Lake St Clair Seasonal Channel Bite, Sept. 2018
With all of the attention given to the record pace of the bite on the South Shore, there has been less of a focus on other parts of this body of water. The St. Clair River channel system hasn’t been a strong player this summer, but there is a fall bite here worth taking note of.
In a short time, Jeff was able to put four of these in the boat with a Sweet Green 4″ tube
After a strong cold front came through, Jeff Ferraiuolo and I brushed off the steady north winds and decided to fish protected water in the channels. The advantage to this is that the St. Clair River water temps won’t drop after one or two days of cold, so the bass have no incentive to shut down. What we in fact found was a fall-like bite along the upper edges of the river.
Although this was a short trip, we were able to be efficient by going to proven spots. All but one of them you can find in the Marked Maps Complete Chart Book or in some of my books: No Secrets on Lake St. Clair Vol: 1-4.
On a windy day, crankbaits and spinnerbaits normally rule but on this day, Jeff made a stand by throwing an Xtreme Bass Tackle Sweet Green™ 4″ tube. It paid off as Jeff put the biggest smallies in the boat on this trip at 4.8lbs, 3.11, 3.11, and 3.8lbs. Add in a nice walleye and it was a decent morning for us.
This walleye came later in the morning, off a dock on a 4″ Sweet Green tube.
I focused on the fast bite then later, put my skills to work on the deeper bass in 20 to 35 feet of water. There was a bite in that range, but all those bass were in the keeper category.
There looked to be a club event that launched at Harley Ensign that morning. Several of the boats ventured south in the Lake. It may have been a winning strategy but there is no way that they fished in the comfort of protected waters like we did.
Based on what we saw, there was an easy 20 pound limit of smallmouth available in the channel system. If Jeff and I were fishing in competition, I would have switched over to throwing a shallower tube and that would have increased our chance of doing even better.
If you come up against high winds on Lake St. Clair, consider fishing in the river system this time of year. There is a variety of structure available with fish on it. Even if the river isn’t your thing, the targets to fish are very visual, and traditional. It’s a lot better than staying home!
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Category: Bass Lake/River Reports, Fishing
