|
Date: May 5 , 2018 Body of Water: Lake St. Clair (LSC) Boat: Numenon With: Alone Target: Smallmouth Bass Time: 7:15 AM to 3:45 PM (Fishing time) Conditions: Windier than expected and a day after a tremendous blow; winds were solid 15 mph and SSW, as opposed to the WSW and < 10 mph predicted; but water was green and chalky clear with visibility of about 4 feet and so very fishable. Water temps from 54 degrees F (AM; Edsel Ford House) to almost 60 degrees F (Mile Roads in later afternoon.) Skies were generally clear with scattered clouds, temps from 55 to 75 degrees F. Third to arrive for the day at the St. Clair Metropark ramp, I cleared the channel just a few minutes after sunrise. It was clearly a bit windier than forecast, and the southern fetch eliminated any thoughts of fishing L'Anse Creuse Bay. Instead, I pointed Numenon toward the 9 Mile Tower and made the 20-minute run to the Edsel Ford House. Here, a dozen or so boats were already working the point to the north. I set up a half mile south and deployed the wind sock in about 6 or 7 feet of water. The water temperature was 54 degrees F, and clarity was favorable. I chose to alternate every few casts through a Berkley Cutter jerk-bait; a Berkley War Pig rattle-bait; and a KVD Sexy Shad mid-depth crank. After about 12 minutes of casting, my crank's cadence was interrupted by a faint tick; I swung and the rod loaded. My first Lake St. Clair fish of the season was a very fat, 18-inch, near-4-pound smallie from 8 or 9 feet of water; this was a great start! I continued casting the crank (while mixing in the jerk and the Pig to keep things honest) while expanding my search radius both shallower and to the north. I also placed a rod with a tube in a holder to scout the bottom; this revealed lots of rocks, especially in about 6 feet of water. By 9 AM, I'd still not had a another bite, and the several dozen boats in my vicinity had apparently only caught a few fish. Others' tactics seemed to be divided between dragging plastics on the bottom and jerking. I've had this location turn on and produce a heavy limit in very short time; I gave it another half hour before I pulled stakes and relocated to the heavily developed shoreline to the north of the 9 Mile tower. I'd never fished this area, but it was calm and peaceful. It reminded me, too, of Muskegon Lake, and so I decided to fish it like Muskegon Lake. Instead of hanging in 6 - 12 feet of water like the other boats, I tucked in along a stretch of rip-rap. The water's temperature here was 56 degrees F. An initial cast with a pink Rapala X-Rap jerk caught a 14.25-inch largemouth from right along the rocks. Shortly thereafter, I thought I'd perhaps missed a fish; I pitched in a Z-Man Finesse Jig (PB&J), and an identical green bass came aboard. This fish was followed immediately by a nice rock bass. There were definitely fish among these rocks! I crossed a channel and picked up a long stretch of rip-rap that I could drift and cast along, instead of into. The pink jerk seemed a bit too garish for largemouth, so I switched to a green crew-colored Rapala DT4; I cast this to the color line at the edge of the water's visible range, and banged it hard along the rocks. My first cast was greeted by another nice largemouth; and this bait and stretch provided at least three more bass in the next 20 minutes. These included a remarkably fat, 16.5-inch largemouth that weighed in at 3 pounds; and a nice smallie, too, that weighed at least 2.5 pounds. This fish smashed the bait right at my feet for a very pleasant surprise. The day had quickly turned from a bit of a struggle to a satisfying grind; at 10:30 AM, my five best legal bass (two brown, three green) weighed approximately 12.25 pounds. Time to find some more new water! I hit another bay with some prominent rip-rap; it looked promising, but perhaps was too shallow; I had no action in here. I returned to the productive wall at Jefferson Marina and gave it another pass, but caught nothing this time. At Noon, I was heading north toward water familiar to me. Boats were scattered from 5 to 12 feet of water. I stopped in about 6 feet of water, south and upwind from an area loaded with waypoints from a May 2015 trip. I knew bass spawn here, and having secured a legal "virtual limit", I was willing to try to upgrade my weight. I still had plenty of time, and I was hoping to replace any of my fish below 3 pounds with solid smallmouth specimens. Once again, an initial cast was eaten. While the smallmouth bass was sub legal-sized, it devoured the pink X-Rap with abandon. When another cast a few minutes later was eaten in a similar manner by a 14.25-incher, I felt confident in this approach and bait. For the next couple of hours, I control-drifted from 6 to about 8 or 9 feet of water. Ninety percent of my casts were with the pink jerk-bait; occasionally I threw a crank or Pig. I caught at least half a dozen smallmouths to 17 inches. I caught my fish of the day, a 19-inch, near-5-pound smallmouth that T-boned the X-Rap. She really wanted it! She almost made up for the fish I'd lost a few casts earlier; that smallmouth, I believe, was an easy 6-pounder. Darn it! All this action was just to the south of the "Big White Tent" along the shore that provided my visual cue for that 2015 trip. The tent wasn't up yet for this year, but the frame was! At this point, I'd "culled" all the largemouths except the real fatty. I'd achieved all my goals for the day; a 19-incher and a "limit". Moreover, that "limit" totaled about 17 pounds; pretty good for a tough, windy day! I tried to repeat my success here at my 400 Club location; and it worked here too, on several 15-inch class smallmouths. These were fun but didn't help my bottom line; the one fish that might have disengaged from the chase right at boat-side; she looked to be an easy 4-pounder. She appeared right on a waypoint from last year, and specifically from the day last year when I caught a 6-pounder here. There might be something about that spot; I'll have to keep trying to figure that out. At 3:45 PM, I was pounding north; and even though the lake and park were extremely busy, I was able to pull the boat out with no wait or problems at all. What do I have to say about this?This was a Big Day; there was lots of travel, effort and action. It felt good, though, to be back on the water and to see what might happen. And on Lake St. Clair, you never really do know what might happen; so it's probably always worth going! Along the way, too, I caught a white bass. This was the first harvestable fish I've caught this season, and so it became my Gyotaku test subject. More on that later, perhaps. Pondering the questions of core essence and finding meaning in unexpected ways
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Steve LachanceRI --> NH --> MI-->MA-->ME Archives
June 2024
Categories
All
|
Proudly powered by Weebly