St. Lawrence river funk

[A-baum]

Hey folks, wondering if anyone has fished the St. Lawrence river lately or know anyone who has. Fished it hard the last 2 days out of Chippewa Bay and we are struggling.  We are here for 3 more full days and hoping to dial something in.  We've mostly fished the shoals and drop offs anywhere from 10 to 60ft.  Thrown drop shots mostly in natural/goby colors, thrown some tubes in similar colors.  Dropped and drifted live worms and shiners.  Thrown some crayfish patterns. Threw some spoons for pike.  So far we have 2 smallies under 12", a handful of perch and a bunch of annoying gobys.  Using fluoride almost exclusively. At the very least we wanted a perch fish fry which is usually automatic up here.

 

Anyone experiencing something similar?  Just feels "off".  Fish aren't where they should be. Very few bites.  Thrown the kitchen sink and coming up mostly empty. Would appreciate any tips or tricks. 

[MN Fisher]

If you're fishing anywhere near where the two major tournaments were held...the bass might be spooked right now

 

MLF had a tournament June 25-30 out of Massena

BASS had a tournament July 15-18 out of Waddington

 

So there was a lot of high-powered boats zooming around and LOTS of fish being caught those two weeks...with the BASS tournament just ending this past Sunday.

[A-baum]

Would that also affect the perch and pike?  Just seems like nothing is biting anywhere.  Chippewa isn't far upriver from waddington and my guess is folks fished these drop offs hard.  Maybe we will try and fish some spots that wouldn't necessarily be attractive to the tournament guys. Small drop offs around little islands further from the channel?

[MN Fisher]

23 minutes ago, A-baum said:

Would that also affect the perch and pike?

They couldn't weight/toss in live-well the perch and pike, but I'll guarantee that most, if not all, the pros fishing caught at least a few. Can't help it since pike and larger perch attack the same types of lures as bass.

 

I caught this one on a spinnerbait when trying for LMBs

[RichF]

The river has been under intense pressure since the bass opener and it ain't stoppin anytime soon. The smallies are getting smashed all up and down the river.  If you're going out of Chippewa again, the green fish are pretty overlooked.  You should be able catch some around shallow cover.  We're getting into the dog days of summer so the pike fishing won't be great. 

[A-baum]

Apologies for the ignorance....but what are "green fish"?

[MN Fisher]

20 minutes ago, A-baum said:

Apologies for the ignorance....but what are "green fish"?

Largemouths are referred to as 'green bass' because of the base color

Smallmouths are 'brown bass' for the same reason.

[A-baum]

3 minutes ago, MN Fisher said:

Largemouths are referred to as 'green bass' because of the base color

Smallmouths are 'brown bass' for the same reason.

Awesome. Thanks for clarifying.  

[David 7]

I was up there (Canton) the week before it opened up for bass season. Interestingly enough, there is no catch and release season. It’s illegal to fish it out of season. Probably why Wheeler was able to crush it so hard lol. 

[diehardbassfishing]

Last year similar conditions - river was off, lake was on. A bit of a "drive".

 

Karl

[A-baum]

Wasn't a heck of a lot better today.  We did find a pile of jumbo perch upstream of a small island. Had to be 20 of them.  We also got into 2 pike pulled out of about 25-35ft of water.  One LMB in a back bay in the weeds at dusk. 

 

Still no sign of smallies.  Talked to several others here who fished hard and nobody got any.  I have to think they just aren't here?  We fished from 60ft all the way to 15-20ft. Steep drop offs, not so deep drop offs. Drifted.  Also fished at anchor. Found some nice shoals to fish. Fished the edges of the channel.  Nothing. No nibbles. It's truly bizarre.  You'd think after 3 days of hitting them we'd stumble into something.  Looks like several of the top BASS guys from the tournament went right into Ontario to get their bass.

[A-baum]

So due to the water clarity, we've seen a few of the same fish we can't ID.  They are usually in 6-12ft or water, look blueish and have white tips on their fins.  They appear to be larger fish, maybe pushing 8-10lbs.  They are cruising the bottom and not too spooked by our boat.  They look wider and flatter than a bass or pike. Maybe blue catfish?  Anyone know?

[Boomstick]

I will be heading up to the western side of the St Lawrence in a little over a week now, so I'm a bit away from where both tournament anglers were fishing. From what I understand, there are not a lot of weeds in my area, but if I want to go fish the bay by Kring Point which I will likely do, especially if we get rough conditions since we are on kayaks and that area I hear is weedy, so I'll likely be going for green fish.

 

I'm still doing research on the area but so far plan on fishing a lot of ned rigs, drop shots, tubes and jerkbaits and will probably have a T-Rig or jig tied on looking for the largemouth near shoals and cover. Might try some poppers, crankbaits and spinnerbaits at times here and there too.

8 hours ago, A-baum said:

They are cruising the bottom and not too spooked by our boat.  They look wider and flatter than a bass or pike. Maybe blue catfish?  Anyone know?

There are no blue cats in the St Lawrence. Could they be coho salmon, which they do have which are a slightly blue tinted silver color and seem like they fit your description somewhat>

[A-baum]

1 hour ago, Boomstick said:

 

There are no blue cats in the St Lawrence. Could they be coho salmon, which they do have which are a slightly blue tinted silver color and seem like they fit your description somewhat>

Sorry about the mispost...

 

Definitely was not a salmon. I've seen chinooks and coho out west.  Any chance carp look blue under water?  We saw 4-5 of them total.  And a brown bullhead in about 2' of water which was weird.

 

I hope your trip goes better than ours. Nobody we talked to, including a dozen other anglers, guys at bait shops, the lady at the marina....nobody knows where the smallies are.  We watched boat after boat drift where they should be and nobody caught one that we saw. I even dropped a big jig down to 80' for walleye.  Nothing. 

 

We landed one stud smallie in 6 days of hard fishing.  My buddy's son hooked a goby while perch fishing and as a joke I told him to toss it in. Well he did and we drifted over a nice drop and a 5lb, 19" smallie nailed it.  I threw everything I have that looks like a goby and nothing.

 

we also got one 3lb LMB in a cove just before dusk.  Was really tough to find any consistency with anything but perch which are more than plentiful.
 

 

[sschrad]

The fish are probably freshwater drum. There is a ton of them there and they fight like hell!