This past week I was very busy with guided bass trips on three different bass fisheries in the north country.
Mike and Debbie Lempa from Texas had pre-booked with me for 3 days of bass fishing so I decided to give them a sampling of what this whole area has to offer.
Monday looked to be the calmest day so we launched at Sackets Harbor and did most of our fishing in Black River and Chaumont Bays. We targeted strictly smallmouth and most of the action came on spinnerbaits and topwaters. We boated 10-15 fish up to 4 lbs. What was most interesting were the shallow fish we spotted in the afternoon in Chaumont Bay. They were wandering in circles in 3-5 feet of water. These fish were not interested in feeding. You would see a small buck and large female near one another. They were cruising but yet coming back, in a small area with crystal clear water. We saw this repeat itself in different sections of a flat. Hard to believe, but the way this summer has been it is entirely possible they are still trying to spawn. The females were in the 4-6 lb class but I could not get one of them to bite for my customers.
Tuesday I knew the wind was going to blow, so I took them to Black Lake. Mike and Debbie came here strictly to catch smallmouth, so I had them fishing strictly with live crayfish on the shoals. They had a wonderful day boating approximately 20 fish with the largest just shy of 4 lbs. They were really impressed with the power of these fish on light tackle.
Wednesday we fished the St. Lawrence River out of Alexandria Bay and the weather turned sour. The morning brought rain and wind. The afternoon cleared out but brought a strong northeast wind which is the most difficult wind on the the lower section of the St. Lawrence. We tried to fish my deep smallmouth but were unable to hold the boat properly. The smallmouth in the St. Lawrence have now gone deep, but they are easy to catch on a drop shot if you can position the boat correctly. We spent the rest of the day catching largemouth on senkos. In the end they were very impressed with the bass fishing in the North Country.
On Thursday I was once again on the St. Lawrence launching out of Chippewa Bay. I had Steve and his son Dane from Long Island on board. I suggested we fish Black Lake but they wanted to fish the scenic St. Lawrence River. It was 45 degrees but the winds stayed light this time. This time I was able to stay on the deep smallmouth. They caught 10-15 fish on the drop shot rig. We also fished for largemouth catching some fish on senkos. The largemouth fishing on the St. Lawrence is still somewhat scattered but will pick up soon as the water level drops grouping them up on the outer shoals. Most of the deep smallmouth are between 45 and 65 feet which is also where most of the gobies are.
Until next time, good fishin'.
Randy Yager
GuidedBassTrips.com
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