Working the Shallows for Lake St. Francis Bass

If you’re a regular visitor here you’ll know that there are many pictures of walleyes on this blog. To some this might seem strange because Lake St. Francis is, after all, known for its fantastic world-class bass fishing. I do fish bass from time to time and I was lucky enough to receive an invite from my friend Simon a few weeks ago. Fishing from a 20 foot bass boat is ideal for working spots slowly because these boats have a lower profile and are built with fiberglass rather than aluminum. The result of course being a much heavier boat. I absolutely love bass fishing from these boats (of course the 70mph ride to your spots is fun too). The platform in the stern area is huge and provides you with the feeling of almost walking on the water. You have tons of room and it’s as stable as a dock. The most noticeable benefit of these boats in my opinion is that the wind pushes you around a lot less. Even though I do have a great trolling motor with plenty of tork I feel like a dry leaf on the water in my 16′ Lund on windy days. Trolling or drifting sometimes become the only options.

Simon and I worked rats deep in cover that day but it was early in the season so the matted floating weeds hadn’t settled in yet. It made it a little challenging to find largemouth but I did manage to fool this hog with a soft plastic jerkbait, largely thanks to Simon who spotted him from the front of the boat. I thought it was very nice of him to take me out AND let me catch the biggest fish of the day. 😉

Reed bed largy

For the most part fishing was a bit slow that afternoon and I ended up crawling into one of his storage compartments to avoid the rain (Always bring your rainsuits kids!). It was still a great day. Although the fish were smaller than we would have liked Simon caught close to his limit of smallies and I had fun watching. All in all, a pleasant change from trolling and definitely something I need to do more often.

See you on the water! Jigger.

2nd Annual Lake St. Francis Walleye Tournament at Hart’s Bar

walleytourneypic2
Image source: howtofishforwalleye.com

If this year’s tourney is anything like the last, this event is definitely one you don’t want to miss. It is hosted by Kyle Laframboise over at Hart’s bar in St-Anicet. There will be tons of door prizes and it’s a great place to catch up and mingle with the best walleye fishermen of the area. If you can’t make it out on the water I suggest coming by Hart’s to check out the weigh-in, have a beer or two and check out some of St. Francis’ largest walleyes. Here are the details:

Date: July 31st
Time: 7am shotgun start – 3pm weigh-in.

Rules: 3 fish combined weight. Two persons per team, 100$ per team. All fish weighed must be alive. An 8oz penalty will be assigned for each fish that is not alive. No River fishing (I.E Raisin, Salmon, etc). All Provincial and Federal Fishing and Boating regulations apply. Boundaries are from Valleyfield dam to Cornwall dam. Tournament organizers not responsible for damages. No fishing before 7am.

Location: Bar du Chasseur (Hart’s Bar), 200 rue Gagnon, St-Anicet, Quebec. You can register there or at Primeau’s Marine&Small Eng before July 30th. (Corner of Hwy 2 & Fraser Rd, Summerstown ON).

Harts bar

For more info call Kyle Laframboise: 613-551-9268 OR Bar du Chasseur: 450-264-3324.

Spread the word! Hope to see you out there!

Jigger.

Biggest one this year!

Hopefully a sign of things to come for the tournament at Harts on July 31st! Speaking of which, details on that to follow…Stay tuned!

Biggest one this year