FLW OUTDOORS MAGAZINE JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2008
TOP FIVE SMALLMOUTH FISHERIES FOR 2008
1. Lake Erie
If you know what your doing, catching 5 pound smallmouths by the boatload is more predictable in the fertile waters of Lake Erie than anywhere else in the country. While big smallmouths can be found
throughout Lake Erie, it's the Western Basin that
has the most famed reputation. Each spring,
shortly after ice-out, smallies can be caught in
numbers on offshore rock piles and humps while
the water is still cold. As summer progresses to
fall, some of the best action of the year takes
place. Many bass will be moving into the river
systems, such as the Detroit, to chase shad.
2. Burt and Mullet Lakes
Michigan natives often use their hand as a map when showing new friends where there hometown is located. Somewhere near the tips of the index and middle fingers is a smallmouth fishery, which Northern anglers have
apparently been keeping secret. Burt and Mullet
lakes are twin fisheries, connected by the Indian
River, and part of the 40-mile Inland Waterway,
which eventually ends into Lake Huron. Perhaps
such close proximety to the Great Lakes has
kept the lakes under the radar, but for Wal-Mart
Bass Fishing League anglers, the secret was out
in June. Nine of the top ten finishers at the Wal-
Mart BFL Michigan Division event on Burt Mullet
sacked at least 20 pounds. Burt Lake is collectively recognized as the place to hang a monster smallie, but Mullet is more reliable for numbers. Don't
expect much competition on the lake though; it's not uncommon to spend 5 days alone on the water.
3. Lake St. Clair
With 275,000 surface acres of fishable water, Lake St. Clair offers smallmouth bass plenty of area to gang up and feed. For the most part, it's
a shallow water smallmouth paradise. The lake only averages 10 feet deep,
although there are spots that are deeper than 30 feet. The blue waters are
not only easy to pattern, but massive schools
can be found when anglers do there homework.
If you like to burn a spinnerbait or snap a jerk-
bait for smallies over spacious flats, then St.
Clair is your destination. It usually takes 20-25
pound limits to win tournaments on the lake,
and anglers can expect more 3-5 pound bass
than they care to count, with 6 pounders
becoming more common than in years past.
4. Lake Champlain
5. Dale Hollow Lake
LAKE ERIE 2008
MULLET LAKE 2007
LAKE ST. CLAIR 2008
May 2008
Woods-n-Water News
Southeast Michigan's early catch & release season on Kent Lake
It was an uncrowded late afternoon weekday on Kent Lake, in Kensington Metropark, one of the 13 metroparks strung like a necklace encircling Southeast Michigan and metro Detroit that were long set aside for recreation by some very forward-thinking folks. They're mostly near or along the Huron River, and the lakes created when the parks came to be are hot for bedding spring bass. We met at the lakes west boat launch, and we had just pushed off of the dock when he said, "Let's try here. Cast that tube towards that vegetation against the shore and see if there's anything." He pointed to a spot about two rod lengths away.
My second cast was all it took for that tube to ring up "dead stop" on my reel as the largemouth chomped down and both of us hung on to see who'd win.
By Bill Semion
