1.
Lake Of The Woods (ONTARIO)
When American bass superstar Guido Hibdon and his son, Dion,
first fished Lake of the Woods, they were staggered by the combination
of so much water, pristine scenery and fine bass fishing. Says
Hibdon: “Every time Dion and I came around the point of
an island, we expected to meet God.” That’s high praise
coming from one of bass fishing’s biggest names, but it’s
long been a common theme among competitors in the annual, three-day
Kenora Bass International. Still, this is a huge body of water—one
million acres dotted with 14,000 islands—so you have to
know what the bass are biting, and where.
In more shallow, fertile areas,
around the Northwest Angle and in the central and northern sectors,
smallmouth gorge on crayfish, so tickle the tops of boulders
with crayfish-coloured crankbaits, or bump bottom with a brown
or camo-coloured tube jig. In the deeper, clearer, colder sections
of the lake—like Whitefish, Regina, Lobstick, Bigstone
and Clearwater Bays—smallies go for lures that imitate
cisco, tulibee or smelt. Find a transition area that’s
rocky and shallow, but close to deep water, then concentrate
on the edges. As for largemouth bass, they’re confined
to the lake’s shallowest, weediest back bays. Buzzbaits
and spinnerbaits work in the morning and evening, but slow down
at high noon and probe fallen trees and weedlines with a Texas-rigged
plastic worm, jig-and-worm combo or a jig-and-pig.
2.
Bay Of Quinte (ONTARIO)
Over the Labour Day weekend later this year, the 2001 Chevy/Mercury
Bass Tour National Classic Championship will be held on the
Bay of Quinte and eastern Lake Ontario. That in itself is testament
to the area’s quality bass fishing—the Stanley Cup
of Canadian bass fishing, the Classic is held on a different
waterbody each year. Past locations, like Lake Erie, Rice Lake
and Lake Simcoe, should give anglers an idea of the quality
bass waters the Classic frequents.
When fishing this area early or
late in the day, in overcast conditions, or any time you find
aggressive smallies, try a fast, horizontal presentation. A
double-bladed, willowleaf spinnerbait or a vibrating, lipless
crankbait fished just under the surface are local favourites.
So, too, is rapidly ripping a firetiger, perch or brown/yellow-coloured
jerkbait.
This is big water, so don’t
take unnecessary risks if the weather gets feisty. And if it
does, check out weedier sections of sheltered backwaters, like
Perch and Hay Bays. Here you can catch largemouth by flipping
and pitching worms, plastic crawdads and tube jigs. When the
weather is calm, a run out to the mid-lake False Duck Islands
or down to the mouth of the St. Lawrence River can be rewarding.
Indeed, smallmouth have colonized just about every rocky offshore
structure and island you can find.
3.
Lake St. Clair (ONTARIO)
Southeastern Ontario’s Lake St. Clair grows trophy-sized
smallies faster than just about anywhere else in the country.
Four-pound fish—monsters in most other parts of Canada—hardly
raise an eyebrow in this neck of the woods. That makes Lake
St. Clair and its annual Canadian Open pro/am bass tourney a
must-visit for any serious basser. Same goes for nearby Lake
Erie, just a short bass boat ride away.
To catch the big boys on St. Clair,
you should search for subtle breaks and depth changes. A bottom
shift of only a foot or two will attract and hold a huge school
of smallmouth on this largely flat, shallow, somewhat featureless
lake. Dragging heavily scented or salted tube jigs along the
bottom accounts for more bass being caught here than with any
other method. St. Clair is also one lake where bass anglers
have taken the art of drifting with live minnows (usually shiners)
and soft-shelled crayfish to new levels. The most exciting fishing,
though, occurs when you find active bass cruising off the bottom.
Entice them with a hard- or soft-bodied jerkbait, or a panic-stricken-looking
topwater lure.
4.
Rainy Lake (ONTARIO)
Legendary pro angler Al Lindner says it’s not surprising
for northwestern Ontario’s Rainy Lake to offer up smallmouth
bass weighing as much as eight pounds. If you plan on even coming
close to winning the lake’s Fort Frances Canadian Bass
Championship, in fact, you’d better forget about concentrating
on the three-pounders. Instead, winning weights on Rainy Lake
typically approach 60 pounds for 15 fish caught over the course
of the three-day tourney. Last year’s winning team, for
example, recorded a total weight of 55.4 pounds.
As a result, you’ll want
to develop a big-bass game plan. Forget about small baits and
finesse strategies: the big boys on Rainy Lake are suckers for
deep, open-water fishing and smelt-mimicking lures. Smelts have
become well-established in the lake over the past two decades,
and the smallmouth have taken advantage, moving out to deeper
structures such as boulder-strewn points, rocky island shelves,
saddles and shoreline rock/weed shoals. They’re even roaming
the upper portion of the water column to hunt down the nomadic
baitfish. The smelt-smallmouth connection became clear in 1995
when the winning team used smelt-like Husky Jerks to haul in
the big boys; by the end of the tournament, not a tackle shop
within 50 miles of Rainy Lake had a Husky Jerk left on its shelves.
5.
Saint John River (NEW BRUNSWICK)
| TOURNEY
CONTACTS |
1.
Kenora Bass International (Lake of the Woods, Ontario)
Kenora Bass International, P.O. Box 1660, Kenora,
Ontario P9N 3X7; www.kbifishing.com;
(807) 468-5555
2. Chevy/Mercury Bass Tour
National Classic Championship (Bay of Quinte, Ontario)
Chevy Mariner Bass Tour, 12088 10th Concession,
Stouffville, Ontario L4A 6B8; www.chevymarinerbasstour.com;
(905) 642-2277
3. Canadian Open (Lake
St. Clair, Ontario)
Mike Hili, Bass Pro International Inc., 13 Oakwood
Street, Port Colborne, Ontario L3K 5E8; www.windsorcanadianopen.com
4. Fort Frances Canadian
Bass Championship (Rainy Lake, Ontario)
Fort Frances Canadian Bass Championship, P.O. Box
531, Fort Frances, Ontario P9A 3M5; pluto.lakeheadu.ca/ffcbc/
5. Saint John River Tournament
(Saint John River, New Brunswick)
Jeff Wilson, (506) 847-1762 |
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Smallmouth
bass swim throughout the 300-mile-long Saint John River, but
the 60-mile stretch above Fredericton offers the best action.
Here, in the impoundment created by the massive Mactaquac Dam,
the river is deeper and rockier, with numerous islands and shoals.
As a result, it’s not uncommon to catch and release 150
smallies in just one day—making it the obvious venue for
the annual Saint John River Tournament. Referred to locally
as the “Head Pond Tournament,” the event is held each
Victoria Day weekend.
Since
the smallies here are still in pre-spawn mode in mid-May, they
tend to bunch up at the mouths of feeder creeks and adjacent
to spawning flats during the tournament. The head pond also
fishes like an American reservoir, so current and man-made structure
(submerged roadbeds, sunken building foundations and flooded
timber) are often key to finding the big fish. So, too, are
black, brown and smoke-coloured soft plastic centipedes, jerkbaits
and tube jigs. Throughout the rest of the season, meanwhile,
other popular presentations include salmon and trout crossovers.
Mepps and Blue Fox in-line spinners, for example, are eastern
bass pleasers. Mactaquac aficionados are also discovering spinnerbaits:
most productive here are single- and double-bladed willowleaf
spinnerbaits sporting white and white-chartreuse silicone skirts.
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