Lake St Clair
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Lake St Clair Fishing Reports
Stay up to date with the latest fishing reports from Lake St Clair. Reports are submitted by local anglers, fishing guides, and our team of fishing experts.
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- Species
Smallmouth BassTechniqueHard Topwater (Prop)SeasonSummerStructureReedsThe smallmouth are normally deep in these dog days of summer, but if you are looking to land them from shore or shallow, getting out EARLY is the key to success! We we doing well in deltas and shallow flats with topwater and the ChopPOW (as I like to call it) was the ticket. When the sun gets higher, they will move to cooler and deeper waters.
TerryB21Standard AmbassadorSpeciesSmallmouth BassTechniqueMedium Diving Crankbaits (7'-12')SeasonFallStructureSubmerged VegetationLove the way they bit on a crank bait, you know when they hit it! Fished in 10'-13' of water, fish moved up from bottom and smoked it. Later in the day caught them with brown back berkley flat worm threaded on a Mustad Alpha Point #1 hook, seem to have less trouble keeping them hooked up with this setup.
- Species
Largemouth BassTechniqueDeep Diving Crankbaits (13'+)SeasonSummerStructureSubmerged VegetationFall transition fishing on LSC is tough! Not because they don’t bite, but because they make themselves hard to find. To make it as simple as possible, I was told “if you find the weeds, you’ll find the perch, and you’ll find the bass.” Granted up shallow on the weed beds it’s mainly tinier smallmouth and largemouth like the one pictured, and the perch of course, but there’s fish there. My most successful technique of the day, was using a medium/deep diving crank and ticking the tops of the submerged weeds. (Also, when the Plano edge boxes go on sale, they’re WORTH EVERY PENNY, I absolutely love my deep box to store all my hardbaits.) The water was 13-16 feet deep and the weeds topped out at about 5 feet tall, therefore, I used about an 8-foot diver. They liked (or maybe really hated) a fire tiger/chartreuse colored crank as it was highly visible and imitated their perch. On LSC, fire tiger is an especially lethal color year round if your current colors can’t seem to get a bite. If you’re looking for populations mainly of smallies, the big schools seem to be wayyyy deeper closer to the Saint Clair light.
- SpeciesSmallmouth BassTechniqueMedium Diving Crankbaits (7'-12')SeasonFallStructureRiver Channels
Finding current breaks on expansive flats have put several quality Smallmouth Bass in the livewell. Using topwater techniques, swimbaits, spinnerbaits and crankbaits have made it easier to locate them and put together a quality bag. Wind has played a major role in how the fish setup. With a downright horrible south/southwest wind the current of the St Clair river was backed up and caused the smallmouth to be scattered or almost invisible. With a strong North Wind moving in, finding them became a little easier. Watching the wind and making good decisions based off the conditions is key.
- SpeciesSmallmouth BassTechniqueWacky RigsSeasonSummerStructureSubmerged Vegetation
Holding on to consistent warmer weather (70 day, 50 night) has brought the smallies in shallow. We’ve been finding them in 4FOW or less, chasing minnows in and around submerged grasses that haven’t died off yet. The north east end (US side) and west shoreline have been very productive with this presentation. They have been hitting the wacky rig and the “fat” Senko gives them a little chunkier of a target to focus on and the VMC crossover rings help keep the bait on the VMC wacky weedless weighted jig. The small amount of weight helps the action and pull the Senko down through those mats.
Omnia Community MemberBronze AmbassadorSpeciesSmallmouth BassTechniqueDrop ShotSeasonFallStructureSubmerged VegetationFishing 18’-20’ of water with a drop shot. Find the low spots in the grass and work through it thoroughly.
- SpeciesSmallmouth BassTechniqueDrop ShotSeasonFallStructureSubmerged Vegetation
Deeper weed beds 10-17 foot of water
SpeciesLargemouth BassTechniqueFootball JigsSeasonFallStructureRock PileDrifting in Anchor Bay in 10 FOW. Could only get a bite if I dragged a small football jig over small rock piles close to heavy vegetation. Tried a bigger jig and they were only picking up the trailer.
