Lake St. Clair Bass Fishing Report, May 16, 2018

This 3lb 11oz female full of eggs was caught on an Xtreme Bass Tackle swimbait

We spent a considerable amount of time in the north part of the Lake looking for bedding bass. The water temperatures that we found didn’t go over 55 degrees, and we didn’t come across any bedding activity. This was mostly due to us fishing channel related water, and the St. Clair River temperature was still 48 degrees.

At the beginning and the end of our day, we made stops in Anchor Bay to catch a few. Two of the smallies that I found were interesting. One was 3lbs 11oz and full of eggs. The second turned out to be 20 inches long and completely spawned out. They were caught within 2 1/2 miles of each other. The more aggressive pre-spawn female was caught on a swimbait, while the spawned out female was caught on an Xtreme Bass Tackle Sweet Green tube.

This does make sense as there was a solid warm up at the end of April, and beginning of May. There is no “one” spawn, but a series of periods where smallmouth find the conditions right for spawning. A lot of the early, and late spawning bass are in unorthodox locations and are never seen by anglers. What most anglers relate to as the “spawn” is the period when the main body of smallmouth come close to shore in traditional spawning locations.

A relationship between catching rock bass and finding smallmouth bass nearby, is beginning to emerge.

This smallmouth was clearly spawned out and measured up at 20 inches long. Caught on Xtreme Bass Tackle Sweet Green tube

We have been catching smallies since ice out when water temperatures were around 40 degrees, but now is the time to seek out a temperature in the 60’s. That is where the bulk of the smallmouth will be.

Here are the water temps that we found on our trip:

• St. Clair River 48°
• Anchor Bay 55°
• Mud Lake 54°
• Scotten Bay 54°
• Pollet Bay 52°
• Selfridge 61°

Marked Map customers – We have information from the following spots:

• SLF #7 & #20 TQ
• FH #8 & #9 Zero

Here is the NWS weather forecast going forward:

Marine forecast from NWS

Tags: anchor bay, Lake St Clair, pre-spawn, smallmouth bass, spawn, st clair bass, sweet green, xtreme bass tackle

Category: Bass Lake/River Reports, Feature