by Dale Hainer
TFN Reporter

The last Sat of June marks the season opener for bass season on Lake St Clair and much of the surrounding inland waterways. Lake St Clair has drawn anglers from across North America for years. In decades past the draw was due to St Clair's fabled largemouth fishery. In more recent decades it has drawn more attention to the plentiful and beefy Smallmouth. Bordered on the north by Walpole Indian Reserve, the area offers largemouth fans thousands of acres of marsh cuts, deep ditches, ponds, and channels. Brawly bigmouths are taken early in the season on white spinner baits, and quickly retrieved surface lures. Live Crawfish, leeches and gangly minnows also account for their share. Into August, purple worms, brown flipping jigs, live minnows, and crawfish account for more fish. Largemouth average 1 ½ pounds with early season fish commonly exceeding 3 pounds. Fall fish are bigger than average. 

Lake St. Clair is presently tops for smallmouth. From opening day, smallmouth can be found feeding along the north sandbar fronting the Walpole reserve. The shallow bar drops quickly into 10 and 15 feet of water, twisting occasionally, creating silted areas with thick weed growth. These areas attract schools of smallies as they move in and out to feed. Local guides troll or drift spottail shiners, hardware enthusiasts cast crayfish-finished Fat Raps, Chartreuse Rattlin' Spots, yellow twister jigs, or white tube jigs. The eastern shore off Tic Tac Point produces amazing numbers of smallies as does the south shore with its interchanging weeds and rock mix.

Depending on the year, smallmouth action might slow down in August, as fish school and seek refuge in cooler adjoining channels. They always return, however, to the lake's bars in late September and October. Smallmouth in excess of 4 pounds are common, with fall fish often exceeding 5 pounds.

This year is shaping up as another banner year for smallmouth fishing on the lake. The incidental catch of bass before the season opener has been dramatic this year as anglers ply the shallows for big pike, early musky and panfish. Local talk has been of prompting the OMNR to open the season earlier or allowing a catch and release season to open earlier in the year.

These talks are just rumours at this point but it is often the match that lights the eventual fire. Managers on Lake Erie attempted to get an early season on the Canadian side a few years back but was squashed as resistance came from organized clubs. New York state on the other side of lake Erie moved into the earlier season for their anglers and now boasts an early season with a keep limit of 1 per day..... assumably a trophy. The large numbers of bass on lake Erie has been a real economic boom to the area and the early season is attended by both Americans and Canadians. It will be interesting to see how the saga progresses.

Again this year, opening day bass anglers will also be catching some of the biggest rock bass that have been seen on St Clair in a long long time. The Rockies tend to inhabit similar areas as the smallmouth bass and are very aggressive towards anything resembling a minnow.... which makes shiners top producers for lunker Rockies. The Ontario Record Fish Registry that is maintained by the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters recognizes a 3 pound Rockie as the Ontario record. Many believe that record may be smashed several times this season on Lake St Clair. Giant Bluegills have been showing up as well to in the thick weed edges. Nightcrawlers are better for Gills.