Lake Erie – June, 2011

For bass opening day in 2011, we decided to mix it up a little.  We decided to try Lake Erie and boy, did it ever turn out well for us!  We captured many photos and videos, but not of every fish that we caught.  At a certain point in the day we only started to take photos of the larger fish.  Spoiled…Perhaps.  You decide by checking out the compiled video and photos below!

Location: Lake Erie, Ontario (42.699847° N, 80.24929° W)
Target: Largemouth Bass
Temperature/Conditions: ~22°C; Mixed conditions - overcast/partly sunny/rain
Results: See below

Video:

Pictures:
First fish of the day by Steve – who clearly is in need of some coffee!

Walter’s first largemouth of 2011!  Not bad!

Another for Steve…

It wasn’t ALL bass that we caught that day…even the pike were active, although we only got a couple over the course of the entire day.

The bass are getting bigger…

This was the time when Steve casted 3 times and for each cast, caught a similar-sized fish…amazing…3 casts, 3 fish!  How often does that happen?

Walter lands a really nice sized one shortly after…

Another pic of the same fish.  He was a monster!

Another smaller one…

Walter, half-satisfied with this small, but healthy fish…

Another for Walter…

And another…

A bigger one for Steve.  From the obvious wounds, it looks like this guy has been scrapping with another fish…wonder how big that one was?!?

Another nice one for Walter…

And another…

And another…

Another nice one for Steve…

Another shot of the same fish…

Then came Walter’s fat, possibly personal best largemouth…

Another shot of the beast…what a way to end the day!

At the end of bass opening day, we didn’t know if it was ideal weather conditions, ideal timing, ideal locations, ideal bait choices, ideal bait colours, water depth, water temperature, retrieval speed, or just plain luck – but whatever it was, without a doubt, it was the best day of largemouth bass fishing we’ve EVER had!  Between the two of us, we landed so many bass we practically lost count – but make no mistake, as always, every one of the many fish caught was released.  The only downside of catching that many fish is that any subsequent visits to Lake Erie are sure to disappoint.  That being said, we’re going to try to go there again in 2012 for hopefully another fantastic bass opener!  We can only hope we get so lucky next time!  FAC Yeah!