May
31, 2012 was a day Joey Dougherty and John Peterson of Northland Fishing
Tackle will never forget as long as they live. The stars were lined up creating
potentially spectacular smallmouth fishing. Rainy Lakes ice went out in record
fashion the first week of April. The ice had been out for fifty two days on their day of fishing.
Smallmouth
usually spawn between June 7-20th depending on moon phases, water
temperatures, and frontal conditions. The weather from May 25th to
May 30th was not stable by any means. May 28th was sunny
then cloudy, May 29th cloudy and cool, May 30th was
partly cloudy with a high of 57degrees, May 31 things changed drastically.
Sunny skies, flat winds, and high temperatures.
Joe
and John fished north shore bays. A few smallmouth were on beds right away in
the morning. John had a braid line on with ten-pound test fluorocarbon leader
and a 1/8 oz. Northland Tackle Bugaboo jig, in black (best), olive, and white
colors. A smallmouth was spotted on a bed with the aid of polarized sunglasses
with amber colored lenses.
John
and Joe would cast the Bugaboo jigs across the bed and just swim (slow reeling with the rod tip up) it slowly
right through the bed. John’s first cast
was perfectly placed and the big female bass lambasted the jig. More beds were
spotted and similar results happened at each spot. There was one huge deviation
in the pattern. Most of the times bedding smallmouth bass are males not
females. The males come in when the females are ready to drop eggs in the
nest. On May 31st the beds
and bedding areas had huge females cruising the areas. Just after noon female bass moved into the
spawning areas in large numbers almost like the bass had a meeting and said
today is the day! What is crazy the bass normally do not want to eat or defend a nest during actual spawning. The females wanted to eat as the males had not arrived, and they had belly's full of eggs to nourish.
Normally
bass move in in slower intervals, some areas water warms up quicker than others
therefore the more spread out spawning time. 2012 the smallies moved in spawned
on May 31st, eggs were hatched and the large amounts of males were
gone from the nests by June 6th.
John
and Joes day was one to put in the all time memory book. They caught fifty plus
huge smallmouth. Every once in awhile all the needed conditions on the lake
happen at the exact right time. Normally ice out is from May1- May 5th
making for twenty-five to thirty days of open water fishing. We catch lots of big females during this time
period. Smallmouth like to hang on points adjacent to the spawn beds, rock
walls or drops close t the same areas during cold fronts and sometimes right in
the bedding areas on warm sunny days.
Bugaboo
Jigs are very effective jigs for smallmouth, in all but special circumstances they
are a slow swimming, slow reeling jig. Use 1/8 oz. for 1-3 feet of water, ¼ oz.
4-7 feet of water. I have used 1/16 oz jigs but they have to be fished on 4-6
lbs. monofilament line, which makes casting accurately difficult. Braid will
work but it is not very abrasion resistant. You get broke off often.
There
are a few ways to use a Rainy Lake Houseboats for your smallmouth bass trip.
Some guests stay on the Ontario side of the lake (Ontario is the north side of
the lake. Many guests stay on the Minnesota side and go across in fishing
boats. Travel varies from one to three miles across Rainy Lake to the fishing
areas. The houseboat always puts you close to the action. One more advantage is rates are 20% off on both weekly and daily rates on the following houseboats Minnitaki, Voyageur, Tamarac, Saginaw, Kempton Cruiser, and Gold Rush Jacuzzi.
Certain
areas on the Minnesota side are excellent also. We will point you in the right
direction no matter where you want to go!
Smallmouth on bed to left of submerged rock.
