Lake Erie Underrated Largemouth Fishery

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The major axis of the lake extends from west-southwest to east-northeast for 241 miles (388 km), and the lake has a maximum width of 57 miles. The total area of the lake’s drainage basin is 30,140 square miles (78,062 square km), exclusive of surface area, which is 9,910 square miles.

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I don't run any clubs. I just fun fish. I've caught largemouth from east to west. There is so much water to fish on that lake and some are freaking out like I've directed someone to their backyard pond. That requries some reflection in the mirror if you are so worried that someone is going to go up to Lake Erie to just fish for largemouth instead of the smallmouth. I've caught largemouth off humps on the lake in near 20 feet of water. Sandusky Bay is being mentioned, but there was the Elites, Toyota and other major tournaments that were on T.V. that went out of there. Selfish outlook on life is never a good thing. You can can catch these same largemouth on Ontariro, Lake Michigan, Lake Huron as well as St. Clair.

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Originally Posted by Lund1625

ditto

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He has a whole series of terrific videos about fishing Erie and other waters. Did you see the televised pro events on Erie they had in 2020? Heck, Fishing University's had a show about fishing on Mosquito this past week. I enjoy watching stuff like this in the Winter months and Rick does a nice job with his productions.

A similar situation on St. Clair. It's obviously a smallmouth factory and can make an argument for Top 5 in just about any conversation you have.

The largemouth are largely ignored but it's getting better and better. There were times this year when the lake was seeing so much pressure that we would go shallow just to have fun with the largemouth. The green fish up here are lazy compared to a comparable SM but hey it's something on the end of the line.

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Originally Posted by SAL321

A similar situation on St. Clair. It's obviously a smallmouth factory and can make an argument for Top 5 in just about any conversation you have.

The largemouth are largely ignored but it's getting better and better. There were times this year when the lake was seeing so much pressure that we would go shallow just to have fun with the largemouth. The green fish up here are lazy compared to a comparable SM but hey it's something on the end of the line.

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Exactly. It used to be that to catch largemouth you had to hit the canals, but every year it seems like I'm catching more out in the lake. There aren't the number of big largemouths, like there are smallies, but I've caught my share of 3-4 pound largies out there. The largemouth can certainly make a slow day a whole lot better.

Guys fishing the Great Lakes Largemouth Series have been running from West Harbor to Michigan backwaters for years, if that says anything about the perceived need to get away from the crowds. There are indeed catchable largemouths in every canal, river, or bay off Lake Erie, and definitely good populations along the shoreline as well, anywhere there is some kind of cover to offset wave action. But just like fishing anywhere, sometimes the catching is good, and sometimes it is not good at all. Fishing pressure for these largemouths, particularly within 5-10 miles of major tournament launch sites, increases every year. And in some places that were phenomenal 10 years ago, now a 7-9 pound limit might be the average, especially at the height of the tournament season. Some mortality of the bigger bass is inevitable, and this may be causing the biggest bags to decline.

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Originally Posted by eriedude

Why would you post this?

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So everyone that has a bass boat in the south can go up there and fish!!!

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Originally Posted by jc2bg

Guys fishing the Great Lakes Largemouth Series have been running from West Harbor to Michigan backwaters for years, if that says anything about the perceived need to get away from the crowds. There are indeed catchable largemouths in every canal, river, or bay off Lake Erie, and definitely good populations along the shoreline as well, anywhere there is some kind of cover to offset wave action. But just like fishing anywhere, sometimes the catching is good, and sometimes it is not good at all. Fishing pressure for these largemouths, particularly within 5-10 miles of major tournament launch sites, increases every year. And in some places that were phenomenal 10 years ago, now a 7-9 pound limit might be the average, especially at the height of the tournament season. Some mortality of the bigger bass is inevitable, and this may be causing the biggest bags to decline.

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Thanks John. Could not have said that better myself.

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Originally Posted by eriedude

Why would you post this?

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Quick someone talk politics so this gets deleted.
Unfortunately I have seen a major decline in the past 8 years or so. About the same time these green fish only tournaments started.

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Originally Posted by OH_Ranger

Quick someone talk politics so this gets deleted.
Unfortunately I have seen a major decline in the past 8 years or so. About the same time these green fish only tournaments started.

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It's not what it was. Sometimes tough to just get a keeper.

The internet,social media, television shows, YouTube all have changed the way some people decide where to fish. If you want to look hard enough there is always some landmark in a picture or YouTube video that gives a fishing spot away. Just watch any Bassmaster tv show and they show a map with the general area of where the guys are fishing. Guys who fish Erie on a regular basis know where Gull Island shoal is but after the airing of the tournament showing where the top guys were fishing during that tournament, guess what that area looked like after showing that? While I don’t get to Lake St Clair very often, I watched a Bassmaster show that gave all the locations of where the final 10 were fishing. I have not been up since the airing of that show but I’ll bet there was a bunch of boats working those areas. I watched a Bassmaster final day coverage today from Santee Cooper and while I will probably never fish there, if I had a map while the show was airing I would surely have some spots to start at.
30-35 years ago all these backwater areas were stacked with big smallmouth, and very few largemouth, and very few boats fishing there. The lake has changed, the number of people fishing has changed and while I like to think that I have still have some “secret” spots I know I’m just kidding myself. A few years ago I was fishing my secret rock pile at Kelly’s and there was an out of state boat who seen us catch a few. When I went back the next day, there were three boats, all from the same state, on that spot. I’m assuming they all traveled to Erie as group. I do not do Facebook but my son sent me some pictures that those guys posted, with a distinct landmark in it. I can’t get on that spot anymore because there is always a boat on it. Was that my secret spot, I highly doubt that I was the only one that knew about it, there are a lot of guys who spend time looking for good spots but typically the guys who put the time in finding good spots do not post them on the internet.

I fish the rocks around the yacht club in Lakewood, oh but only catch the occassional largemouth. I catch some good 8 pound sheepshead. Garbage fish but it's still fun.

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Originally Posted by Nailbender8

So everyone that has a bass boat in the south can go up there and fish!!!

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LMAO... I'm hooking my boat up now. How many can I keep... There are too many weeds, you need to spray them. Etc etc etc.

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Originally Posted by bigbass201

... You can can catch these same largemouth on Ontario, Lake Michigan, Lake Huron as well as St. Clair.

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Holy shite! Those bass move around a lot!

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Originally Posted by CDN Bass

Holy shite! Those bass move around a lot!

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Yes they do.. but knot always on there own accord :wink:

Largemouth may not move much, but there was a study done on Muskie from St. Clair and they tracked one to Buffalo New York, and then back to St. Clair again. I thought that was pretty amazing. They had many from St. Clair that came down into Lake Erie near the islands, Maumee River and go back to St. Clair. I wouldn't be surprised if we are seeing smallmouth doing the same thing now as they can be here today and gone tomorrow. Facinating fishery with so many places to catch them. They also implanted trackers in smallmouth that were released in Sandusky Bay.

https://windsorstar.com/news/local-n...es-on-the-move

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Originally Posted by bigbass201

Largemouth may not move much, but there was a study done on Muskie from St. Clair and they tracked one to Buffalo New York, and then back to St. Clair again. I thought that was pretty amazing. They had many from St. Clair that came down into Lake Erie near the islands, Maumee River and go back to St. Clair. I wouldn't be surprised if we are seeing smallmouth doing the same thing now as they can be here today and gone tomorrow. Facinating fishery with so many places to catch them. They also implanted trackers in smallmouth that were released in Sandusky Bay.

https://windsorstar.com/news/local-n...es-on-the-move

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I have a caught a handful of tagged smallies from St. Clair and all of them were caught within a few miles of where they were tagged. I know people who have caught tagged smallies and had similar responses from the DNR. I'm not saying they can't move far, but what I have seen indicates that they do not.

I would be interested to see how the fish moved between the bodies for water following weigh-ins.

posmallie,

I caught tagged one up there too. It ws tagged in that area and returned. You know as well as I do that the fish do return to the same spawning areas for the most part. The ones on St. Clair do travel a lot imo. You fish the mile roads during the summer you aren't going to have the same fishing action that you have in the spring. Belle River sometimes gets hot, and other areas on the lake they will roam those large flats. St. Clair I think is lot different than Lake Erie. I wouldn't be surprised if those fish do react differently then the smallmouth on the Great Lakes. Ones of Lake Michigan have tracked 100's of miles from Muskegon all the way up to Little Traverse Bay and back. I would like to see more studies like you on those fish. It would be very interesting to see. There are large amounts of smallmouth that travel to the Detroit River in the fall for the fall feed too. Those fish aren't usually there until then.

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Originally Posted by bigbass201

posmallie,

I caught tagged one up there too. It ws tagged in that area and returned. You know as well as I do that the fish do return to the same spawning areas for the most part. The ones on St. Clair do travel a lot imo. You fish the mile roads during the summer you aren't going to have the same fishing action that you have in the spring. Belle River sometimes gets hot, and other areas on the lake they will roam those large flats. St. Clair I think is lot different than Lake Erie. I wouldn't be surprised if those fish do react differently then the smallmouth on the Great Lakes. Ones of Lake Michigan have tracked 100's of miles from Muskegon all the way up to Little Traverse Bay and back. I would like to see more studies like you on those fish. It would be very interesting to see. There are large amounts of smallmouth that travel to the Detroit River in the fall for the fall feed too. Those fish aren't usually there until then.

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They certainly move around throughout the year, there's no doubt. They're here today and gone tomorrow. It was interesting that back in the 2000's if you wanted a chance to win a late summer tournament on St. Clair you had to run up the St. Clair River, because that's where the big fish were. Although guys still do that, most tournaments are won out of the lake, and that's where most guys spend their time. The fishery is ever-evolving and it would be interesting to see how much the fish really move.