This week we are on Lake St. Clair for the final regular season Bassmaster Elite Series tournament of the year. Of course the top 50 in points will move on to Mille Lacs to fish in the Toyota Bassmaster Angler of the Year Championship, and after two good tournaments (St. Lawrence – 32nd and Lake Champlain – sixth) a few weeks ago I hope to be one of those guys.
At this point in the season it’s no secret we are all just worried about one thing – qualifying for the 2018 GEICO Bassmaster Classic. I’m not putting any added pressure on myself, but I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t heavy on my mind here this week. In the end though I go out every day and do the very best I can do and this week is no exception. Let’s talk about Lake St. Clair a little bit.
St. Clair is a different animal, plain and simple. I was thinking today, to put it in perspective for you, imagine if you took Lake Okeechobee and filled it with crystal clear water, grass and smallmouth. You would pretty much have Lake St. Clair. Most of the Great Lakes have some type of contour changes that fish will hold on whether it be shoals, rock piles, wrecks, etc., but St. Clair is, for the most part, void of any contour changes. There is a shipping channel that runs right down the center for ships to use, but other than that it’s flat as can be. With that being said, it is a fantastic fishery that is full of big smallmouth as I’m sure you will see this week.
The key to finding the smallmouth here to me is finding the depth range the fish are holding in. Once you find that you can start to eliminate some water and begin to break down exactly where the fish are holding. At least that’s what I’ve found to work best for me. As for my practice I’d say it was decent. The first day was really the only good weather day we’ve had so far, and it was definitely my best day. Hopefully with good weather in the forecast tomorrow that is a sign of things to come. I know I’ll be around some good ones, and I’m really looking forward to getting the derby started. I can’t tell you how much I love chasing these big smallmouth.
As far as techniques go here this week it’s really a lot of the same I’ve used in the last two tournaments. Two baits that will definitely see some action tomorrow are an X-Zone Slammer on a drop shot rig and the new Mustad Wacky/Neko hook and an X-Zone True Center Stick cut in half and used on the new Mustad Ned jig head. Both of these are killer smallmouth baits and both helped me along to that sixth-place finish in the last tournament at Lake Champlain. I’ll fish the drop shot on a new MHX-EPS-81MXF that I just built and the Ned rig rod will be an EPS-81MLXF. Both these rods are 6-foot, 9-inch which is about my favorite size for a spinning rod. They are super light and sensitive so you can feel the slightest of bites. I’ll throw them both on Vicious 10-pound Hi-Vis yellow braid with an 8-pound Pro Elite fluorocarbon leader.
Stay tuned to Bassmaster.com and see how things go.