Great Lakes are a 'ship museum'

[djkimmel]

I'm watching a Science Channel show on wrecks of the Great Lakes (estimated 10,000!!!).

They start out by talking about how deadly the Great Lakes have been and can be to the largest ships on the water... and then I think... HOLY SMOKES!!! What am I doing running around out there, sometimes 10 or more miles offshore in boat basically the size of a flea?!? I must be CRAZY!!!!

But the fishing is so GOOD!!!!

(I guess the combination of the risk and the Great fishing are why my Big Water Boating article gets read 50 or 60 times every month.)

The show is concentrating on Thunder Bay where there are over 200 known wrecks (I fished a few of them) and possibly 100 undiscovered yet. NOAA has headquarters there and East Carolina University students actually have classes that involve traveling to Thunder Bay in Alpena to dive on the wrecks.

What a rich and attractive heritage we have (along with the Great fishing). We have to protect our Great Lakes.

[Revtro]

I did some research a while back and found that there are way more wrecks in our own Lake St. Clair than most people know about.  I had a friend who would fly over St. Clair and GPS many of them, but he keeps it to himself.  I'd love to build a database of wrecks on St. Clair to use as a fishing tool.  I know of a few, but most of the ones on the maps aren't where they say they are, so they're hard to find.  If anyone is ever willing to share any coords for wrecks in St. Clair, I'd be very appreciative.

[fiker]

and here I thought I'd use the marinecruiser site, get coods for a wreck and pull right up to it.

Am I being naive?

I figured that wrecks should be a good place to structure fish over.  Is that true?

I'm guessing it is, and that's why people don't want to share where they are.

[djkimmel]

Yup. I've found more wrecks in the river - many are on maps, but not all. I haven't found too many to have a lot of bass on them. Once in a while.

I've caught bass off a couple wrecks out in the lake pretty good, but they don't always produce. I hear rumors about other wrecks that produce. I don't have the waypoints to very many. I know there are bass around that wreck off the edge of the Metro Beach pt sometimes - I don't fish it a lot, but I've stopped there a couple times and caught nothing too.

Sometimes, you can go right to the wrecks off of maps and GPS, but storms can cover up and even move wrecks - so they change, especially in a shallow, soft-bottom lake like St. Clair. Not all maps are accurate since wrecks are sometimes marked just based on reports by boaters and not necessarily confirmed.

[Revtro]

It's hit and miss, but there are a few dependable wrecks that I go to that have fish more often than not.  Some are on maps, but the best ones seem to be on the Canadian side and are unmarked.  I have learned one interesting thing though about fishing wrecks...I've often found more fish outside of the wreck in the nearest weedline than actually on top of the wreck.   Seems to happen quite often.

[canvsbk]

There's some excellent fishing in Grand Traverse Bay on wrecks. The one just south of Elk Rapids always produces for us, but there's alot of rock there too. I've never tried the one out from Bowers but I hear there's some brutes there too.