15th Year in the Books

[TOXIC]

A little recap of my 15th year of going to Lake St Clair for our annual Smallmouth beatdown.  First and foremost, everyone that attended (7 of us total) came home safe and sound with no major mishaps on the water or travel up and back (last year we took out a boat axle on those lovely Michigan roads).  We had epic weather with only 1 day being windy and we were able to fish through it, although it beat us 1/2 to death.  Average number of fish per day for my partner and I, 40-50.  The slowest day was the day before we left with probably 20 each.  Average size 3-5lbs.  Although no giants, the numbers were well worth it.  We got into an unbelievable Walleye bite in the Selfridge area on SPRO Original Little John crankbaits in Cell Mate and Little John Medium Divers in Olive Shad.  These cranks also got us a lot of other species but the Walleye ate them up.  We got the steady stink eye from the Walleye fishermen dragging crawler harnesses and cranks around us because we were releasing all of our fish (after we had enough for a meal ?) plus we were catching them 3 to every 1 of theirs.  Water temps were generally in the 62-67 degree range depending where we were.  1st wave of spawners were done and although we caught good numbers on the Mile Roads we didn't fish there all that much.  We found that the fish that were there were guarding fry and in order to get them to bite you had to put a bait right on their nose.  We preferred to move off shore a little more and go after the pre spawn fresh wave setting up to come in and find other bedding areas that were unfished for the most part.  Even though we rent a cottage on Harsens Island and are literally 1/2 mile from both the big and little Moot we didn't fish there.  Lots of our buddies did and caught the biggest fish of the trip.  I did fish there for about 2 hours at the end of the day when I rode with someone else for a day.  I have a problem going into the Moot and yaking big smallies that have been caught 3 or 4 times before me.  Yes, we did catch them off the beds in other places and we could have gotten bigger fish in the Moot but the bedding fish we caught were fresh and their mouths did not look like pin cushions.  Species caught......Just about everything.  We caught Smallmouth, a lot of Largemouth (they were running with the Smallmouth in some of our areas), Musky, Pike, Rock Bass, Bull Gills, White bass, Walleye and my first (in 15 years!!) Sheephead.  We caught them on a number of baits depending on the location.  The cranks I mentioned above, Jerkbaits, Tubes, Dropshot, Underspin, Yamamoto DShads, Senkos and as I have always said there are a couple of baits that take me by surprise every year.  This year it was the Yamamoto Shad Shape Worm in Natural Shad on a dropshot.  I finally had to change to another dropshot bait (Pro Senko) because the Smallmouth were inhaling the Shad Shape Worm and I got tired of having to remove deep hooks (no fish were killed).  The second surprise bait and the one I caught a large number of fish on was a Yamamoto California Roll on a Ned rig.  Absolutely wore them out.  Most memorable catch of the trip was me hooking up on a dropshot and breaking off on the hookset.  I re-rigged and we continued fishing moving about 100 yards from our original spot.  After a few fish I get bit on the dropshot again and set the hook.  Get the Smallmouth to the net and when I reach in to lip it, I get a hook into the topside of my thumb and made the comment to my partner that I must have hooked this one on the outside of the mouth (after a few explatives and removing the hook from my flesh)....but then I look and there in it's upper lip is the dropshot I broke off, bait, weight, line and hook!!  I was able to get both rigs back.  We ate like Kings as usual with a fresh Walleye fish fry, 7 racks of ribs, bacon wrapped deer backstrap, 20lbs of King Crab legs, Bison burgers  and crab stuffed Portabello mushrooms just to name a few meals.  

 

I am already planning for next year!!   I won't bore you with the 500 or so pics we took but will post a couple of our average size fish.  What a trip.   

[Tim Kelly]

What a great trip! Makes working the rest of the year seem worthwhile.

[heavyduty]

Great trip, thanks for sharing!!

 

[A-Jay]

Great write up.

 Sounds like it was everything you had hoped it would be. 

Congrats and Thank you for sharing your most excellent experience.

?

A-Jay

 

 

[Gundog]

If you guys are trying to make everyone jealous you did it. Those are some incredible hawgs.

[Will Wetline]

Excellent report of a great trip. Thank you.

[Turkey sandwich]

Lol at saying "no monsters" when your average smallies are 3-5lb.  Congrats on that trip!  I'm very, very jealous.

[TOXIC]

On 6/2/2018 at 7:44 PM, Turkey sandwich said:

Lol at saying "no monsters" when your average smallies are 3-5lb.  Congrats on that trip!  I'm very, very jealous.

You gotta remember, this is St Clair and 5's are not uncommon.  6's are getting into the better fish weight range. Estimates on what we caught:

 

2lbs and under 1%

Over 2lbs to 3lbs 20%

3lbs to 4lbs 40%

4lbs to 5lbs 30%

Over 5lbs 9%

 

It's those kind of numbers that keep us coming back every year along with the number of fish we catch and the different species.  We caught more big Largemouths (that we didn't even target) than we have any other year and it's not unusual to catch Walleye, we got into them big time this year.  That was a bonus!!  And while St Clair may be a bucket list lake for many, we have a standing deal with a cottage owner for the same time every year and we're not about to let it go!!  ?  I retire in 2019 and since I have longtime friends up there, I plan on making more than 1 trip a year!!  ? 

[Scott F]

It’s great that most of your fish are larger fish but does a lack of small bass concern you for the future of the fishery?  Those 6 pounders are probably near the end of their lives. With no small fish, where are the replacements for those big fish coming from? 

[TOXIC]

Great point.  When bed fishing that time of year, the breeding fish are naturally bigger.  The "peanuts" are plentiful in certain areas which we avoid at all costs!!  ?

[Boomstick]

Sounds like an awesome trip! And getting some nice fish like that makes it all worthwhile.

 

I have been looking forward to this years camping and fishing trips ever since my second trip last summer which was on a small motorless lake, lots of drift and didn't catch many fish, but got my PB black bass and smallie that trip.

[TOXIC]

Forgot to mention that during our 1st night rigging party (at one of my Michigan buddies houses) before we leave for the island the next day, Kim Stricker of the show Hook 'n Look stopped in and I finally got to meet him off the water and not just passing through.  I tried to slip him some new Yamamoto baits but he's a Strike King guy through and through.  ?