The Search for Clear Water

Lake St. Clair, August 25, 2007

            Lake St. Clair has been on fire this year and many prominent anglers are comparing smallmouth catches to 1998. When the water is clear and the conditions are right it can take 23-25 pounds of smallies to win a tournament on St. Clair.  Today Matt Morgan, Nick Neves, and I faced conditions that were far from perfect.  The water was rough, and muddy, so Matt, Nick and I searched for clear water.

            Our day started when we launched Matt’s Z21 Ranger Comanche out of St. Jeans.  The launch is close to the mouth of the Detroit River.  We ran around at first checking spots and finally started fishing.  We started fishing tubes on spots with deep current.  Oddly, we weren’t getting any bites.  Matt and Nick didn’t understand what the heck was going on.  I was just happy to be fishing.

            Once the sun came up Matt commented that the water was pretty muddy and he’s never caught smallies when the water turns muddy.  Matt thought the key to catching fish would be finding clear water.  Nick on the other hand was animate that the fish would bite in muddy water.  It was pretty funny listening to them shoot down each other’s ideas.  We fished around the mouth of the Detroit River for an hour longer without a bite and finally decided to look for clear water. 

            Matt cranked up his Yamaha HPDI 250 and we headed east towards Canadian water and the Belle River Hump.  Once Matt noticed the water cleared up we started fishing.  We were dragging tubes and drop shotting gobies near weed beds and rocks in 12-14 ft of water.  We were only catching small fish but at least we were catching something.  The lake was so calm that the bigger fish just didn’t seem to be feeding.  The water was too clear.

            The fishing was about to pick up though because the conditions were changing.  There was a line of thunderstorms moving across the lake.  The wind came first and built waves that were 2-4 ft high.  As soon as the waves started, the bigger fish started biting.  We were using a drift sock to control the boat and we were drifting tubes when Matt caught the first keeper.  It was a beautiful 4.6-pound football that had dark bars displayed on its side. We caught five more keepers drifting tubes that were between 2-3 pounds. 

            The rain came next and it came down in buckets.  Wisely, Matt and I put on our rain suits but Nick seemed to forget his.  He had a choice to make.  He could either get soaked, or jump in a rod locker and wait out the storm.  Nick chose to cram himself into a rod locker.  It was absolutely hilarious seeing him stuffed in the locker.  While Nick was in the rod locker, Matt and I were catching smallies one after another.  I caught all of mine with a Canadian Mist Extreme Tackle tube.  Too bad Nick missed out on the fast action.

            The rain stopped and Nick emerged out of the rod locker like a butterfly out its cocoon.  Since the rain stopped and the sun came out Matt decided to take us to a weed bed in 17 ft of water.  We drifted around until Matt and Nick stuck a couple 3.5-pound smallmouth at the same time.  Matt quickly marked the spot with his GPS. 

            Matt had found what he and Nick referred to as, a spot on a spot.  It was probably a small bald spot in the weed bed or a rock pile.  Matt and Nick were using Snack Daddy Gobies tied on 8-pound Gamma edge Fluorocarbon to probe the structure. 

Nick and Matt caught three keepers apiece off of the spot and finally let me make a cast towards it.  I let my weight and goby settle on the bottom and I didn’t move it.  I instantly felt a mushy feeling so I reeled down and sank my needle sharp hook into the smallies cheek.  It was pulling with all its might but my 7’2” Shimano Crucial spinning rod handled its surges wonderfully.  It ended up being the last upgrade of the day giving us five bass that weighed around 18 pounds.

Matt, Nick, and I ended up having a very successful day on LSC after we made the right adjustments.  The key to our success was finding clear water, and the right structure.  By using a GPS and a drift sock we were able to keep our baits in the strike zone.  Matt Morgan and Nick Neves did a fantastic job finding the fish when the conditions were tough on Lake St. Clair.