Fishing Report for Smallmouth Bass using Soft Body Swimbaits (Small/Medium) in Spring (Pre-Spawn)

Michael Simonton

Gold Ambassador

4/19/21

Lake Erie

• Species

  Smallmouth Bass

• Season

  Spring (Pre-Spawn)

• Technique

  Soft Swimbaits (Sm/Md)

• Structure

  Boulders

Pre-spawn and the spawn are both great times to fish the Lake Erie Bass Islands Region. During this time you can find fish at all depths. Because of that if you don't feel comfortable fishing out deep you can always find fish in less than 10' of water. Two great areas to start looking for fish are spawning flats that have large boulders and rocks about the size of basketballs. A second area are underwater and mainland points adjacent to spawning areas. Once you have these areas located the technique are fairly simple. I like to use either a 2.75" or 3.25" Venture Lures Steady Swimmer on a 5/16 oz. Venture Lures Custom Ball Head. If the water is slick calm I will also use the 3/16 oz. size on the 2.75" Steady Swimmer. Both of these baits have a hard thumping action that triggers strikes when other swimbaits won't. A lot of the time I fan cast my swimbait until I have the fish located. I use Humminbirds Mega 360 which makes locating the rocks much easier while fishing. Each spot I fish I typically catch between 5-10 fish. I try to fish as many spots as possible on my trips and hit the best spots for the day a second time. You can often catch plenty of fish the second time you fish them.

Hotbait
Venture Lures Steady Swimmer Swimbait 2 3/4" / Goby Plus
Out of Stock
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