"Beating" - Those late summer smallies on St. Clair.

[Revtro]

In response to bshaner's "Member Challenge", I'll be happy to get things started.  Hopefully this will stimulate the kind of discussion he recommended.  I like the idea.

I'd suggest starting other "Beating" threads as issues come to mind.  Sound good bshaner?


"Beating" - Those late summer smallies on St. Clair.

Yeah, it's an issue isn't it.  Last year in the Tuesday night NBAA, my partner and I ended up on the bubble for making the championship and were out by 1 lousy point.  Grr.  Up until late summer, we were in the thick of it in 5th place and doing great.  Then our early summer patterns on the main lake dried up and we started fishing the river like everyone else.  We did ok in the river at first, but as most of you St. Clair guys know, the river wasn't that great late in the season for some reason this year.  Most of the BIG bags came from the lake in late summer and early fall (allegedly). 

So my partner and I eventually abandoned the river and started working the main lake again.  It seems like just about every week, we only got 4 keepers and could never get the big bite going.  As a topic starter, I'd love to hear from some of you would offer some advice on how to hunt 'em down that time of year on the main lake.  Don't bother with the "look for the baitfish" or "use a jerkbait" takes.  That's not what I mean.  The trick on St. Clair that time of year is FINDING them.  There are some guys who always do.  Of course, I don't expect them to share where they go to find them... who would?  But I and many St. Clair anglers would be very interested in learning some general philosophy of how to find them that time of year if you can't get a solid bite going in the channels.  Should we try the Detroit River?  Should we be fishing Canada?  What kind of structure that time of year should we look for? 

Of course these questions have all been posed before and most of the time we get the "look for the baitfish" takes.  How about someone giving us a clue as to how to find the dang baitfish!  That would be a helpful tip.  Save your GPS coords.  We don't want them.  We want to learn to find our own spots.  But any advice that would help us start developing our own spots would be great.  Have at it boys. (and gals) 

[smbassman]

YES Baitfish are the ticket on the main lake.  I mainly find their influence (that I know about) on the Hump and on the south shore.  When you start seeing them on the graph you will find the smallmouth and a lot of them.  But make sure you don't lose the school when you find them.  I ran across a school of bait once during the last few minutes of a tournament on a flat, HOT day where I had barely scraped a small limit off the hump.  In those last few minutes, I caught a fish on every cast and they were on before the bait ever hit bottom.  This was around 2pm, 90deg and zero wind.

The biggest problem is that you cannot expect the bait to be in one area or to be there on tourny day.  I have spent many hours idling around the edges of the hump and the south shore and never found the balls of bait.  You can still catch the smallies but they are few and far between.

I think the power fishing with TM on high is the best strategy all though I am a finesse guy and loose confidence too easy in chucking spinnerbaits and crankbaits over open water.  After a hour or two, I start worrying about not having a limit and start dragging the tube, c-rig or what ever.

[Revtro]

That time of year do you generally find better baitfish concentration on the South Shore and Hump?  If so, do you believe this is because of the predominant Eastward summer wind that blows that direction more than any other all summer thus congregating what the baitfish eat to the South and Eastern parts of the lake?  I guess I don't understand the science of it all but would like to.

[smbassman]

My belief is that the lake is full of baitfish (North, South, East and West).  North and West have weeds for them to roam through - but they are more scattered.  The east (river inlets) have strong current that positions baitfish. 

The South shore and hump are open water and rocks with little weed growth.  The baitfish school more (bigger concentrations) and roam more.

[fiker]

Last year we seemed to find smallies in different places than in years past. 
If might be because we got to know the lake a little better, but we definately found better fish even in late July. 
There were times though when the fish were coming off of spots not much bigger than the boat.  Usually they were rock piles.  sometimes I couln't tell what they were relating to. 
We also found that we really didn't have to go that deep last summer. 

[MBell]

St. Clair changes year to year.  When a year comes around that aligns with some of your better spots it can just be plain easy.  Then the next year will send you searching.   A lot of those fish don't leave good spots just change up a little.  An underwater camera can really help you out.  You won't belive how many fish can be sitting on a spot most would consider dead.  I spend a lot of time with different prsentations, I've found some really stupid stuff that worked.   
-Matt

[dhuff]

Instead of looking for baitfish and throwing jerkbaits.  How about looking for crayfish or rocks and throw some tubes or jigs.

[Revtro]

Hey at least that's some new advice for a change.  he he 

[bshaner]

I wish I had knowledge on Clair to help ya Rev.  I'm hoping to change that this year and spend alot of time there.

So for now I am sitting here beside you Revtro, reading the replies 

B

[joshimoto son]

For me fishing on LSC has always been a challenge, only having fished it a dozen times or so, I found it very hard to catch fish that could cut a check anywhere.

Last year I was very fortunate enough to fish with a guy that wins A LOT of tournaments on both St. Clair and Erie. So when I got to fish with him (Scott) I was put in the front seat of how to learn to find good fish on LSC and ERIE.

DEDICATION:
There are no short cuts! Scott has spent the last 15 years understanding the migration of these fish from April through (weather permitting) December. He is on the water 3-7 days a week, he gives up many things that we all can take for granite. His lawn always needs to be mowed, he doesn't stay home because the game is on that night. If the waves are 4-6, he still goes out.

GOOD PRACTICE:
One of the biggest mistakes anglers make is that they like to catch fish in practice. Now hang on... let me get to the point. Too many anglers give up trying to find "new" areas" too fast. On average Scott spends three days of practice to find one spot he's never caught fish. A lot of anglers will leave uncharted water and quickly go back to places they've caught fish before because they have confidence in that spot. We learn nothing new by doing this. Eliminating water and not catching fish is just as important.

STAY ONE STEP AHEAD:
It is true that an angler can get lucky, look at the map and find a spot holding fish that will produce and win some money for him for a while. Others find fish by seeing what other anglers are doing and by sharing information. That is what we do here on the board. But do you know why those fish are there, where they came from, or better yet, where are they going to go? In order to consistently stay on fish, to consistently win year after year. You need to stay one step ahead. LSC and Lake Erie both have a process, and you need to know that process from start to finish.

In order the "beat" those late summer smallies, you also have to know how to "beat" the pre-spawn smallies, the post-spawn smallies and the early summer smallies. You have to fully understand what that takes. It needs to sink in, like it did for me. You'll know once it sinks in, because it will make you sick to your stomach. Then you have to ask yourself, "Am I really willing to do this?"

joshimoto son

[dhuff]

Da*n I don't think that you can give a much more better reply than that.  I think that post is true for any body of water really, if you want to be consistant.  Very well said.

[Bassman24]

Excellent post by joshimoto son.  If I can add to the practice paragraph.  Time is always an issue, both for practice and tournaments.  Here are couple things I like to do. 

I have several maps/charts of St. Clair.  When I plan a practice I pick an area of 8-10 miles in diameter that I would like to LEARN.  Within that area I chart out characteristics on the paper charts that might hold fish...a breakline, small hump, weed area, etc.  I compare this to my GPS chart and record those spots on GPS.  If I do not see the same humps or such on my GPS chart, I will use a pair of dividers on the my paper chart to get my coordinates and put them in my GPS.

Try to use your day to work smaller areas.  St. Clair is big.  I know so many guys that will run up the river then to the south shore, back to the mile roads, etc...then complain they spent a ton of money in gas.  I agree sometimes that is needed, but not always.  Learn to find areas inside of areas. 

Lastly, the areas I try, I like to give three good trips to them, either during that day or on a different day.  Don't give up on a located spot just because it did not produce the one or first practice day.  Especially if it really does look good.

Have fun.

GT 

[joshimoto son]

Nice addition Bassman24,
This was fun.

Thanks to Bshaner for putting up the challenge and thanks to Revtro for being the first one to step up.

This is the enviornment that our fearless leader wanted to create when he started this board.

Thanks to all for being a shining example!

Keep it coming.

joshimoto son

[Revtro]

Great comments!!!

I've seen many anglers make the mistake of giving up to quickly and going back to the same 'ol spots they've caught fish before and wonder why they don't do any better.  I fish St. Clair 2 to 3 times a week in the summer and I make it a point to try to fish new water every week if I'm able.  Of course, it's hard to do that on tournament days, but I do like to get out and eliminate water as much as I can.  And on St. Clair, there's LOTS of water to eliminate. 

I can't wait until the while "process" thing clicks in my brain though.  I can go out on St. Clair and catch fish anytime.  Not that I'm all that great of a fisherman, but it's not that hard on Clair because it's such a great body of water.  But finding where the 'big boys' hold is much harder.  I'd give anything to get into (Scott's) head and understand what he understands about the migratory patterns of late season Smallies on St. Clair.  I've read a lot on the topic, but something just hasn't clicked yet for me. 

Still, these are good comments, especially the stuff about practice.  I want to get better at that facet of my game this year.  It'll help if gas stays below $2 this summer.  Sheesh.