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Last weekend, I had the opportunity to go down to Lake George in New York state to compete at the TBF (The BASS Federation) Semi-Finals, the final step before the Nationals. I was a little disappointed to hear that the event was to be moved from Lake Champlain to Lake George but that changed quickly when we arrived there! It is one of the most beautiful lakes that I have ever fished. Surrounded by the Appalachian Mountains, it was deep and clear with the water a green-blue colour and the fishing was not too shabby either! I had a pretty good event and ended up in 5th place overall out of 68 boaters! I weighed in all Smallmouth Bass and caught them all dropshotting in 30-45 FOW! They all came of 2 different sizes of Z-Man Trick Shots and the Ultra Tungsten drop shot weights were key to maintaining contact with bottom. It was a very "technical" lake and I relied heavily on my Garmin EchoMap Ultra electronics units to locate fish. The Garmin G3 LakeVu mapping with the Garmin & Navionics data was unbelievably accurate, once I figured out the deep pattern, I could literally follow the charts on my electronics and pick out fishing holding locations. It was so much fun, video game fishing for these Smallies, many of them especially on the 2nd day were caught right beneath my boat right off the graph! Other keys to my success was Daiwa gear and my Sunline fluorocarbon leaders which were critical on this crystal clear deep lake. Congrats to all of the top finishers especially the top finishers on Team Ontario, Joe Rodrigues (Boater) & Will MacFarlane (Non-Boater), who will now represent us at the Nationals! During my second day, I even managed to catch my Personal Best Pickerel, Chain Pickerel that it is! The New York state record is 8 lbs. 1 oz. and this one was in the 7 lbs. range! If anyone is looking for somewhere not too far away for a great fishing vacation, I would highly recommend this body of water and hope to get back there myself soon. the drive through the mountains to get there is also stunning! Now here are lots of pics...

I was up fishing a cottage lake in the Parry Sound area the last couple days and hooked into my personal best lake trout . Not sure of the weight but it was a thick fish and was just over 33" long . I always bring out the jigging gear when I'm at this lake , seems the jig bite is better here then flatlining . Monday morning was calm and warm perfect for jigging . At least that's what I thought , the lakers were not cooperating . I tried everything and could not get one to move on the finder . They were there but eating my jigs that morning was not happening so we called it a morning and headed back for breakfast . Mid afternoon came and we decided to go on a little cruise around the lake to enjoy the sights , while cruising around I decided to head over to my "honey hole" and turn on the finder and see if there was anything swimming around down there . Sure enough there were 4 big hooks on the finder in 50' over 60' From my experience this is the perfect scenario , when the lake trout are suspended around 10' off bottom and in a group of 3 or more they are feeding and aggressive . Drop a jig on them and it's a race to see who gets it first !!! I had changed my jig weight just prior to 3/4 oz and took the stinger off to see if I was going to have better results in the afternoon with this setup and like any good lake trout hunter I was ready to drop when those hooks appeared . Sure enough when the jig got to about 10' above the hooks the race was on and I think the biggest of the pack smashed my jig . Fought her for a good 10 mins. before she unwillingly swam into the net . She was real beauty and after a couple quick pictures and a measurement she was back in the water to swim again . The bait of choice was a 3/4 oz darter jig (home paint job) and a 4" white/silver flaked fluke . Cheers