Granny and I are headed for Canada on Tuesday for ten days of fishing ranging from Red River catfish around Winnipeg to huge pike and lake trout up at Gangler’s North Seal River Lodge in Manitoba.  It’s a trip we’ve been looking forward to all year and its finally around the corner.  Being I won’t be home again until around September 12^th and then leaving again on the 17^th, today may have been my last day of summer fishing the home waters.

Bob Butler and I headed up to Washburn early and met Howie to fish with him on Chequamegon Bay.  Smallmouth bass fishing typically slows down once the cooler days hit in September so we made them our main target.  Our first stop was the break wall lighthouse that protects Ashland from huge Lake Superior swells.

We chucked Clousers in tight to the rip-rap and caught a few 12” and under smallies and one pike.  I had no wire to my Clouser so this was a lucky pike.  And lucky for the pike, Granny and I aren’t in search of fresh fish this week because we will be traveling.  He was perfect size for eating.

While the break wall didn’t produce anything big it was nice to get a few tugs.  My last two trips with Howie on Superior were slow compared to our trips last year.

Next we hit one of our “spots”.  While last year this place was on fire, today was our third time here with poor results.  Today we got nothing but a yellow perch.

Howie has a long list of cool places to fish so we started hitting various ones.  It was smooth boating today with light winds and temperatures in the upper 60°s.  Most of Howie’s spots are drop-offs on the edge of sand flats.  There are a few weeds here and there and the smallies were active.  Once again however, most were smaller than the normal Chequamegon Bay smallies.

Finally, in one of my favorite areas we stung a few nice bass.  Howie and I each landed one around 15”.  Bob got this fat boy that lengthened out at a hair over 18” with the classic Lake Superior smallie girth.  A stunning fish that put a smile on everyone’s face.  This is the fish we came for!

Honestly I’m surprised we didn’t see at least another smallie of similar size to Bob’s or larger but that’s the way it’s been on Lake Superior this year.  All in all though a great last day of summer fishing for me on the home waters.  Time to close down the office, mow the lawn and pack the van.  Tuesday we’ll drive for Manitoba!  I’m not sure how much internet I’ll have this trip but expect the day by day accounts to post when possible.  Sometimes I’ll do a quick post and these can be found on my IG @jeffcurrier65.

Jeff Currier Global Fly Fishing