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Slow and Steady Smallmouth
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Mar 26, 2025
This Fish’n Canada episode has Pete Bowman heading north with Fish’n Canada buddy Steve Niedzwiecki as they hit a classic northern Ontario waterbody for Smallmouth Bass. To their surprise, the Smallies want nothing to do with fast-moving baits so our team “gives em’ what they want” in slowing way down with soft plastics. ► Subscribe http://bit.ly/youtube-fishncanada Don't forget to leave a COMMENT and give us a LIKE if you enjoyed what you saw. SUBSCRIBE for new videos and episodes released weekly! CONNECT WITH US -------------------------------- ► WEBSITE http://fishncanada.com ► FACEBOOK https://www.facebook.com/FishnCanada/ ► INSTAGRAM https://www.instagram.com/fishncanada... ► TWITTER https://twitter.com/angeloviolafnc/ One of Canada's longest-running fishing shows, Fish'n Canada travels from coast to coast in search of trophy fishing opportunities. First started by brothers Angelo and Reno Viola in 1986, The Fish’n Canada Show has been on the air for over 30 years. Today, Angelo is joined by lifelong fishing buddy, Peter Bowman, and the pair continue to travel across Canada educating anglers using the experience they’ve gained over the years
View Video Transcript
0:00
she fishy in the lake and he's gonna
0:02
show his head
0:03
he's gotta have faith that that steve
0:06
he's gonna drop him they jump right in
0:08
the boat to come and visit with peter
0:09
bowman go tell gramps it's dinner time
0:13
oh
0:15
peter i think that one's worthy of the
0:17
net he's gonna drum them up because he's
0:19
got faith in it
0:21
this is fun there's nothing wrong with
0:24
this at all
0:25
beautiful
0:26
lack of sobble
0:28
smallmouth bass
0:29
[Music]
0:31
the fishin canada show brought to you in
0:33
part by
0:35
yozuri fishing lures fish the best
0:39
mercury outboards go boldly
0:42
and outdoor canada canada's only
0:45
national fishing and hunting magazine
0:50
[Applause]
0:54
today's fishing canada episode puts me
0:56
smack dab in the middle of the algoma
0:58
region of ontario i'm targeting
1:00
smallmouth bass on a lake that i've
1:02
never been to before
1:04
luckily i have a teammate on board with
1:05
me our good buddy steve nizwiki
1:09
smallies here we come
1:12
our plan is to throw anything and
1:14
everything we can in order to find some
1:16
fish and hopefully we through the small
1:18
ones to get to the big ones
1:20
this should be interesting
1:22
[Applause]
1:23
i just saw a fish i think might have
1:25
been a smallie yeah something something
1:26
darted um this water clarity is nothing
1:29
that you were thinking of perfect gin
1:30
clear bud beautiful beautiful
1:35
that might be bigger than i think yeah
1:36
maybe i don't know what a boy we'll see
1:38
looks like it's pulling yeah he came in
1:41
real easy at first now he's uh dogging
1:43
it oh it's right off the drop well i
1:44
threw back i saw a couple of blips on
1:47
the live scope believe it or not that
1:48
just they didn't couldn't tell if they
1:50
were fish or not yeah and i thought well
1:52
i'm going to cast it they moved like
1:54
fish so harry comes up not a little guy
1:56
tiny
1:57
they just fight good these guys
1:59
they're just stupidly
2:01
strong
2:03
so he let that go the first time
2:05
picked it up two seconds later and
2:07
swallowed it almost is that the shad
2:09
shaped uh worm yeah
2:12
you feel those players handies do you
2:13
yeah right here
2:15
very handy cute
2:24
bye bye junior
2:26
not what we're looking for but
2:29
it's okay it's life
2:31
is she fishy in the lake and he's gonna
2:33
show his
2:34
head i'm my big fish bait i got a small
2:37
fish
2:41
they fight like that like there's no
2:43
tomorrow
2:45
you guys can you go down there now i'm
2:46
gonna send you back
2:48
and you're gonna tell everybody that
2:49
there's a little guy up here
2:51
equivalent to you that wants to fight
2:53
the biggest guy down there okay
2:55
it's just like a bar
2:56
but i don't do that in the bar
2:59
this guy don't fight anybody in a bar
3:03
oh this guy's got a little spunk what
3:05
the this guy's got some spunk here's the
3:07
drag
3:09
it's a good last cast fish
3:12
[Music]
3:13
because he got size that's all well
3:15
could be oh you haven't seen them no
3:18
yeah you must that i mean that rod is
3:20
ultra light but
3:24
oh my god he's decent you good one
3:27
decent
3:28
two pound swab
3:30
well we're gonna net that on that little
3:32
ultralight rig because it's
3:34
oh it's not not a bad fish
3:37
not a bad fish
3:40
compared to
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there we go it's a good fish yeah
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finally what's he doing he's eating a
3:46
small fish hey
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there we go he's eating the little
3:50
fellas in here there's nothing like
3:52
catching fish just catching fish and
3:54
then you throw a couple of these guys in
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there
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you never know
3:58
you know that's a good solid fish buddy
4:00
that's a great fish yeah
4:03
right there
4:04
beautiful
4:06
on an
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this rig isn't quite ultra light i'll
4:09
put this filler back here
4:13
but it's not heavy at all like it's got
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to be about six pound test
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got a ned rig on there
4:20
and it's a it's a it's got to be a a
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light medium action rod it's seven feet
4:24
long though but man oh man little little
4:28
reel on there
4:29
these fish
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fight
4:32
and it's so much fun
4:34
oh you better
4:37
would you uh like me to grab the net
4:39
yeah yeah yeah i think so stephen
4:45
oh he's better
4:48
and he's an acrobatic fella would you uh
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like me to grab the net i'm gonna wait
4:53
and see the fish first and then i'll say
4:55
if we should or not all right and
4:59
and yeah yeah i think so stephen
5:01
beautiful he's under the boat like 80 of
5:03
the time here but i think he's a half
5:05
decent one coming at you buddy oh god
5:08
look at him
5:10
yeah you use the net on those don't you
5:12
for sure you do
5:13
that is beautiful color man craw bait
5:16
that is a gorgeous looking fish look at
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him
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solid gold yeah jimmy the guide here
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says there's a lot bigger than this in
5:23
here and they've only been in here for
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nine years they're actually an invasive
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species like smallmouth either we're
5:28
stocked or our invasive species and then
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this lake they call them an invasive
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species so nine years ago these fish
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didn't exist in this lake and they're
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here now so
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and when they get you know double that
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size that's you know pushing three
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pounds that fish because of the belly uh
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you get a six pounders in here but
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that's that's a growing fishery right
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there
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nice on a craw bait that's a little more
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shallow so we got some deep off there
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some shallow in here so and we've seen a
5:52
lot cruising see you buddy
5:56
i spawn yeah put the boots to them with
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a 15-pound test line on a heavy rod and
6:00
still and they still beat you up right
6:03
yeah i was just about to change too you
6:05
know cast into the shallows
6:07
now we've been throwing spinner baits
6:09
crankbaits and everything and i had one
6:11
roll on a spinner bait and stevie had
6:13
one follow on a crankbait or maybe a
6:14
couple follow but we can't convert on it
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so now we're throwing these
6:18
you know craws
6:20
senkos would probably work a couple of
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small fish on drop shots slow him down
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it's gotta slow down
6:27
there we go
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[Music]
6:31
come here buddy i've learned a little
6:32
trick too by the way i used to crane my
6:35
fishing with a rod all the time
6:37
i break too many rods doing that i don't
6:39
do that anymore
6:42
especially when they've got good rods
6:43
like this one right here so
6:45
nice look at that that's the way you hug
6:47
a smallie
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it's where you want to hook a smallie it
6:50
comes out nice but
6:53
you know what
6:54
on a
6:55
cool pre-fall day
6:57
we're out here after a little trout fish
6:59
we had a nice day on the on the specs
7:01
this is day number two on the water
7:03
we're going for smallmouth on a bigger
7:04
lake i'd say that's fun
7:07
[Music]
7:11
not a boy
7:14
that's a good one i just missed one
7:18
that's a good nice call that's the
7:20
second time you've done that this year
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live scope rules brother
7:27
that's awesome ah that is so cool
7:31
peter just called that fish on the live
7:33
scope he said hey did you see that fish
7:35
and as i'm looking at the live scope i
7:37
missed it there he set the hook
7:40
buddy we might need the net on this guy
7:41
i don't know
7:42
i don't know
7:43
it's hard to say i think it's another
7:45
it's a networthy fish for sure you want
7:47
to see him anyways right yeah yeah oh
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yeah for sure
7:50
look at him he's cut around the
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fin
7:53
there you go buddy
7:55
nice yourself yeah
7:59
that is so
8:01
awesome i love when technology
8:04
works and you get then you can pull off
8:06
a tactic to catch that fish during
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technology and i'll show you exactly i
8:09
mean we're in shallow water like we're
8:11
in real shallow water here that's a nice
8:14
fish right there but that fish is
8:16
extra special to me right now let me
8:19
throw it back because i'm watching oh
8:20
stevie two more right there there they
8:23
are see them look at them there's a
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bunch of people
8:27
i got that pointed straight ahead all
8:29
right look at that 16 feet up past cast
8:31
16 feet ahead of the boat and working
8:33
what i did i saw one fish about that far
8:35
away i was working it wasn't biting and
8:37
then i saw him right here so i kept i
8:39
kept pulling it over towards the towards
8:41
the transducer and finally that fish
8:43
showed up right there and he hit so
8:45
that's so cool like they're out there in
8:47
front of us we know right now exactly
8:49
where they are and they're coming around
8:51
this live scope here this is the first
8:53
time that i've really seen
8:56
fish in front of us schooling up peter
8:59
you can on the live scope that's the
9:01
first i can tell they're bass they have
9:03
a bass shape on the live scope
9:06
that is really really cool
9:09
that is awesome buddy
9:11
yeah
9:13
yeah that was fun oh man but what we
9:16
just saw there was two or three more
9:18
fish and they're all that size they're
9:19
all three pounders this is cool with
9:20
three pounders in front of us and five
9:21
feet of water that's four feet here and
9:23
it goes up to five feet out there
9:25
so it's just
9:26
it's so much
9:28
it's fun fishing with technology like
9:29
that i love it
9:32
there he is right there
9:35
oh buddy little drag on that fella
9:40
they beat you up those fish
9:43
that's a good fish
9:46
nice job
9:52
i had a boy oh that's nice
9:54
that was the same spot where i had the
9:55
other one well i know right there i left
9:57
it for you bud oh yeah you left it for
10:00
me all right
10:00
[Laughter]
10:02
pull
10:03
thank you
10:04
that's the biggest one of the day bud is
10:06
it yeah
10:07
oh yeah he's long enough oh yeah
10:10
there we go
10:12
ah the old carolina rig i knew i had to
10:15
get that going out here today at some
10:17
time it was just
10:18
it was begging for it i was getting
10:20
getting bites and getting some fish on
10:21
the
10:22
texas rig but
10:24
i'll show you the carolina rig in a
10:25
second that's ice bubble bass right
10:27
there
10:28
right under the boat i just dropped one
10:29
same size pretty much hey you're
10:31
probably pretty close to the size of
10:32
that yeah
10:33
on a carolina rig and the reason i'm
10:35
thinking of carolina right we've been
10:36
trying you don't see a whole lot of it
10:38
we've been trying crankbaits minnow
10:40
baits jerk baits
10:42
i throw a spinnerbait like a lot of
10:44
times for smallmouth and i try to get
10:45
these aggressive fish we have not got
10:47
one fish to bite on an aggressive bite
10:49
so and they split the crop so it's all
10:51
beat up so i'll put a new one on and it
10:53
seems like green's the color stevie for
10:54
me anyways today green is the color this
10:56
one's got a red flag in it but i don't
10:58
know about the fleck if that means
10:58
anything but i've been doing well on
11:00
green you just rig it texas so just
11:03
stick it in there
11:05
basically texposed
11:07
stick it in there a little bit
11:09
so it comes through the belly
11:11
pull that head of that
11:13
hook right in the eye of the hook right
11:15
in
11:17
make sure that cinches back towards
11:18
there so it doesn't move backwards find
11:20
the spot in this case there's a hole in
11:22
here because these are hollow
11:24
drive it straight through
11:26
and i just leave it like that i don't
11:27
even hook it back in because there's no
11:28
weeds or anything here it doesn't have
11:29
to be weedless so leave that hook
11:31
exposed like that when that small mouth
11:32
grabs it it's very easy to get hooked
11:35
versus if you skin hook this
11:38
and that hook is in there
11:39
it's a little less abs you know you
11:41
still hulk them but why not do that i
11:43
don't need to rig a weedless that thing
11:44
goes up off the bottom won't even snag
11:46
up
11:52
oh oh buddy little drag on that fella
11:56
wanna carolina yep nice the old carolina
12:00
crop fun eh oh yeah carlander riggins
12:02
freaking awesome you know what just to
12:05
save my line buddy i could have netted
12:07
him for you why would you do that
12:08
because i did
12:09
you know here i'll tell you what there's
12:11
the net mr peter thank you thank you
12:13
you want me to net that thing yeah you
12:15
get it in the net
12:17
there see save your line peter thinks
12:19
he's funny look at that it's still all
12:21
right
12:23
still all right
12:25
right in there just like so
12:28
hey
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[Music]
12:38
today's hot spot is on lack of sobbled
12:40
in northern ontario the waypoint on your
12:43
screen will get you right there
12:45
this lake has minimal pressure on it so
12:47
the smallmouth bass here are both
12:49
plentiful and ready to fight
12:51
although pete and steve had their work
12:53
cut out for them in finding active fish
12:55
they eventually came up with a pretty
12:57
solid late summer pattern
12:59
shallow rock was the ticket from long
13:02
extending shallow points to big boulders
13:04
piercing the surface it was all about
13:06
that hard bottom
13:08
they spotted most of their bigger fish
13:10
with garmin's forward viewing live scope
13:12
technology it was definitely the game
13:14
changer
13:16
what made this episode unique was that
13:18
they could only get those osable
13:20
smallies to bite slow-moving plastics
13:22
but hey that's fishing for you
13:25
for more hot spots like this one check
13:27
out fishingcanada.com
13:32
[Music]
13:35
oh
13:37
peter i think that one's worthy of a net
13:40
right off that rock
13:41
[Music]
13:44
this is a tank
13:48
fish
13:49
that a boy he's all right it's not huge
13:51
but
13:53
nice
13:54
all right
13:56
fun to set the hook on smallmouth you
13:57
know what i mean yeah
14:02
people so i mean this model is not big i
14:04
got a 15 pound on this
14:06
floor carbon on a heavy you know it's a
14:08
seven foot heavy rod look at this thing
14:10
they just pull like crazy they're just
14:12
nuts
14:13
look at them
14:15
they're awesome small i gotta say
14:16
smallmouth are awesome when it comes
14:18
into the world of fighting there's not
14:20
very many better fish in this world i
14:22
don't think
14:23
to be honest with you
14:25
easy there bubba
14:27
and in two days that richie falls here
14:29
richie falls resort you fish two and of
14:32
the best fighting fish in my opinion
14:34
yeah speckled trout and smallmouth bass
14:38
look at that
14:39
what a beautiful specimen of a fish
14:43
an algoma piece of gold
14:47
nice
14:48
this is a skinny one
14:50
but i'll tell you what you see how hard
14:51
they pull on 15 pound you get that on a
14:53
six or eight pound test spinning gear
14:57
i mean this is heavy i just i like
14:59
throwing heavy stuff for smallies and
15:01
large this is my largemouth setup that i
15:03
convert to smallmouth a lot of times
15:04
with 15 pounds seven foot heavy
15:07
it's just fun to set the hook hard with
15:09
this kind of stuff it's just you just
15:11
reel them back and hope that it stops
15:12
you so it's just a i don't know what it
15:15
is is there's a thrill with it so i love
15:16
doing it
15:17
i think there he is right there
15:21
there we go
15:24
he's a fun fun little small mouth
15:27
ned riggs might not be yeah but it's the
15:29
funky ned rig yeah okay good move good
15:32
change yeah chartreuse how's that rod
15:34
feeling beautiful funny yeah
15:38
yeah
15:39
makes these uh these little smaller
15:41
smallies
15:43
feel great
15:44
it's fun
15:49
yeah it's a lot of fun
15:52
[Music]
15:54
there we go
15:56
[Music]
16:00
there
16:02
yeah
16:05
there little guy there
16:07
you go home get the big fellas and
16:09
that's the
16:10
rig on it right there chartreuse a
16:12
little darker this is fun there's
16:14
nothing wrong with this at all
16:17
snotatuma
16:20
she's a tube
16:22
to be to be
16:24
to be or not to be
16:26
that is stevie's squishing
16:30
oh that's a nice one i don't think so
16:32
that's not bad
16:38
[Laughter]
16:43
i know he's small they're pumped
16:46
coming up coming up nice
16:50
nice little jump he's not big but he's
16:52
fun for the end of the day stuff i'm
16:53
going to lock it here stevie okay
16:56
he's a good one he's a solid little fish
16:59
solid little beast
17:02
steven the net you got the oh you got it
17:03
okay
17:07
you're gonna throw me the net just to be
17:09
safe with him there you go he's got
17:10
chunk to him you know what i mean oh
17:12
yeah and they're that beautiful color
17:14
yeah
17:15
copper right it's like a
17:17
that's pretty awesome oh yeah
17:19
beautiful green on there oh yeah yeah i
17:22
hooked myself oh well
17:25
good
17:26
lots of fun
17:28
little black ridge edge on that
17:30
anal fin
17:33
very cool fish
17:34
lots of fun smallies are fun
17:39
oh peter i think that one's worthy of
17:41
the net my timing is perfect brother
17:44
absolutely right off that rock
17:46
and you know i got to give credit where
17:48
credit is due peter's been on me all day
17:50
about a green tube
17:54
green tube green tube well
17:58
this is a tank yes baby guess what the
18:02
green tube nice
18:04
man glad to be part of that buddy oh
18:06
yeah he's a bomb look at this thing yes
18:09
that's a i think it's a five pounder
18:10
right now it's it's very close
18:12
it might be let's not get too excited
18:15
until we get her into the boat but yeah
18:17
it's a seven right now until we get him
18:18
in the way
18:21
and the truth comes out right yeah bring
18:23
it right in here but he's fat oh don't
18:25
do that there you go
18:29
nice job thank you peter you're welcome
18:32
buddy look at that whoa you're never
18:34
going to lose that fish no i had him
18:35
double double hooked holy moly here we
18:38
go
18:40
nice smally
18:41
hey
18:42
wow nice jeep stevie
18:44
beautiful small mouth and it's heavy oh
18:47
heavy solid solid fish get them back
18:49
buddy yeah here we go
18:53
so fat here that's nice this fall
18:55
pre-fall
18:57
there we go look at that slab right
18:59
there
19:01
that smallmouth bass is what you're
19:03
always striving for on any small trip
19:06
you're getting fish into that range
19:08
that's what you're looking for right i
19:09
mean those smaller ones are fun you get
19:11
some bigger ones bonus that if you can
19:13
get three or four like that man you were
19:15
you're into some good ones
19:18
that to me was a pretty successful day
19:21
on a lake we've never been to we found
19:23
fish
19:24
cult through the little ones caught some
19:26
good ones and ended with a beast
19:28
that my friends is a common occurrence
19:30
when fishing in northern ontario
19:33
[Music]
19:36
to get to today's amazing smallie action
19:39
pete and steve first drove north on
19:41
highway 400 to highway 69
19:44
then turned west on highway 17 to the
19:46
town of massey from there he drove north
19:49
on gravel roads 553 and 810 before
19:53
ending up at the gorgeous richie falls
19:55
resort
19:56
this hidden gem is the perfect location
19:58
for not only smallmouth bass but has an
20:01
outstanding brook trout fishery as well
20:03
there's also great hunting out of this
20:05
lodge
20:07
the fish in canada show brought to you
20:09
in part by
20:11
ram trucks built to serve
20:15
princecraft boats dominate the waters
20:19
garmin plot your paradise reel them in
20:22
and ontario canada in partnership with
20:25
destination ontario
20:27
[Music]
20:28
closed captioning for this episode is
20:30
brought to you by fishingcanada.com
20:32
the gateway to your next fishing
20:34
adventure
20:42
[Music]
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