St joe (benton harbor)

[Sm_junkie]

Hello new to the forum here...Im a smallmouth junkie from NW indiana... Here most of the time i go out on the big lake and carpet bomb dropshots deep diving cranks and tubes on isolated rock piles behind the steel mills... but in the spring and fall i like to go to the st joe river in benton harbor, been doing it for 5 yrs or so... this year has been troubling so far i went yesterday 59 water temp when i launched, relatively calm and cloudy, outside temp around 50...i go to my first spot catch a 2 to 3 pounder on the 3rd cast to a rock wall catch another keeper size one both on a chartreuse and white custom 3/8 spinner bait i have made special... then the sun came out wind picked up a tad and it like someone hit a switch not a bite after that i tried a squarebill,chatterbait (in charty/white configuration wacky rigged senko (blue biospawn on a flick it) in the marinas for spawners... i couldnt buy a bite lol ive fished there for 5 seasons and always slayed them using what i have mentioned i was wondering how do spinnerbaits work in the good old gold and chrome blade configs work on there? underspins with small swimbaits? ive read on here suspending jerkbaits work well, ive used my trusty white/orange belly rick clunn floating jerkbait in the past with mixed results...is suspending that much different?  just looking for some ideas to set up for tomorrow any suggestions would be appreciated... ive always done well with the stuff that ive mentioned in this time of year even slammed em on an umbrella rig in the past so yesterday i decided id try to change it up a bit thanks for reading

[PaulVE64]

Do you think they went deep?

Maybe throw a jig or a ned rig.

 

How deep and clear is the river?

[Sm_junkie]

The water clarity was decent (3 foot visability) the two i did get hit like freight trains hit some deeper water with a drag bait, no luck going again here in a bit...

[TheBasslayer]

Welcome to the forum! I live near another river similar to the St. Joe river, the Kalamazoo River, in Portage, MI. I hope to catch a big Smallie near me someday. I know they live in the Kalamazoo, I just need to find them!