A couple weeks ago I got the chance to hit the water after what seemed like a month of rain, snow and cool temperture up here in Timmins. For those who do not know where Timmins On., is, it is about five hundred miles north of Toronto On.. My fishing partner Craig and I head to Star Lake that is about a half hour west of Timmins on highway 101. Star Lake has a healthy population of Smallmouth Bas which is a great place to go for a quick day trip. With all the unsettle weather we had been having we knew that it would be a tough day but that wasn't going to stop us. We where going fishing.
After we launched the boat we noticed that the water surface temperature was 46.8F as we started looking for some deep water Smallmouths. We noticed some nice marks in the 32 foot range so Craig dropped a drop shot rig with a four inch Gulp minnow down and I decided to drop a 3/4 oz Fergie spoon with thier clacker attached to the spoon. If you are unfilmiar with the Fergie spoon, it is made by ReelBait Tackle and is making quite the buzz with anglers throughout North America right now. I started to comment on the flock of geese flying overhead and how late it was for them to still be leaving here when Craig reeled up a nice two plus pound smallmouth. After missing a couple of more fish, I decided to change colors on your way to the next spot. One thing I learned over the years when using a jigging spoon was that you just don't drop a spoon down and start snapping it. Play with different snapping actions and pauses. If missing fish, change colors and weight sizes. The fish will always tell you what they want.
While running to our next spot, we noticed some nice marks in the 26 foot range. I dropped my Fergie spoon down. After playing with a couple of different snapping actions as Craig dragged his drop shot rig my rod load up with my next snap. A solid three and half pound smallmouth made it's way into the net. After a quick picture and release, I dropped back down. Using the same snapping and pause jigging motion another solid four pound smallmoth was on it's way up to say hello. The change of color, weight, and jigging motion was paying off for me.
With no other bites we head to another spot. This time we found some in the 26 to 34 foot range. It didn't take long before Craig nailed another nice three and half pounder on his drop shot rig. We had to call it a day after he released it as night was closing in fast. Although our trip was only for four hours and conditions weren't ideal, we did manage to have a great day landing some solid fish.
If you haven't had a chance to try a ReelBait, Fergie Spoon yet, I would highly recommend you give them a try. They saved my day with some nice fall time smallmouth bass and they could do the same for you when fishing is tough.