Lake St. Clair is considered one of the best smallmouth destinations on the planet and for good reason. Every time the Elite Series visits this storied fishery, records fall.
The lake offers more than 430 square miles of surface area, so choosing a starting point can be somewhat daunting. It all looks so good. And that doesn’t even include the St. Clair or Detroit rivers, or parts of lakes Huron and Erie, which are also part of the playing field.
The waterway also supports a sizeable population of largemouth. But because the smallmouth are bigger on average and more plentiful, I limit my search to them exclusively— shallow and deep.
Practice Begins
On day 1, I launched at Selfridge Park, on the western side of Anchor Bay. My first stop was at the shallow flat where I had caught them in the past.
Starting with a 4-inch Hildebrandt Drum Roller swimbait, I zigzagged the area, hoping to score on some big, rogue smallies. And though I caught a few fish, none were of the size I needed.
From there I ran several other familiar flats, rotating the swimbait with a Shimano World Minnow and a 1/4-ounce Ned Senko in green pumpkin-watermelon laminate. In two particular locations, I scored a number of fish in the 4-pound range.
The rest of the day was spent trying to duplicate the pattern without a whole lot of success.
On day 2, I ran to the south end of the lake to focus on deeper structure.
Probing a number of irregular contours in 17 to 20 feet of water, I found several schools, but nothing big. When I reached the Bell River Hump, things changed. There, I caught several nice fish. Unfortunately, that action drew the attention of others within visual range and I soon had a small crowd around me.
From there, I moved to the Shipping Channel to concentrate on the drop from 17 to 25 feet of water.
In two spots, I connected with heavy smallmouths — which fell for a 3-inch, perch-colored Shad Shape Worm on a 1/2-ounce drop shot rig with a 10-pound Shimano Mastiff fluorocarbon leader.
On day 3, I committed to the St. Clair River and its various channels entering Lake St. Clair. The fishing was good, too. In several locations, I found schools of the right kind of fish, plus a few nice rogues holding on seawalls.
By the end of practice, I felt I had some good options … no matter what the weather brought.
Competition Time
On day 1 of the competition, I drew out boat number 8. It was a great draw and I knew exactly where I wanted to start.
When I arrived, there were no other competitor boats in sight. And in a matter of minutes, I scored a number of quality fish by throwing the Hildebrandt Drum Roller swimbait and Shimano World Minnow.
By 8:30 am, I had over 18 pounds of smallmouth in the box. Soon after — using the Yamamoto Ned Senko as a clean-up bait — that weight quickly exceeded 20 pounds. At that point, I decided to move to the Shipping Channel and save some of the shallow fish for later.
When I arrived at the channel, the conditions looked perfect. There was a slight breeze from the northwest and very little traffic. But as the clock ticked away, all I could catch were small fish. None of the larger ones I saw in practice showed themselves.
Back at the scales, I posted a weight of 20 pounds, 10 ounces and was holding down 25th place. More than 50 anglers had recorded weights in excess of 20 pounds, and I was proud to be among those in the mix.
On day 2, I returned to my shallow starting spot, hoping to pick up where I left off. After several minutes without a bite, however, I knew something was wrong.
Conditions appeared to be the same — same calm, same water clarity, same overhead skies. But somehow, something had changed.
Finally, after 20 minutes of trying, I scored my first decent fish. Then another. But these weren’t like the heavyweights from the day before. These were midrange 3-pounders. To stay in the race, I knew I would need at least 18 pounds by day’s end.
Eventually, I caught my first 4-pounder. But then the string of 2 to 3-pounders ensued. The bite was slowing as well, even with the Ned Senko. Realizing that, I decided it was time to make a move.
After a thorough testing of my next spot, I realized it too had changed.
Frustration was beginning to set in. Considering how the Shipping Channel treated me on day 1, I decided the St. Clair River was my best remaining option. So I ran upstream to an eddy area, hoping the school of 4-pounders I found in practice would still be there.
On arrival, I could see the school had broken up. Whether it was due to a subtle change in conditions or pressure from other anglers, all that remained were a few stranglers. And each time I tried to make a presentation, they ran for deep water.
Writing that off, I started running seawalls.
By this time, the wind was picking up and dark clouds were forming to the west. I knew a storm was imminent. So, rather than return to the lake, I decided to stick with the river and take my chances there.
Unfortunately, as the clock ran down, all I caught were more 2- to 3-pound fish.
The run back across the lake was nothing short of harrowing. The clouds that formed earlier had grown purple, dumping a wall of heavy rain between me and check-in. Lightning, too, was crashing all around. It seemed like a fitting description for my day on the water — a complete washout!
At the scales, I produced a modest weight of 16 pounds, 11 ounces. That combined with my day-1 weight left me 1½ pounds shy of the cut.
It was a bitter pill to swallow. Instead of advancing to the weekend, I would be packing my gear to head back home … unaware that this would be my final event of the season.
Stay tuned…