Bassmaster Elite Series St. Clair, FLW Rayovac Lake Eerie and a chance to win free stuff!
B.A.S.S. St. Clair
Aaron Martens lands a nice one on Day 1 – photo via BASS Ronnie Moore
The final regular season Bassmaster Elite Series event is underway on the smallmouth mecca that is Michigan’s Lake St. Clair. While anglers can opt to run as seemingly far as they’d like, many of them have reported St. Clair having exceptional fishing this week. Anglers always face a tough choice when competing on Lake St. Clair – make the 70 plus mile run down to Lake Eerie or a roughly 65-75 mile run north to some of the better waters of Lake Huron where Chris Lane won a tournament the last time the Elite Series visited the venue. Furthermore, there’s always a decent “river” bite for largemouth anglers, but unlike their brown brethren, anglers will be required to cover new water each day if they wish to have a chance at victory.
For anglers choosing to make the run to Eerie, their chances of success hinge almost entirely on whether or not their equipment can make it through the treacherous runs that are all but certain during this time of year. The fishing in Eerie can be absolutely tremendous at times, but as we mentioned, it was more common to see anglers taking the risks when fishing was brutally tough on St. Clair… this year, that’s not really the case. Further complicating a run to Eerie is the FLW Rayovac running concurrently through Saturday. The Rayaovac anglers will launch from Sandusky, Ohio which means they are starting much closer to their desired fishing locations than the Elite Series anglers and there’s always the possibility of several anglers sharing fish; a huge risk for BASS anglers considering the run and the reduced amount of fishing time.
This time of year, the smallmouth bite is quite predictable. Smallies will be somewhere between 16 – 24 feet of water in most cases and will be chewing dropshots, Carolina rigs, tubes and deep crankbaits. The appeal of smallmouth for the anglers is the concentrated nature of the schools – essentially, if you find a good wad of smallmouth you might be able to lean on them all four days of the tournament. Obviously, that’s not always the case, but good locations are often stopping points for other nomadic smallies, especially if there’s something more than bait solely responsible for their habitation. Smallies are going to go where the bait is at, but often there’s a reason bait congregates in the area – typically light vegetation, pea gravel or different bottom composition.
Top Baits
Rapala DT 16 Crankbaits
The Rapala DT 16 Crankbait is always a player in these St. Clair/Eerie tournaments. The depth range is absolutely ideal and something about the action of the DT 16 really gets smallmouth going. If anglers can locate rocky shoals of 12-14 feet, this is one of the most effective tools in their arsenal, having proven it’s worth time and time again in the late summer smallmouth derbies.
Strike King KVD Dreamshot
The dropshot will be out in full effect this week with anglers utilizing the technique with small soft plastics such as the Yamamoto Shad Shape Worm, Zoom Z-Drop and the Strike King KVD Dreamshot pictured above. When anglers drop shot on these smallmouth lakes, they are really scaling up their weights – typically anglers are fishing with 1/2oz to even as much as 3/4oz in order to get their bottom to the bottom and keep it there in rough water. Smallmouth will react to a rapidly descending bait, and when using the graph to find fish, it’s imperative to get the bait down to the fish as quickly as possible.
Other lure that will play:
Carolina Rigged Zoom Speed Craw
Tubes – such as the Dry Creek Tube
Spybaits
Follow along with the action: Bassmaster Elite Series St. Clair
Iyobe Hates St. Clair
Ken Iyobe photo via Bassmaster
… or he’s just showing us his Zoom Super Fluke
FLW Rayovac at Lake Eerie
FLW Rayovac Lake Eerie – photo via FLW Outdoors
As we mentioned above, FLW Outdoors is holding a northern Rayovac event on Lake Eerie concurrently with the Bassmaster Elite Series just a 70 mile run away. Honestly, there’s no problem with this – not like if they were both out on Kentucky Lake at the same time or anything. Sure, if BASS anglers run to St. Clair they may end up fishing the same water as the Rayovac competitors, but that will be an exception and just another factor at play for those considering the back-breaking 70 mile run.
Anyway, as the tournament kicks off today, anglers are probably just happy they aren’t facing the winds they had during the days leading up to the event. In fact, the next three days of wind are actually pretty manageable with high winds only reaching about 6mph. Unlike smaller bodies of water, the issue isn’t the wind in itself, it’s the buildup of waves occurring from the wind. On large bodies of water like Lake Eerie, if you get the wrong wind direction, even 12-15mph winds can cause incredibly frightening swells that build as they cross the large, unprotected lake. Having fished on Lake Champlain in 8 foot rollers, it is a real treat to ride inside troughs of water unable to see anything other than the waves closing in on you. If you have to drive against them, which is what happens often on Eerie, you’re gonna get smashed.
Anyhow, with agreeable weather conditions and fewer fish beat up in practice because of the high winds, the FLW Rayovac looks to be a slugfest for some. The smallmouth in Lake Eerie have been said to be a bit off in terms of general fishing, but there are big piles just waiting to be stuck. According to Northern Rayovac anglers Powell Kemp, it takes persistence to do well on Lake Eerie:
“The wind has blown pretty hard for a couple of days and it’s been hard to move around,” Kemp said. “I think most of the fish are on individual rock piles. I think they’re in smaller schools or individual fish.
“When you find a spot you think holds fish, stay there until you get one to bite. I plan on hitting my spots multiple times [throughout the day], because I don’t have that many spots.”
Here’s what many of the anglers will be using this week:
Yamamoto Shad Shape Worm
The Yamamoto Shad Shape Worm – a true smallmouth assassin that really gets to work on lakes full of goby.
Follow along at FLW Outdoors: FLW Northern Rayovac Lake Eerie
Win Some Boing Lures
***CONTEST – FOLLOW OUR PAGE, LIKE THE POST, TAG A FRIEND*** We'll randomly select one lucky winner who will receive a @boing_lures G1 & G2 topwater. Be sure to check out all the Boing Lures at Monster Fishing Tackle. Contest ends 8/28 noon PST #fishing #bassfishing #fishingtackle #giveaway #contest #topwater
A photo posted by Monster Fishing Tackle (@monster_fishing_tackle) on
Aug 26, 2015 at 5:50pm PDT
Duck Pattern
Big bass do eat ducks!
A photo posted by Basseast.com (@bass_east) on
Aug 27, 2015 at 8:19am PDT
Awesome Deal: Simms Solarflex Sun Gloves
Our buddies at Monster Fishing Tackle offering the Simms Solarflex Sun Glove at an awesome price. Take advantage of this deal while supplies last.
MSRP: $29.95
Monster Price: $19.95
You save: $10.00