Hi guys,
Thought I would try to get some advice from you guys that fish northern lakes as I'm in Canada about an hour away from the New York state border. Water temps are in the lower 70s for the last few weeks - 71 last weekend and I think the spawn started late for the smallmouth. I've been hitting the lake and river system where I camp a bit earlier than usual (usually mid July in to end of August) and the usual places where bass were guaranteed are completely void of fish. Logs, overhanging trees and brush, under docks, parked boats and basically any cover around shore are empty where typically you would find fish easily. Normally I would catch 30 fish in a day I was lucky to catch one on my last outing on the last spot I tried and it was a dink.
On the lake I fish, I wonder if the Perch are decimating the habitat for Bass. There are millions of perch in the lake, HUGE bait balls all over the place... you can drop shot almost anywhere on the lake, reel it back in and have 50 of them chasing it and none are over 6 inches long. On the graphs you can see the giant bait masses but no larger fish attacking them. I'm wondering between the perch and the few musky if they are killing off the bass or I am simply not finding where they are scattering to post-spawn. Should also mention this lake is heavily pressured by the local campground and cottage owner and the lake is tiny.
Same deal on the small river I fish... they're not in ANY of the places I was catching them in last year and I haven't even spotted any roaming around that were bigger than a half pound. I also tried spots with heavy boulders and rip rap in the river and nothing. And I tried everything... cranks, jigs, chatterbaits, dropshot etc. Heck I even tried topwater even though the water is still a bit cold. Basically when we're throwing dropshots and senkos and nothing is biting, the fish are elsewhere.
Any suggestions on where else to look in early summer that I'm clearly missing?
On a brighter note, I fished a mystery lake on Sunday I've never been on or knew nothing about and marked a couple of fish 40 feet deep on a flat random bottom, which I thought strange and figured it was a couple of big Walleye. Set the spot-lock and started to vertical jig and was pleasantly surprised when 5 minutes later I hooked a "walleye" and pulled up a 21.5" lake trout! My first lake trout ever as it were!
Thanks in advance for any suggestions or advice :)
Dan