Hope for St. Clair River Bite – Fishing Report 07-26-2017
The water was stained in the St. Clair River with about one foot of visibility. On both sides of the river, there was a white foam floating on top along with an annoying amount of floating weed of many varieties. Nowhere can you see the effects of the high water better than in the river. In many spots, there are only 12 inches of seawall left, above the water line.
Our first quality smallmouth (4.3lbs) this morning
Higher water has created a situation where we have more current than in years past. If you have been fishing out here for 20 years or so, you might say it is back to normal. With the low water years, we used to wait for a North wind to speed up the current and put bass into catchable zones.
Lowell Riech with a smallie at 3 pounds, showing how we caught smallies in a range of sizes
There are signs that the St. Clair River may be fishing stronger this year. Although many reports have come back with poor fishing results, we found several groups of smallmouth in the U.S., Canadian and Walpole waters. Only one of these groups was strong, but they were in a transition zone that indicated they were migrating up the river. This is a hopeful sign as the migration has been weak for five straight years.
For a half day trip up the river, we had great results
It is still likely that the fishing will be poor for someone making the trip into the River without pre-fishing, or having good information. The staging areas in front of the St. Clair River channels haven’t shown much strength yet. That could mean that there may not be a full blown migration up the river, which would lead to easy fishing.
Randy Forszt with a St. Clair River smallie the next day on 7-27-2017
Randys’ smallie weighed out at 4.76 pounds
Our top bait was Xtreme Bass Tackle tubes in the following colors: St. Clair Goby NFT, Canadian Mist and an older color that is no longer available, Dark Melon Double Copper (Dark Melon Copper should work fine). Xtreme Bass Tackle X-Worms on a drop-shot worked well also.
TO SEE THE REST OF THE FISHING REPORT ABOUT WHAT IS GOING ON IN THE LAKE, CLICK HERE!
Category: Bass Lake/River Reports, Feature
