Where are the small mouth bass?

[mastergun]

First time fishing St. Clair today. Went out this morning at 6am till around noon and had a good day (at least for me), caught 16 LMB (caught probably half dozen more that never got into the boat). We put in at Selfridge and followed the shore north for a pretty good bit then ran to the south into Belvedere Bay just short of Clinton River. I've always heard the Lake St. Claire is a small mouth lake but I haven't seen or caught one. Are SMB fished differently then LMB? I mostly fished Senko, squarebill and a swim jig.

Thanks,

Robert

[WisconsinF]

What was the water temp? Possible they've gone deep to avoid the unusual warm water temps.

[21XDC]

Move offshore

[kb_rn]

As others said move offshore. I spent the last 6 days on lsc and it wasn’t as easy as it normally is. We come up for a week around the 4th every year and the lake is typically very quiet......due to COVID-19 that was not the case this week. Never seen the boat traffic so bad. We never found an enormous school of fish like we normally do but did find a couple spots that held really big fish and it was just a matter of being in those areas at the right time. Also the largemouth bite was not as easy at all although we spent little time fishing for them. The lake is really high and where there is typically dirt shallow water there is 5-6 feet of water or so it seems so that may have been the reason for that. We found some fish on flat areas that were up in the water column early in the morning and then focused on the 9-11 foot range the rest of the time. We fished 15-19 as well but never could get on anything deep. It was extremely hard to find grass down by the mile roads this year for whatever reason. Fish were scattered. We typically catch 100 per day this time of year but only caught an average of 20-30 a day per boat. But the average sized fish was 3.25-5 lbs. There didn’t seem to be many fisherman which is typical for when we go but lack of wind and all of the waves from the 10000000000 yachts running all over the lake made it very difficult to cover water to find fish. I’ll be glad when everyone goes back to work. Move offshore and try to find grass and bait.

[Hollada]

Kb_rn - It’s the Canadian border closure. 70% of the lake is off limits forcing all the boater’s and fisherman into the remaining 30%. Typically by now most of us local smallie fisherman would be in Canada avoiding all the tuna boat chaos.

It’s also post spawn and mayfly hatch which makes for tough smallie fishing. If you are a bank chucker you will be very disappointed except for the occasional morning cruiser. Get out to 14-18 fow and find weeds and bait fish.

[bigbass201]

Try some of these areas. Maybe you will hook into a couple.

https://vimeo.com/429602828

[SAL321]

Fished along the channel and was interesting to see boats coming and going across the border although its closed. Lots of water to patrol, haven't been over....yet. The chance it opens up on the 21st is almost nil. Everyone is getting all wound up again about this damn virus. So over it.....

Kb_rn - It’s the Canadian border closure. 70% of the lake is off limits forcing all the boater’s and fisherman into the remaining 30%. Typically by now most of us local smallie fisherman would be in Canada avoiding all the tuna boat chaos.

It’s also post spawn and mayfly hatch which makes for tough smallie fishing. If you are a bank chucker you will be very disappointed except for the occasional morning cruiser. Get out to 14-18 fow and find weeds and bait fish.

[team houston]

All I know, is we damn well better be getting some kind of a refund.

[21XDC]

All I know, is we damn well better be getting some kind of a refund.

[MichPhoenix77]

All I know, is we damn well better be getting some kind of a refund.

Yeah wife and I just bought our Canadian license and it all went to heck. It’s like setting money on fire

[Hollada]

FYI

Thank you for your email.

For purchases made between December 3, 2019 (first available date for 2020 licence products) and March 17, 2020 (date state of emergency was declared for Ontario), we will consider refunds for the following non-expired products, and waive the $10.50 administrative fee:

1-day and 8-day licences for all residencies, if contacted before the effective date of the licences;
1-year and 3-year fishing licences purchased by Canadian and non-Canadian residents (excludes Ontario residents);
Hunting licences and tags purchased by non-Residents
Outdoors Cards purchased with one of the above items

If you qualify for a refund, or require any further assistance, please contact the Natural Resources Information and Support Centre at the toll-free numbers below.

We are currently in our peak season. Call volumes are typically higher early in the week, particularly after the weekend. The best time to reach us is Monday-Friday at 8:30am EST. Callers may receive busy signals and disconnects because of the call volume.

Regards,

NRISC web reader - rb
*******************************************
Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry
Natural Resources Information and Support Centre
300 Water Street
Peterborough, ON K9J 3C7
Tel: 1-800-667-1940 / 1-800-387-7011
TTY: 1-866-686-6072
NRISC@ontario.ca

From: DO_NOT_REPLY <DO.NOT.REPLY@ontario.ca>
Sent: June 13, 2020 9:39 PM
To: Outdoors Card (MNRF) <outdoorscard.mnrf@ontario.ca>
Subject: Reply: Yes, Page: https://www.ontario.ca/page/fishing-...sidents-canada

CAUTION -- EXTERNAL E-MAIL - Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender.
Referring page: page/fishing-licence-non-residents-canada

Message:

I live in the US (Detroit area) and purchased a 3 year fishing license this spring For use on lake st Clair. Given your enforcing the border closure on the water, I’d like to know The process to get a refund of my license fees. Please advise. Regards

[team houston]

Thanks Dan, you da man.

[MichPhoenix77]

Awesome news! Thanks Dan

[SAL321]

Yeah, go ahead and submit those requests early. I expect next week that they extend it a min of 60 days. Trudeau rightfully told Trump, thanks but no thanks on a Summit. That was telling on their thoughts. There was a survey that 80% of the Canadians don't want the border to open because of this latest spike.

Our only hope might be some relaxed rules on water crossings to personal property or recreational activities if you don't land but report. The easy safe answer is to keep it locked down. I miss the South shore, it's all I've fished from the first week in July to September. Learning new water and trying new things but I miss the 4-5 pounders and 21+ sacks over there .

[Hollada]

Yeah, go ahead and submit those requests early. I expect next week that they extend it a min of 60 days. Trudeau rightfully told Trump, thanks but no thanks on a Summit. That was telling on their thoughts. There was a survey that 80% of the Canadians don't want the border to open because of this latest spike.

Our only hope might be some relaxed rules on water crossings to personal property or recreational activities if you don't land but report. The easy safe answer is to keep it locked down. I miss the South shore, it's all I've fished from the first week in July to September. Learning new water and trying new things but I miss the 4-5 pounders and 21+ sacks over there .

We all missing that - and the lighter tuna boat traffic.

[Angler103]

IF things continue like they currently are Im starting to worry that it wont be open next year....

[MichPhoenix77]

I called today. They said I should see my refund in 4 to 6 weeks. If things open up and you want to fish Canadian waters you can repurchase a license.

[castforcash]

I'm really surprised they are doing this and very happy they stepped up and did the right thing. God, I love and miss fishing in Canada's waters on LSC.... Honestly I don't have any ambition to fish right now with it being closed.

[SAL321]

I'm really surprised they are doing this and very happy they stepped up and did the right thing. God, I love and miss fishing in Canada's waters on LSC.... Honestly I don't have any ambition to fish right now with it being closed.

Agreed....spent 3-4 hours this morning and we are losing interest on the American side. It's already slow this time of year with the hatch but the quality or quantity isn't there. I'm hoping they school up soon, let the hatch end and see where we are at. 2020 for a lot of reasons can't end soon enough.

Pretty telling they are issuing refunds...not a good sign. It was going to be a long shot to begin with now I think its at or near zero chance.

[castforcash]

Agreed....spent 3-4 hours this morning and we are losing interest on the American side. It's already slow this time of year with the hatch but the quality or quantity isn't there. I'm hoping they school up soon, let the hatch end and see where we are at. 2020 for a lot of reasons can't end soon enough.

Pretty telling they are issuing refunds...not a good sign. It was going to be a long shot to begin with not I think its at or near zero chance.

There's plenty of good fish on our side, but I just can't deal with the boat traffic!