LSC - 10/12 & 10/13

[Slipkey]

Went out east solo for a two-day "me-cation" on St. Clair.  Met up with Hollada, who rode along on Saturday.   He's a Montana native so when I, a South Dakota boy, refer to a depression on the bottom of the lake as a "gully", he gets what I mean.

We started shallow and mid-depth and worked our way down the western shore toward the source of the Detroit. Found a few smaller fish in the 6-11 ft range, but nothing of size.  It seemed like the order of the day was two fish off an area and, then, it was done. We finally got in to what looked like a decent group of fish in 22 ft of water at the mouth of the river, but in a very small and specific area.  After getting in to 4 or 5 decent fish, plus a dink, from the spot, though, it was done as well.  We worked our way back up river along the shore with no results.  Seeing a mid-lake waypoint was nearby I decided to check it out and we got in to a few more in 15-17 ft of water.  Counting the dinks, we probably boated about 11 smallies and lost another 5-6 on the day - not skunked but not worthy of the fishery, for sure.  Overall, though it was a gorgeous day on the water with good company.

My original plan had been to hit the north shore of Erie on Sunday but, seeing water temps were in the mid-60's and, buoyed by the deep river fish caught on Saturday, I decided to head up alone to Algonac and check out the river.  After launch, I gave some known locations in the river a good two hours without success before I headed back out on to the lake.  For the rest of the morning, I boated about a dozen keepers, and lost a few more on the jumps (on a related note, the VNC Spin-Shot hooks keep the line twist down for sure, but fish seem to come unbuttoned much more easily).  My best went a little over 4.  All of these fish came from 15-17 ft of water off of main lake humps.  Still not worth bragging about, but more consistent action than the day before.  The bite died off as the wind set down so I headed up river to see if I could get something going.  Caught a couple more off of some docks and piers on the way back to the launch and then loaded up for the drive back to the west side.

My observation on the weekend would be that the fish haven't switched over to fall "feed-up" mode yet.  My only aggressive bites came in deeper water and the pick-ups from fish I caught from less than 14' of water were much more subtle.

[Firefighter Jeff]

  Good report John, and no smoke showing from the boat in the pics !!!!  LOLOL

[djkimmel]

Gully fishing on your 'me-cation'!! Sounds like a worthwhile weekend even if you didn't smoke them. Looks like you got at least 1 really nice one (not sure how you 'plains' guys say 'nice one'? )! Keep plugging away.

[Slipkey]

Looks like you got at least 1 really nice one (not sure how you 'plains' guys say 'nice one'? )!

We just substitute the term "heifer" in place of than "hawg".  Of course my walleye fishing dad refers to smallmouth and largemouth as "those toothless critters". lol

[Mojo]

Any fish named after an animal is worthy.  So very glad to have you up here in Mich!

[Waterfoul]

  Good report John, and no smoke showing from the boat in the pics !!!!  LOLOL

Dang fireman just won't let it go!!!  Sheesh!!

John, when you need new extinguishers you know where to get them!  :-)