery meant we were spending most of our time in the Harbour.. with that said the fish were plentiful and who can complain about catching dozens of smallies ready to fight.

Erie is loaded with beautiful fish, the above pic is my fish official bass of the 2015 Season

Chautauqua Lake is one of my favourite fishing spots I have ever had a chance to wet a line. An abundance of large largemouth and smallmouth bass as well as Walleye (that I have yet to catch), Musky, Crappie, Perch, MudCats, and more. This Lake is a fisherman's dream

Kenny and I partnered up on day 1 at Chautauqua, and as usual we started off by flipping docks. This was the first fish of the day, and a sign of good things to come.

Although we didn't smack the numbers we had in previous years, we did manage a good number of fish, most pulled out from under docks with some sort of secondary cover near by. The carp have been cutting up the shorelines and if enough weed clung to the side of the dock, you would usually find a fish under it.

The morning bite was off, so we quickly ran through the docks, and returned in the afternoon, hoping the sun would push some fish into cover. We did manage more fish in the afternoon, but still not the bite we were looking for.

This Molix Craw was one of my hot baits on this tip. It allowed me to use a large wide profile while still sliding easily through cover (Texas rigged). Typically I would have fished a jig in this situation, but the Molix craw was a nice alternative. 

Check out the secondary cover all around this dock.. stop looking at the fish... this is what we looked for all afternoon in order to find dock fish. 

Smallies were not in abundance on Chautauqua but this little guy fell victim to a spinnerbait while fishing a secluded weeded around by rock piles. I wish I could have found his bigger brother.

Whats a trip without a little food porn. The last two seasons I have been the chef for this outing and as always I made sure the BBQ got in on the action.. now back to the fish.

On Day 2 at Chatauqua I was parked up with Brian, he and I have a blast on the water and were able to find some pretty solid fish. We started on the North/East end of the lake, but high winds made the conditions tough. By moving the west end the water was more manageable and the fishing picked up. This is Brian with a nice 4lber.

Brain really had the hot stick in the afternoon, added more and more weight to our imaginary tournament bag. It was nice to see those fish under 2lbs quickly get erased from our rappel scale. 

I too contributed to our bag with this 4.29lb largemouth pull our from a windblown dock. Later on this day I was surprised by a Musky pulled out from nearly the exact same cover. 

After watching the Chautauqua Lake Major League Fishing Episode we decided to treat the day like a tournament, above is what Brian and my final bag would have looked like at the end of the day. A  very respectable 18.12lbs for 5 fish. Just need that one big kicker

Day 3 poured rain and the temps dropped by 20 degrees, so needless to say the fishing was tough and the camera stayed tucked away. We did manage some fish, the best being Ricks 4+ lb smallmouth, and the oddest catch goes to the mud cat I caught while spinnerbait fishing some timber

This is the fun pic from the trip, after a wet day one of the boys not naming any names (Kenny) took the time to dry out his tackle on the back of the toilet using the shower fan.. only time will tell if it actually worked

Weapons of Choice:

Dobyns DX746 - Daiwa Tatula - Elite Tungsten - Molix Craw
Dobyns DX744 - Daiwa Zillion - War Eagle Spinnerbait
Dobyns 734C - Daiwa Tatula Type R - Gann's Jigs
Dobyns 735C - Daiwa Lexa - Reaction Innovations Skinny Dipper