Walleye and bass and pike, oh my!

This is so far one of the best summers of fishing in recent memory.  The number of bass we've been catching has been phenomenal. The low water level has allowed us to wade out and explore some of the deeper pools offshore that we've never had the opportunity to fish in the past, and they are teeming with fish! Case in point, I caught my biggest walleye to date. I couldn't believe it, at first I thought it was a pike. It was heavy but wasn't fighting or jumping like the bass I usually catch. When it came to the surface and I noticed the dorsal fin and the shiny eyes my jaw dropped, it was a big walleye!  Next, my heart started thumping and the only thing I could think of was "don't lose this one!" Thankfully, I didn't. In fact, once the walleye came to the surface, he pretty much gave up his fight and let me 'drag' him in. It is quite the opposite of the bass that I'm used to handling that keep jumping and won't sit still for a second to let me unhook them. I strung him up to be able to hold him for a picture, since sticking my thumb in his mouth (like I do for bass) isn't an option with walleye: their mouths are full of razor sharp teeth! (see pic below). After a few pics, I put him on the scale and he came out to 3 3/4 lb. My biggest yet!

What a great catch. My biggest walleye to date (sander vitreus). 3 3/4 lb (1.7 kg)
Some people also call this fish 'pickerel' , or 'doré' in French.  

A beautiful golden coloured walleye (sander vitreus). 3 3/4 lb (1.7 kg)

The jaws of a walleye. You don't want to put your finger in there!

Look at the nice stripes on this smallmouth bass (micropterus dolomieu) caught by Ryan. 

The coloration on smallmouth varies significantly, even in the same body of water.
Some like in the following picture have a coppery-green uniform colour, while others like this lovely
specimen have a stripped / camouflage pattern. These are my favourites!

The more common colour pattern for a smallmouth bass. 

We don't catch a lot of Northern Pike around Nun's Island, but Ryan managed to catch one
in fast moving water, right after I had finished telling him that we wouldn't catch any pike
there since they prefer shallow, slow moving water with lots of cover. Guess he showed me!

Walleye are a nice change, but nothing beats the fight that 3 pound smallmouth bass will give you!

Look at this fat one!  ...the fish, not Ryan ;-)

Ryan's best walleye (sander vitreus) so far: 2 1/2 lb. (1.1 kg)

One of the smaller sized walleyes I caught, but just look at the gorgeous golden colour on it!

As summer winds down, the bass start to plump up. 

It doesn't get better than this: perfect weather and combative bass!

This little guy fought 10x more than that big walleye I caught!
Pound for pound, you won't find a better fighting fish than smallmouth bass. 

This little guy was released after the photo, so he can grow big for next year!

My only fish that day. This was one of those days that I attempted to fish sturgeon
(which unfortunately I still haven't caught!). Ryan lent me his rod for a few minutes, and caught this
nice little smallie on my second cast. It certainly made up for a whole afternoon of nothing with the sturgeon.

Another nice release. Get bigger little guy, I'll see you next year. 

A nice 2 lb. walleye (sander vitreus).  This one is coming home for dinner!

Smallmouth bass (micropterus dolomieu)

Ryan showing off yet another bass. He went from never catching bass before, to catching
more bass than he can count this summer!