Hooking Up Spring Smallmouth on Lake St. Clair 2016
The day started with the unpredictable…a possum crossing my path on an I75 entrance ramp and ended with the predictable…smallmouth being caught on shallow flats in April on Lake St. Clair.
Upon arriving at the Clinton River Cutoff launch at 6:35am there was nobody anywhere to be seen in the staging area. Five minutes later the boats started piling in and before you knew it, the line stretched out to the street. That was mostly because there is still a pile of dirt stacked up at the launch, plus some other problems.
Continuous east winds pushed debris into the launch. That is nothing new for this location which acts as a funnel for seaweed but this time there was a lot of wood. That is no surprise once you get out on the Lake you can see floating wood everywhere. The wood at the launch was big enough to cause damage. Some anglers chose to trolling motor away from the launch area before firing up their big motor.
This wood was serious. It took up part of the south position of the launch and boats got hung up on it
It looks like your average seaweed at this launch but it was very dense an everyone was avoiding it
Sunday morning was a picture perfect day for running anywhere you wanted to on Lake St. Clair. The air was still chilly in the early morning but by 9:00am you found anglers fishing in shorts. A very light variable breeze kept conditions just this side of being dead calm.
Conditions were great, we could go anywhere we wanted to
Groups of boats could be found at all the predictable spots. The water clarity was heavily stained, but that can be a plus this time of year. Catch rates were steady but it wasn’t a fast bite. There were some big smallies being caught but many that were average size as well.
A typical group of boats on this day
You could see groups of boats like this in predictable spots up and down the U.S. shoreline
Even though we were only out for a few hours, we were happy with our results. The bite came the way that we expected it to. We landed smallmouth on tubes and slow moving crankbaits.
This first of the year was only 2 1/2 pounds but there were plenty more smallmouth to be had yet
Jeff had no problem finding 4 lb smallmouth with Canadian Mist tubes but he did have to work for them
A better bite this time. You can see the crankbait in the photo
It’s not uncommon to make multiple hook ups with pre-spawn smallmouth
If you missed the big bite in March and were waiting for better weather, the weather is back, and the bite is on. See you on the water.
For more on fishing smallmouth bass on Lake St. Clair in the spring attend the upcoming seminar with Captain Wayne at Sportsmen’s Direct on Friday, April 22nd at 6:00pm.
This is what the band shell at Memorial Park looks like right now.
Category: Uncategorized
