Since my last report I've been out a few times.   I even thought of doing some trout fishing but no dice.   They just playing with us.  I could see them on the scope but no bites.
Over at my local lake today I came across this 20 incher floating about..  Obviously she bit off more than she could chew.   I'm assuming this happens from time to time but it is the first time I have seen it.   Trout can take half their length in bait fish and I've seen that in fish I've cleaned.   Bass, by their very nature, would normally be taking in fish all the time.  This one was way below the 50% mark.  It could be the spiked dorsal fins got stuck.
We've been getting a lot of wind this summer in Eastern Ontario.  Almost every time I'm out, I'm battling.   Nevertheless I did get three larger Bass and lots of smaller ones today.   Even a larger Bluegill can give a decent fight.
I solved my 3wt dilemma by bringing my 5wt 'noodle' rod.  At ten feet it can wobble some flies out pretty good.   It has enough backbone to take on larger fish and sensitive for the smaller ones.   The usual green plastic chenille Mississippi Maiden did most of the damage but a Yellow Coney Leech was good too (Zonker style with copper wire body).

I brought the 3wt to my local water just before noon expecting only to catch small fish but then this 18-19" SM Bass hooked onto the Green Hornet (or rather the Mississippi Maiden in a smaller size).  This 4 lb fish was a bit much for my 3wt even though it is a fast action.   Lots of jumps which SM do.  I did get several small sunfish (and large ones), small bass and perch but I also got  four or five 14 and 15 inch SM and LM Bass.  Now the question remains, do I bring my 5wt next time and get skunked?  ST75F so not that warm.  The lake is only 12 feet at the deepest but my action was in the 6-8 foot depth range casting into shallower water using a dry line and long leader (10ft).  The MM has a gold bead and I also had on a beaded Coney Leech at time to get it down.   Later in the afternoon when the water was calm, I put on a couple of dries and had some small fish action sometimes two at a time.

We made the two hour trek north of Ottawa again the other day.  The day before a cold front had moved through and that may have put the bass off a bit.  But we didn't see very many close to shore.  In fact, I did not see a single one whereas a few are almost always seen running away.  In float tubes you don't scare them very much, if at all.   The day before I was at another lake and a baby seagull started to follow me and it wasn't until it almost reached me that it realized I wasn't going to be much of a substitute mother.
My notes from previous years indicated that we would have to go a bit deeper to find them and I put on my #3 full sink line and spent some time in both deep water and shallow, sort of zig zagging back and forth to shore.  But as I discovered last time, it wasn't until I put on a smaller version of my favorite fly, the Black Coney Leech that I caught my first larger LM Bass.   That is the usual procedure in rivers...keep putting on smaller versions.  But this was a "trout fly", not a bass fly.  I keep some "failed trout flies" in my bass box as they are often less fussy.
I also think that since we've had more than our fair share of windy days lately, the water may have been mixed up too much and that can turn the appetite off.  Also, rain changes the PH of the water and we've had a few of those as well.
All four of us caught about half our usual number of large bass but it is still worth it to have a five pound fish on the other end of our lines.