Bass Fishing, Summer 2009 - Jim Baird wets a line

Left - Ted with a couple of beauties, small mouth bass are great fighters pound for pound

I caught this monster small mouth using a slip bob and a large minnow at about fifteen feet deep. The fish weighed in at three pounds.

To catch this fish I sat on a dock repeatedly throwing my Rapala minnow lure out again and again with my bait caster. I didn't get as much as a nibble for forty-five minutes, when wham!! I felt a strike so hard it almost ripped the rod out of my hand. The beautiful small mouth made two breathtaking leaps before my brother Ted showed up with the net to land this monster. The fish weighed in at five pounds, that's huge for small mouth bass. I let the beautiful fish go after the weigh in and a couple pics. watching it swim away, propelling its chunky body with powerful strokes gave me even more respect for this fish. The big ones breed at a higher rate and they also pass on their gens which in turn produce more large fish. Keep the big ones and you'll stunt the size of the fish in the lake.

This day saw us portage a fair distance to a little known bass lake. We were at the tail end of a cold front and the fish weren't biting much. Never the less we caught a couple. Ted hoists this pound-and-a- halfer while Heather grins with approval.

What is it about the site and sound of running water that draws us in?

As we left, our surroundings were painted with that beautiful golden evening glow.

This nice small mouth put up such a good fight that it snapped my rod. I caught it on Cross Lake in the Temagami District using a spinner. I figure the fish was a few ounces under two and a half pounds.

As another successful day of fishing came to an end the drizzling rains of a sun shower dwindled and this rainbow appeared, arching from one side of the lake to the other.

Left -Dramatic clouds paint the sky on this late July evening

After travelling up a tributary, though some arrowheads, and over a beaver dam, I nabbed this nice large mouth with a Rapala minnow lure. Too bad I lost the monster I had hooked ten minutes earlier while fishing with a floating jig head and a large minnow.

I had more luck with Rapala lures this year than ever before.

"Rainbow Bass" I hoist a couple nice large mouth

Ted and I catch our limit, five bass each, we often practice catch and release but this day we had our family to feed and we were under strict orders to deliver a fish fry.

To learn more about canoeing camping and fishing see http://www.canoebeyond.com/ and make the best of your time in the outdoors.