Multi species river fishing

After dedicating the past 6 weeks to carp fishing, I got invited to do some multi species fishing by Jimmy, my top bass guide (http://thebasstracker.com ) in Montreal. Tony came along as well, so I figured we'd be in for an action packed afternoon/evening outing.

We launched around 3:00 PM, and headed to an area I haven't tried yet, so I tied on a spinnerbait. Landed a tiny pike on my first cast, followed by a perch on my next. Nice to see the perch was aggressive enough to take my 3/4 ounce spinnerbait!

Fishing got much better. The spot is a true pike "factory", I caught another 6 or 7 pike on the spinnerbait, going up to about 5 lbs. Jimmy and Tony managed their share as well, some somersaulting out of the water to Jimmy's torpedo. I'm guessing we caught about 25-30 in total.

In addition to the pike, I managed a small largemouth bass, as well as a nice 4 - 5 lb bowfin on the spinnerbait, first time that happened to me.

Tony managed a gorgeous 4.5 lb smallmouth bass as well.

As the sun started setting, we moved off to another spot to try some topwater lure fishing, one of my all time favorite techniques. First spot was a real jungle, all I could throw was a weedless Spro frog. Got about 6 hits, none actually took the bait.

We moved out of the jungle, to an area that had intermittent weed patches scattered around on a sandy bottom. I tied on one of my favorite topwater lures, a beat up Zara Spook that was originally white and red. Why Jimmy hooked into fish using a high speed presentation with his torpedo, I opted for a super slow walk the dog presentation with the Zara Spook. I skipped the leader to avoid ruining my presentation, despite being in pike infested water.

I was rewarded immediately, I nice 4.5 lb pike took my offering. A few casts later, I got another big hit right next to a thick clump of weeds. The fish dove into the weedbed, I managed to horse it out a continue a nice fight. I assumed it was another pike, until I got it boat side. Supersize largemouth bass for the area and time of year, my biggest bass this season (so far), and biggest I've ever caught on a topwater lure. Weighed in at 4.75 lbs. I forgot to measure it...

After releasing it, I stuck with the Zara Spook as it was on fire. I few missed hits, and I finally got another fish on. I was very surprised to see the big smallmouth bass jump, as I've never hooked one on a topwater lure as big as the Zara Spook. I landed the fish, a good 3+ lbs.

It was nearly dark by now, I we had to make it back to land the boat before while we could still see what we were doing.

After dedicating so much of my season to chasing big carp, it felt nice to pull out 5 species lure fishing on one afternoon, in addition to a couple lunkers.