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Smallies provide some nice fireworks
Like skyrockets in tonight’s sky, smallmouth bass have been bursting over the surface of our region’s waters at an explosive rate in recent years.
Smallie populations are up at Milton and Berlin. The bronze missiles are big and strong at Shenango Reservoir. And in many years, they are fat and numerous down on the Ohio River’s New Cumberland Pool.
But nowhere around these parts are smallies more spectacular than Lake Erie. The season has just opened for Ohio’s Erie bass, and the fishing is reported to be excellent. Meanwhile, across the line in Pennsylvania’s Erie waters, the smallmouth fishing also has been attracting a lot of attention.
Erie smallmouth bass seem to be a fish distinctively different from their inland cousins. While the bronzebacks in our nearby waters are about as much fun as you can stand with a rod and reel, they are two cuts above out on the big water up north.
The fish that are born and thrive in Erie are bigger and stronger, like NFL fullbacks, and athletic like All-Pro wide receivers. They can hug the bottom as though they have hands, but a moment later rocket from the depths and clear the lake’s surface by a yard or more.
I don’t know if the reason is genetic or environmental, but I do know Erie smallmouths never cease to amaze me. I find it very difficult to resist any opportunity to fish for them.
Over the years, I’ve caught Erie smallies from the waters around South, Middle and North Bass. I’ve boated them off Lorain and Avon, and landed a few off the wall at Fairport Harbor.
My daughter Betsy caught her first-ever smallmouth from the sandy flats in Conneaut Harbor and I have experienced the ultimate in bronzeback topwater action in Ashtabula Harbor.
I love all smallmouth fishing, but the ultimate experience in my book is the moment when you realize your hookset on a bottom-bouncing tube jig has found a firm hold in the jaw of a 4- to 5-pounder 20 feet down on Erie’s bottom. In just a few seconds, that “rock” you thought you’d snagged is 3 feet above the lake’s top and shaking like a rodeo bull.
Talk about fireworks!
The best ledge and rock pile tube jig and drop-shot smallmouth fishing in the world is available to those who explore the contours of Lake Erie from Conneaut east to Buffalo.
Weather permitting, an angler who knows how to read sonar might expect to catch 20 more deep-water Erie bass on a fair to average day. When the bite is “on,” 30 fish may take your bait. Many are the stories (true, indeed) of 50-bass days out in the Eastern Basin.
The weather doesn’t always permit, however, and that may be one reason why the fishing is as good as it is. Erie smallmouth bass get a pretty good number of days when then can call off and loaf. Last weekend’s gale warnings certainly put the kibosh on the fishing plans of many anglers.
Getting out to the big fish can be a chore and figuring out where and how to present your lure can be challenging, but the rewards are such that your investment in time and development of talent will be more than worthwhile.
If aerial fireworks light your fuse, the next few weeks on the big lake will be exhilarating.
Study your maps, rig your spinning outfits with 8-pound-test fluorocarbon, and pack your bag with green tubes with gold or purple flakes (or both), and make sure your boat is shipshape and safe for Erie’s tricky water.
Watch for a favorable weather forecast (but always pack your rain gear) and you’ve got the perfect opportunity for a fishing trip you’ll never forget.