Summer smallies

[Jigger]

Been awhile since I put in a report. So I guess before I get out again, now is as good a time as any to share a bit. July up in Haliburton was absolutely disastrous. Plain and simple. Looking back now, I think that I had been fishing these waters the same as I always had. After 14yrs, I guess I took it for granted that I knew where the fish were and how to get them to bite. I hit spots high and low, primary and secondary spots. Fished fast and slow, weightess and weighted. Dinks. I think in the whole month of July I got one fish over 18in. Was it water levels, explosion of lake herring, or HOT weather? I don't know and wasn't able to figure it out. But I don't know if I was actually trying to figure it out, or if I was just going through the motions. Knowing(thinking) that I knew what I was doing only made the problem worse. Thats fishing, I guess, and thats July in a nutshell. Nothing like a month long dry spell to make old water new again!

 

Went into August with a different mindset and approach to the smalljaws on our cottage lake. Something people really don't take into account is how they approach and depart spots they intend to fish. Too often, I see people come in full throttle and leave in the same way, missing out on fish that they otherwise would have probably contacted if they had been a little more prudent. Starting on the August long weekend, my new strategy was to find certain structural elements that would hold big fish at that time of year and work them until I could work them no more. Normally, I'd say I'm a run and gun kind of angler. This time around, I would give each spot much more time. If I would normally go with the trolling motor on 5, the dial would be down to 3. Looooong casts and painstaking retrieves with topwaters would account for ALL of my hardbait bites. But only a particular topwater. A different style or even colour of the same bait wouldn't record a sniff, but as soon as this bait went on, it was Go Time! The remainder were on plastics. Tubes, grubs and dropshot baits. Senkos and other stickbaits worked, but I think I had more fish turn away from them than actually took them. So the previous softbaits got the nod more often than not. Especially drop shots. even in water you might think too skinny for a technique like that, it would perform.

 

First cast in August. I was afraid that the fish gods would allow only this for the month when I first saw it!

 

 

 

Reverse bass thumb when she clamped down on me...

 

 

My old self would pick up and go whenever I got up,again knowing(thinking) I knew where the fish were and how to get them to bite... That also changed. The cottage faces East, but the lake is in all directions...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had inner turmoil taking the pictures of that last bass. Looking at the pic the fish looks like its smaller than it is, and you can't really see the personality...

 

 

 

 

 

This guy was smiling the whole time. Say Cheese!

 

 

 

 

September didn't allow me to get out as much as I wanted. I had to work 3/4 of the weekends in the month and have really been itching to get out. So I'm hoping the Honey-do list is complete and cant wait to get out for the best time of year! Thanks for reading and Tightlines folks!!!

[GBW]

Hey J, nice report. If I can get out for a day trip I'll msg ya. If not I'll be at my folks place for Thanksgiving.

[msp]

My July went just like yours. 20 fish days ( largies ) were the norm but nothing over 4 pounds. August we started to see some bigger bites. It looks like you did very well during August on those quality smallies. Great photos of the Haliburton scenery.

Thanks for the report.

[bucktail]

Nice fish man , heard it was a hard bite for everyone.

Drop me a line, got something interesting to tell you.

 

Darren

 

 

[WeedLine]

Cool pics. Nice smallies

[highdrifter]

Great scenery shots dude.

 

And thanks for calling me ya big poun poun.

 

Here's one from 12 Mile!!

 

[johnnyb]

Very nice....some beauty smallies there! I'm still working on fishing deeper...the only way I got into quality smallies this year was finding them shallow before it got too light out....I'm slowly changing my habits (shallow jerks and weightless plastics) and will have the deeper action stuff dialed in for next season.

Time for fall fatties now though!

[Jigger]

Great scenery shots dude.

 

And thanks for calling me ya big poun poun.

 

Here's one from 12 Mile!!

 

 

 

Yeah, i feel really bad about that day man. Definately owe you another shot! Well be in touch. Thanks for the replies guys.