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Smallmouth in 80 FEET OF WATER? | The Fish'n Canada Show
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Mar 20, 2025
In this episode, Fish’n Canada co-host Steve Niedzwiecki travels to Ontario’s Lake Obabika Lodge to try his hand at a wide range of Smallmouth Bass fishing patterns. He sight-fishes Smallies on shallow sand flats, moves slightly deeper to rock piles, and then goes the extreme opposite and fishes them in a hundred plus feet of water. This is an extremely interesting episode that you won't want to miss! CONNECT WITH US -------------------------------- ► WEBSITE http://fishncanada.com ► FACEBOOK https://www.facebook.com/FishnCanada/ ► INSTAGRAM https://www.instagram.com/fishncanadaofficial/?hl=en ► 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
0:02
[Music]
0:04
feels not bad oh yeah that's a nice
0:06
small mouth look at that fell go oh my
0:09
God this is awesome oh he's coming up
0:12
he's coming oh what a jump come on big
0:16
guy there we go
0:18
pop
0:20
pause bang bang bang and then it
0:25
stops bang it's near North it's at your
0:29
doorstep
0:31
the fishing Canada show brought to you
0:33
in part by yui fishing lures fish the
0:38
best Mercury a fors go
0:41
boldly and Outdoor Canada Canada's only
0:45
National fishing and hunting magazine
0:49
[Applause]
1:00
hi everyone welcome to this week's
1:01
fishing Canada episode if you've been
1:03
following our season so far a few weeks
1:06
ago we featured our newest co-host Dean
1:08
Taylor on Lake obaba there he got onto a
1:12
phenomenal lake trout bite using of all
1:14
things bass baites although lake trout
1:18
are the most popular game Fish on this
1:20
great body of water they certainly
1:21
aren't the only species available to the
1:23
traveling angler lake Ababa has an
1:26
outstanding smallmouth bass fishery as
1:28
well on this this episode Steve Neds
1:31
Wiki takes over the Princecraft and sets
1:33
his sights on one of Canada's most
1:35
popular gamefish the always hard
1:38
fighting and belligerent smallmouth bass
1:41
for those of you who missed our Ababa
1:43
Laker episode this amazing body of water
1:45
is situated in what we call the near
1:47
north of Ontario it's also set in the
1:50
heart of big fish country and lots of
1:53
them sitting adjacent to Lake tagami
1:55
lady Evelyn Lake and Lake tsking three
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world class water
2:01
bodies obaba has always been known as a
2:03
small Mo Bass Lake producing numbers of
2:06
fish beyond belief on this trip Steve's
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going to break down the lake into a few
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sections one is a shallower end of the
2:13
lake not too far from his accommodations
2:16
leab Baba Lodge another is a gigantic
2:19
sand flat and point about halfway up the
2:22
lake where he can test his sight fishing
2:24
skills and finally there's the North End
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the deep water Abyss that this lake is
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most famous
2:30
for Steve decides to take advantage of
2:33
the waters close to Lake Ababa LOD I
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mean why not most Anglers including
2:39
myself seem to have the perception of
2:41
the best fishing being the furthest area
2:43
away from the boat lunch or the cottage
2:45
or in this case the lodge well when you
2:49
visit a facility like Lake Ababa Lodge
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there's excellent fishing with ins sight
2:53
of the
2:55
docks oh there's one right off that Rock
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Point
3:00
oh it feels not bad oh yeah that's a
3:02
nice small mouth oh and he's just by the
3:05
lip come on in there yeah that's a this
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is a lakeo babaa SMY right here
3:12
folks oh
3:14
yes there we
3:17
go there you go I went to a small yosui
3:22
crank and right off the Rocks you know I
3:25
felt Dunk Dunk Dunk on the bottom and I
3:27
was ke I kept my let's get this guy in
3:30
here there we go I kept my rod tip up
3:34
because it's a fairly deep diver and I
3:36
wanted to keep it out of the weeds so I
3:39
was jerking it up so that crankbait is
3:42
rising constantly cuz if you just give
3:45
it a a steady crank it just Dives Dives
3:47
Dives I'm in the I'm in the grass in the
3:49
weeds so I was popping it up popping it
3:52
up popping it up bang let's go get
3:55
another one
4:01
we found this rock pile dropped a Ned
4:03
rig down oh it's another nice small
4:07
mouth and uh on the on the Rocks he hit
4:11
right at the bottom of the boat there he
4:17
is there another nice SMY right on the
4:22
beak just like that that's the beauty of
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these guys here e one hook you don't
4:28
have to really worry about your fingers
4:29
around it you just set it right in the
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top there he's no worse for
4:36
wear and we bring in another Lake oaba
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beautiful small mouth we are 5 hours
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from the GTA and a lot of people don't
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realize the beauty and seclusion that
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you can find out here this lake is huge
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and there's one Lodge one access and it
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is nothing but trees and rocks and
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beautiful sand beaches it's near North
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it's at your
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doorstep so we're on that oh we're right
5:05
on that same rock pile look at that
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fello oh my God this is
5:11
awesome oh yeah this guy is fighting
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great
5:17
[Music]
5:18
[Laughter]
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who this is come on big guy come around
5:25
here another Netter come on back oh
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right in there for me thank you we'll
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throw that out
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there another beautiful small mouth off
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of that same rock pile and the nice
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thing about Smallmouth is they typically
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school and uh I can't wait to throw this
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fish back in we'll get them back in and
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drop down we'll try for another one that
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was bang bang and there's no reason that
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there's not more down there
6:02
[Music]
6:08
but halfway up Lake Ababa is a huge s
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flat area that at first sight might fool
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Anglers into saying that's too shallow
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for summer Smallmouth but as some of you
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know sand and swales are like peanut
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butter and jam the perfect
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combination there's
6:24
one folks I just I'm we're out here on
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Lake obaba
6:30
and we're fishing about 3 4 ft of of
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clear gin clear water and I spotted a
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couple off the side of the boat and I
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didn't want to cast cuz they were right
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there and I I caught this fish on a
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figure eight what a beautiful small
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mouth on 8 feet of line figure eight
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right beside the boat here on Lake obaba
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and these yoeri
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cranks are
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unbelievable but look at the size of
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that nice long long smallie let's put
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him back in the
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water the lake has
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22 white sand beaches 24 Mi long
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beautiful you come out here and honestly
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you feel like you're in the middle of
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God's country
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folks we got a school of smallmouth that
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I'm right on top of they're right here I
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just made a a a cast about 15 ft away
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from the boat and these there he is he's
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coming right up to it like I mean I've
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got nothing you can see I've got I'm I'm
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basically figure eting and there are
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three fish right here there's one I'll
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tell you what oh there's another one
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right here it's like an aquarium right
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here and being an avid musky fisherman I
8:02
was retrieving this jerk bait and I saw
8:05
them right at the side of the boat and
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again you don't want to pull your bait
8:10
out of the water so naturally I went
8:11
into a figure eight and these fish I
8:15
remember show and told me I was crazy
8:18
with figure eights but this guy hit on a
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figure eight and three of them were
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right behind
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them and it is so much fun to catch
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these fish when you can see them and
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this
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fella thank you pop that out real
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quick a figure eight small mouth and
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there are so many out here all of them
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that I've caught so far are beside the
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boat I they're following it in slow
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pause on that jerk bait and you got to
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watch watch behind the your bait and
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they're coming
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in in packs
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and there's nothing more exciting than
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fishing and catching them beside the
9:04
boat and seeing so much action when you
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do
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it there's one on the
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Paw oh there we go oh he's a
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jumper yes now
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this this fish here on on the oeri jerk
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bait I caught this on a slackline pop
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and the Slackline pop a good buddy of
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mine that all of you know told me about
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this
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and it's a great way of describing how
9:44
to use this jerk bait because and there
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it is right there right
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there and then there's this fish right
9:54
here yeah and on that retrieve
9:59
that good friend Peter Bowman who we all
10:01
know was talking about a slackline pop
10:05
and that pop I was watching it at the
10:06
side of the boat when you've got slack
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line and you pop it all of a sudden that
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bait Dives it goes in different
10:13
directions and that is exactly how that
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fish hit
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pop
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pause Bang
10:23
[Music]
10:29
during Steve's zababa SMY Adventure he
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took a bit of time out from the fishing
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and hooked up with a local Legend Alex
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Maas is a true historian with a wealth
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of knowledge of the great indigenous
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history of this area today we're here
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with Alex Matias and he's been kind
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enough to take us through a trail at the
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North End of lake obaba and we've got
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the pleasure to see the three sisters
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which are three of the largest trees in
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Ontario and oldest as well by the way
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also Spirit Lake one of the most sacred
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places for the oji
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[Music]
11:13
people after a quick paddle back to
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Spirit Lake Steve and Alex head to Lake
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Ababa for one final stop in the tour a
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close look at the Lake's famous
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pictographs
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[Music]
11:29
we're just wrapping up a wonderful
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experience and it just so happens that I
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have a little bit of tobacco and these
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are the grandparent rocks and we still
11:38
have a little work to do so let's
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just send that out as an
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offering there's one right
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there and you know oh it's a nice one
11:55
too we got on to the scope and started
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to see
12:01
oh
12:02
schools of
12:04
these of these smallies sitting right on
12:08
the brake oh look at that jump wow what
12:11
a this is a netting
12:13
fish and he's powering me and they were
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sitting right on the
12:18
brake and I was throwing a top water
12:21
because honestly I love top water yeah
12:25
there we go that's a beauty folks and
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it's the morning and uh who doesn't want
12:32
to catch beautiful fish on a top water
12:34
but they were sitting down and with the
12:37
scope you can see how they're reacting
12:42
oh that is a beautiful small mouth right
12:44
there and uh they weren't coming up the
12:48
way I wanted to see them come up so
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naturally we we went down to them with a
12:52
Ned rig and I've got a a a floral carbon
12:55
leader uh Yuri has beautiful floral
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carbon there you go back
13:01
there tied on and it's important because
13:05
when they're not um uh reacting to a a
13:09
crank bait or a hard body bait or a top
13:11
water you've got to go down and and
13:14
really kind of finess them and even at
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that we had to work them a little bit
13:19
but when you get that Ned on that Floral
13:22
in front of
13:23
them he hammered it and what a beautiful
13:27
fish
13:31
oh there's
13:33
one folks we just moved off oh he's
13:37
coming up he's coming oh what a
13:40
jump we were just moving off a a big
13:43
rock pile and again these are scoping
13:46
fish I'm I'm just working that scope and
13:51
slowly moving with the trolling motor
13:53
and I saw a hump and there were some
13:56
fish sitting on it I've went
13:59
to a 4-in Seno now and I've got straight
14:04
floral Carbon on this uh this
14:08
rod and uh I tossed out I wasn't
14:12
really paying attention I was more
14:14
looking at the scope which is a problem
14:16
when when you really get interested in
14:20
this
14:21
technology and uh I lifted my rod and he
14:26
there was just weight there there was
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just weight there there we go just like
14:32
that the feel of a
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surgeon there's that another one of
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these Lake oaba
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smalles and I can't say enough
14:43
about how you have the
14:47
opportunity to get a real feel for the
14:50
North and it is teeming with big big
14:55
small mouth
15:00
oh there's another there's another one
15:03
this is one of those uh slack
15:08
snap on the jerk bait Mr Bowman is the
15:13
guy that put me on this and it is such a
15:17
handy way to fish these jerk
15:19
baits
15:22
because I was dragging it I was always
15:24
looking for tight line because that's
15:27
what you do as an angler you always want
15:28
to have tight line but on these jerk
15:32
baits if you leave a little
15:35
slack and then snap it the action that
15:40
you
15:41
get from these yoeri jerk
15:44
baits is ridiculous and it also gives
15:48
you the opportunity to pause right it's
15:52
that jerk slack snap pause and this guy
15:59
just like the others hit right on the
16:03
paws and it's that that snapping and
16:07
erratic of the bait that you're creating
16:10
that gives
16:11
you the
16:14
opportunity to think about what you're
16:16
doing and it also it's so erratic those
16:19
fish come right up to it and then when
16:22
it when you you pause that bait just
16:25
kind of goes bang bang and then it stops
16:28
and and that's when they grab
16:30
[Music]
16:37
it today's hotspot is one of the areas
16:40
where Steve n wikii found a bunch of
16:42
shallow water smallmouth bass the way
16:44
point on your screen will get you there
16:46
at first sight this may seem like a
16:48
strange area for smes but trust us
16:50
shallow Sandy Flats can sometimes be a
16:52
fish magnet this is a sight Fisherman's
16:55
dream come true on calm sunny days
16:57
simply keep your eyes open for black
16:59
spots in the light colored sand these
17:01
will often be small mod on overcast days
17:04
sight fishing becomes much more
17:06
difficult random fan casting often works
17:09
best in these conditions trust us sunny
17:11
days are much more effective at this
17:13
Hotpot Steve ran through an array of
17:16
presentations with jerk baits shallow
17:18
crankbaits and soft Plastics being the
17:20
best for more hotspots like this one
17:22
check out fishing canada.com
17:25
[Music]
17:34
Steve's ending his Lake of Baba
17:36
Smallmouth Adventure by trying his hand
17:38
at the expansive North End of the lake
17:41
which is normally associated with lake
17:42
trout here the water is deep and cold
17:47
armed with a Princecraft boat full of
17:49
the latest and greatest garment
17:50
technology it's the perfect playground
17:53
for Steve to get onto Lake ababa's open
17:55
water small mouth it's such a bizarre
17:58
thought to be scouting and scanning a
18:00
vast cold and deep lake tro area
18:02
searching for small Mo bass but that's
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exactly what Steve's up
18:07
[Music]
18:09
to
18:11
wow I just saw these fish surface right
18:17
out in front of me and uh I I I sped up
18:21
because I was probably a 100 yards away
18:24
but as soon as the boat got close I
18:26
spooked them and watched them on the
18:27
scope go straight down so I drop down to
18:32
them and uh these fish are active and he
18:36
just hammered it this is the and and the
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best part about this is it's an Open
18:43
Water bite and uh oh this is a nice
18:46
small mouth a great small
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mouth and the best part
18:52
is all I had to
18:54
do was watch the surface and they showed
18:58
me exactly where they
19:00
were oh
19:02
yeah but there's that small
19:05
mouth 65 ft and that guy is hot and they
19:11
move through the column crazily and what
19:14
I used for um to get down quick to
19:19
them is this yozuri one
19:23
knock right there and and you might also
19:25
notice there's a a lead wrap on the uh
19:29
on the hooks to get it down quick and
19:33
just
19:37
bang
19:39
oh here's
19:41
another big
19:44
SMY oh yeah
19:47
and this is on a um yosui minnow bait
19:53
and it's weighted it's almost like a
19:55
countdown
19:58
it's called a a flat heavy minnow and oh
20:04
come on big
20:06
guy there we go oh he near jumped out of
20:09
the
20:12
net they've been following everything
20:15
right to the side of the boat right to
20:17
the side of the boat and then it's tough
20:20
to top water like I mean I got a little
20:22
one on a figure eight with a top water
20:24
the other day and very cool guys see
20:28
right out the side of the boat that is
20:30
what they've uh they've been spitting up
20:33
all of these little baits right out here
20:37
all of that stuff started at the lodge
20:42
Shoreline they're
20:44
there went to a different pattern sand
20:47
they're there and the legendary middle
20:50
of the lake Open Water Smallmouth bite
20:55
they're there unbelievable
20:58
[Music]
21:03
getting there brought to you by The
21:05
Outdoor Journal Radio podcast
21:08
Network to get to Steve's outstanding
21:10
smallmouth bass fishing he first drove
21:12
North on Highway 400 until he reached
21:14
the city of Barry he went North on
21:16
Highway 11 and then West on Highway 17
21:19
to the town of Sturgeon Falls he next
21:21
headed north on 64 then on to 539 North
21:25
and finally took 805 north to his
21:27
ultimate destination Lake obaba Lodge
21:30
set on the south end of Lake obaba this
21:32
fishing and hunting lodge is a perfect
21:34
getaway for those who don't have the
21:35
time to invest in a 20-hour drive to the
21:37
far reaches of the north at only a 5 to
21:40
6our drive from the GTA Lake obaba Lodge
21:43
is a fishing destination that you can
21:45
drive to in the morning and be fishing
21:47
that same afternoon lake obaba is
21:49
located in region 13A which is
21:51
considered Northeastern onaral this
21:53
excellent fishing lake sits in close
21:55
proximity to such greates as Lake
21:57
tamogami lady EV Lake and Lake tesing
22:00
all of which help rank the province of
22:02
Ontario as one of the top fishing
22:03
destinations in the world Lake obaba
22:06
Lodge has a gorgeous main Lodge dining
22:08
area an enclosed veranda and a spacious
22:10
outdoor deck with fire pit overlooking
22:12
the beautiful Lake ababaka it's a
22:15
fantastic place to both start and end
22:17
your
22:17
[Music]
22:20
day the fishing Canada show brought to
22:24
you in part by Princecraft boats the
22:28
spirit of of voting Garmin tell a new
22:31
fish
22:32
story The Outdoor Journal Radio podcast
22:35
Network every Pursuit every platform
22:38
every day and Ontario Canada in
22:42
partnership with destination
22:45
Ontario close captioning for this
22:47
episode is brought to you by fishing
22:49
canada.com the gateway to your next
22:51
fishing
22:52
Adventure come alone to our cabin in a
22:56
wild cuz we're in for some good fishing
23:00
Canada yes we're in forish
23:04
[Music]
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