Fishing Summer to fall transition - September 2019

September 2019 turned out to be on the warm side, but sure enough, fall finally arrived late in the month. With the water cooling down a good 10 to 15 degrees F, fishing has been sort of inconsistent. Some outings were a lot better than average for both numbers and size, others were dismal, especially for bass.

Starting off with bottom feeders, we managed to land a good number of carp in the mid to upper twenties, mainly night fishing short outings after dark.

Carp weren't the only big bottom feeders that came to play. Eli landed his biggest channel cat of the season.

And his first encounter with a redhorse sucker.

I landed my first lake sturgeon of the season, fishing with my friend Mark.

Moving on to predators, I stuck to my season's topwater theme, and spent a good bit of time trying to land another topwater musky, mainly from my float tube. Though I wasn't able catch any, I did end up with a nice pike with a massive head that exploded on the big topwater musky lure I was casting (Topraider) from my float tube.

I did have better success with muskies while fishing for musky from my friend Mike's boat. In a short 4 hour outing, we managed to hook three muskies. I landed two of them, some really nice color patterns and markings on these St Lawrence river muskies.

The third (and biggest of the day) jumped clear out of the water three times before throwing the hook, I wasn't able to prevent the jumps from the hyper aggressive beast.

Bass were the least co-operative of my target species, I few missed hits from largemouth bass, but I did manage to land another largemouth bass on the Pop R from my float tube.

As well as a few smaller to mid size smallmouth bass fishing with my friend Mark.

With Rosh Hashana coming up and the high holidays all in October this year, I will be doing significantly less fishing than I've got accustomed to over this past summer. Still hope to get in a few good outings, and maybe some monster fish if I'm lucky enough.

Wishing everyone a Shana Tova!

2018 fishing season highlights

Looks like it's about that time of the year again. Just about ready to stow away my fishing gear and get ready for the ice fishing season, which will likely arrive earlier than usual this year. As usual, I'll run through some of our season highlights in pics with narrative.

2018 was another fun and informative fishing season, although I was thrown more "curveballs" that I imagined. From losing spots due to construction and closures, to extreme weather conditions, this season put me to the test a bit more than what I'm usually used to.

As always in fishing, perseverance paid off, and the entire family as well as customers and friends landed some big fish.

Starting off with predatory species, as they embody sport fishing a bit more than bottom feeders, although I do enjoy them all equally...

Bass:

Largemouth bass were my target for this species, the vast majority of time chasing bass was in areas where they are the dominant species. The kids and I all landed some nice largies to kick off the bass fishing season, fishing the Quebec bass opener at Mijocama for the 16th season in a row.

I landed some nice largemouth both from shore, and from my new float tube as well.

While I didn't target smallmouth bass too much, I did manage to land a few quality smallies as well.

Northern Pike:

Spent a lot less time targeting Northern Pike this season, but on the few days that we did, the action was good.

 Some more trophies were landed during trips to to Mijocama, and then at Le Domaine Shannon in July:

Walleye:

Another neglected sport fish species this season, the 2 landed by Avi and I were incidental, while targeting pike.

When I finally did get around to targeting walleye late in the season with my friend Mark, I did just fine under his guidance.

Musky:

I normally don't target muskies much on my own. My friend Mike took most of the musky season off, and by the time I was set to get out with Patrick, he had sold his boat for the season. However, I did manage a couple smaller muskies while targeting other species.

My first musky came shortly after the season opener, I was targeting bass during one of my first ever float tube outings. Casting a buzzbait on a light rod, the musky put up a great fight, numerous jumps, and towed me around until I subdued it and landed it by hand.

Probably my most enjoyable catch of the season.

Carp:

This had to be one of my toughest overall season fishing for carp. The late start to spring, had them sort of lethargic until mid May. The extreme heat and lack of wind we experienced most of the summer was bad enough, but almost every group that I took out all season ended up booking on the worst possible days weather wise, extreme heat, with no wind and mirror like surface.

Still, we managed to save face and land some decent fish, but nowhere near the quality and numbers of seasons past. My 2018 carp picture gallery can be viewed by clicking:
http://www.freshwaterphil.com/carp-fishing-pictures.cfm

My 2 notable catches of the season, cam 2 days apart. My biggest carp landed in 2018 was 31 lbs.

Less than 48 hours later, I took my childhood friend and his kids out for some carp fishing, while they were visiting from NY. First fish of the day, was a stunning mirror carp, just a touch under 20 lbs.

I finally stumbled onto a new spot late in the season, plan to try it again during peak season next year.

Sturgeon:

Our windiest and coldest October destroyed most of my sturgeon fishing plans, with both Mark and Patrick trying to play catchup for the crazy amount of bookings they had to cancel due to weather. Luckily, I did manage a few hours fishing sturgeon with Mark in September, and landed a couple nice sturgeons.

Other freshwater species:

Managed some incidental channel catfish while chasing carp, nothing over 10 lbs though. Some decent perch, sunfish, and small trout as well.

Ice fishing:

I particularly enjoyed my 2018 ice fishing season, exploring more lakes than ever before, landing some nice pike..

Found some good jumbo perch spots, as well as some largemouth bass:

I spent a week in Hawaii, fishing the Pacific ocean for the first time ever. As guides for big game species were too expensive for my liking, I decided to do it all from the shore on my own. Extremely rewarding, and not a trip I'll forget any time soon, read more at: 

http://freshwater-phil.blogspot.com/2018/08/shore-fishing-adventure-in-kauai.html

And last but not least, my first season fishing out of my new float tube. Great way of combining a good workout on hot days with good fishing. Read about my outings at: 

http://freshwater-phil.blogspot.com/2018/06/canada-float-tube-fishing-season-1.html 

All in all, another memorable fishing season in the books. Thank you all for following my adventures online. Thank you to my customers for putting your confidence in me as your fishing guide. Thank you to my family (especially my lovely wife) for putting up with my fishing addiction. And most of all, thank you dear God, for giving me the ability to pursue my dreams.