Spybaiting gets one good one in the boat

[djkimmel]

Guide Captain Mike McGrane invited me to visit the big Lake St. Clair this past Friday (September 9, 2016) and of course I said yes! Any chance to hit the big lake is worth the effort! Plus, it's the place to practice my spybaiting skills some more!

Met Captain Mike (who is a member on here - mjm6) at the ramp Friday at 11 Mile Road (he lives near there so he can use that resident's-only boat ramp) at 7:35am after about a 30 minute delay in about 4 traffic slowdowns. Luckily I had left a half hour early so I was just about on time!

Dumped my prodigious tackle and rods into Captain Mike's Basscat Boat. (I get bored easy so I have a 'paring' down problem when it comes to tackle as anyone who has fished me will attest!) Off we went heading out into deeper parts of the middle of the lake looking for schoolers.

There was nothing but light westerly winds but the water was a little dirty where we stopped so we didn't fish a real long time before heading farther out into the lake. We were fishing anywhere from 15 to 18+ feet of water mostly on spots Captain Mike has caught bass in early fall before.


Not too long after we got to another area I was reeling my Spinbait 90 Blueback Herring in when about 2/3s of the way to the boat the bait when mush on me. I set the hook into a solid though not super hard fighting Lake St. Clair smallmouth bass. Most of you know what that feels like so I won't describe it in detail but it felt real good!!

We were in about 17 feet of water and I did about a 13 countdown before steadily reeling the lure in with my rod tip low and pointed towards the lure. The bite was just a 'heavy' and mushy feeling suddenly causing me to set my hook. The bass had the lure crossways with hooks in each corner of the mouth! It ate it for sure!

We fished for awhile without any other bites slowly drifting along with the light wind and lake current both.

We moved around a number of times without finding that biting school of bass though we tried drop shots a lot and a little TV fishing whenever it looked like a bass mixed in with the light sand grass and other algaes.

Later we moved nearer the current and were drifting with it when we caught a few in the channel. I didn't land any but Captain Mike got one decent bass, a bigger sheepshead and a couple small bass on a drop shot and minnow kind of bait.

I was dragging a Stevie Rig (drop shot Case Plastics drop shot worm green pumpkin gold flake). I had my worm pulled off once and pulled apart two other times before I lifted up to feel a nice fish on the line. I had braid as my main line with a Fluorocarbon leader. The drag was slipping a little but maybe... I had it too tight because I lost the fish and when I reeled in my light wire hook had broken in half. I'd used this hook a few times catching a few bass on it but don't recall it being bent or stressed too much but regardless it had broken in half and I was out a nice fish!

I retied on a tougher hook for follow up but never got another fish on the drop shot hook.

We stopped and fished some shallower rocks with current on the way towards deeper water. I spinnerbaited some of it just to see if I could get a reaction bite. Then we moved to slightly deeper water so I switched to casting the tube. I made a cast out with my Xtreme Bass Tackle tube on a 1/4 oz. head. When I lifted up I had a small, hard-charging keeper smallmouth bass on. Fought it to the boat and now I at least had 2 keepers in the boat. I caught one more dink a little later on the tube and that was all my smallmouth bass for a slow day...

Later, we stopped to fish around a slightly weedier part of the lake. I had told Mike how I've been getting more than my fair share of pike this year and getting bit off a lot and minutes later I feel a hard, sharp bite on my Formula G3 tube I was popping out of the weeds. You guess it... a small Northern Pike. They follow me everywhere, even out in the middle of Lake St. Clair!

Moments later I popped my tube loose from the weeds and felt a strong surge. Next thing I know several minutes have gone by and my arm is getting tired from fighting this very strong fish that will NOT come up off the bottom! It just keeps taking me into weeds and then ripping free on strong, short surges of pure power!

I put as much pressure on the fish as I could trying to pull the fish up to the surface so we can at least see what the heck I have on! I had 10 lbs. test P-Line HALO on a spinning rod so there's only so much pressure I could put on it though the line held up to each rip through the weeds. But the fish would not come up. It fought like a big muskie that didn't know it was hooked!

Suddenly, my tube tore free and pulled through some more weeds and the big mystery fish was just gone. No break off. No bite off but my tube had a number of shredded tears through it now which could have been from the small pike but I think some of them came from bigger teeth so I'm thinking muskie. But dangit! I wanted to get that fish at least up so Captain Mike and I could see what it was, let alone maybe land it!!!!

After we left that spot we headed back out to some deeper spots from plain bottom to sand grass and algae covered. I was reeling in the spybait again when I felt the mush of a bite. I set the hook to feel not much of anything. It ended up being a chunky 8 inch Yellow Perch. They like spybaiting too!

We fished around several more spots but other than some more perch bites we missed, and maybe a dink smallie for Captain Mike we struck out. Though we were on one of the best bass lakes in the Northern Hemisphere you can't always hammer them no matter how hard you try but it sure felt good to be on the big lake, and the weather we amazingly great for the whole day with hardly a non-boat bump on the water and not very many boat bumps either.

Thanks to Captain Mike for taking me fishing and trying some spots out with me. We'll get them good next time!

[thedude]

great report dan.
what are you using on your spybait setup for line?

[djkimmel]

I'm still experimenting but this rig was a 7 1/2 foot crankbait rod with 8 pounds test P-Line HALO Fluorocarbon. Not as good feel as the braid but it is working out for me in keeper the lure down deeper longer. But I'll keep experimenting with different lines and braid too yet.

[dartag]

Threw one at schooling fish on Cass today for quite a while without a sniff.   Picked up the Stevie Rig and Popper and caught fish.
I keep trying but it doesn't like me.  Had 6 lb braid with a 6 lb leader and the snap.   Looks good coming through the water.  I think they see the Stevie Rig on the deck and just wait for it.  Might have to leave in home next time.  Nawwww

[djkimmel]

It isn't a magic bait or for all conditions. I would think schooling fish would be less susceptible to it because they may be moving up, down and around fast and just not seeing the lure if it isn't at the same depth they are at the same time.

The popper will get their attention and the Stevie Rig you are used to fishing and probably have it fine-tuned I would say. If they stop schooling and are suspended and you can work the spybait just above them at the right depth then you can probably catch those bass but you can do the same thing with your rig (and you're used to using it all the time).

I would think the spybait would work good on Cass Lake bass about the time it is getting to be blade bait fishing time. You could do a 1, 2, 3 punch system of spybait, blade bait and Stevie Rig on them.