Lake St Clair
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Lake St Clair Fishing Reports
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Reports from all past years within a 60-day time frame
Species
Largemouth BassSeason
Spring (Pre-Spawn)
Technique
Hard Jerkbaits
Structure
Ledges
Water Temperature
35°
Josh Lopez
Bronze Ambassador
4/28/23
Species
Smallmouth BassSeason
Spring (Pre-Spawn)
Technique
Tubes
Structure
Rock Pile
Forage
Crawfish
Water Temperature
50°
Fished isolated rock piles in 6-10ft. Caught 75 fish on the day. It’s starting to heat up out there.
Species
Smallmouth BassSeason
Spring (Pre-Spawn)
Technique
Soft Swimbaits (Sm/Md)
Structure
Boulders
Smallmouth are moving up on the flats and are congregating on rock
Matt Belletini
Bronze Ambassador
4/27/23
Species
Smallmouth BassSeason
Spring (Pre-Spawn)
Technique
Soft Swimbaits (Sm/Md)
Structure
Rock Pile
Forage
Perch
Water Temperature
51°
A fresh wave of fat pre-spawn male smallmouth bass pulled up on Lake St. Clair last week. Lots of 2.75-3.5lb fish with occasional four pounders mixed in. Lots of numbers right now on shallow flats in 5-9 ft of water, feeding on small 2-3” perch (see picture). The best bait was a Keitech Swing Impact Fat 3.3” Sexy Shad on a 3/8 oz jig head. The tail had a light amount of Spike-it chartreuse marker to help match the small perch. I also added some wacky o-rings to the head of the swimbait. The rings help hold the swimbait on the jig head and I was able to catch over 40 fish on a single Keitech. The fish are not super aggressive right now and require a slow retrieve. Your rod would just load up while slowly dragging the swimbait on the bottom. When you catch one, just hit anchor mode and cast all around the boat. Lots of fish are roaming the flats, with some groups of fish holding on isolated rock and wood. Watercolor ranged from clear to mud, the best fishing was in the stained water. It’s only going to get better as the water warms up!
Species
Smallmouth BassSeason
Spring (Pre-Spawn)
Technique
Hard Jerkbaits
Structure
Boulders
Water Temperature
49°
Smallmouth fishing is picking up on Lake St Clair. Caught a dozen smallmouth 3-5lbs in 7-10FOW with clear visibility to the bottom. Finding hard bottom, shells and boulders were key.
Species
Smallmouth BassSeason
Spring (Pre-Spawn)
Technique
Hard Jerkbaits
Structure
Rock Pile
Forage
Alewife
Fished about 12' look for rock and find the fish. Wind was from the east at about 8-10mph. The fish seemed to be in small hunting packs, you would catch a few out of a spot and then they would move on. best to keep moving and searching for that hard bottom with rock. Best technique was to make long pauses, I mean looooong. I would get it to about 8' and let it soak. sometimes it would take 10 seconds before they would take it. Ended up with about 30 in the boat, no absolute monsters, but all decent fish none the less.
Species
Smallmouth BassSeason
Spring (Pre-Spawn)
Technique
Hard Jerkbaits
Structure
Boulders
Forage
Alewife
Work slow with long passes over hard bottom patches and hold on!
Species
WalleyeSeason
Spring (Pre-Spawn)
Technique
Structure Jigs
Structure
River Channels
Forage
Minnows
at south end of St Clair river walleye are finally making an appearance , water temp 40 degrees 5 more degrees and its gonna be crazy good eater size lots of 16-21 in eyes , remember if you want monster eyes fish detroit river early in season you want eater fish SCR
Species
Yellow PerchSeason
Spring (Pre-Spawn)
Technique
Live Bait Rigs
Structure
Open Water/Basin
Forage
Minnows
well when the weather cooperates the perch are here out of mitchells bay near the xe2 marker , average size lots of 9 inch fish but the occassional beast of a gonzo football perch , and its only gonna get better if we get a couple stable days in a row
