Oct. 4-10 2002
The first week of Oct. Tim, Dan, Jeff, Craig, Ron, and I went back up to St. Clair. We managed to finally get on some good fish. Tim got a 5lber on Sunday evening right at dark. Ron Hedges caught two 5 pounders on Wednesday. All were taken in 11-12 foot of water right near a spot that we call Sim's hole. We caught several in the 4 lb. range throughout the week. The first part of our trip was windy with air temps in the 55-60 range. The water temp started out around 64 but by the end of the trip it was down in the upper 50's.
Wednesday the water calmed down and we had light winds. I hooked a smallmouth when a second later a big musky bit down on the smallies head. I had both of them on for about 20 minutes when the musky let go after Tim tried to net it. When I started to reel in the wounded smallmouth the musky came back and chomped down on it again. After about 10 more minutes the big 42+ incher let go. Later on the same day I hooked and landed a 30-inch musky on the sandbar. Earlier in the week I had a musky jump out of the water, about 20 feet from the boat, after another smallmouth that I had hooked. It missed but it was a big one and it scared the hell out of us!
Thursday the fish were starting to move up near the sand bar, but 90% of the fish were caught in a small zone near Sim's hole. Water temp was about 58 on Thursday. The bigger fish are very close to really feeding. We did not think that they were really gorging as they were not spitting any baitfish out or really banging the lures.
The best technique was a light 1/8-ounce jig and a small tube and putting out only enough line to keep it right above the weeds. A lot of times, in a lighter wind we had it right behind the boat. Carolina rigs worked in the higher winds and floating weeds. We used a light cone sinker with a tube or senko rigged with the point of the hook buried. The trick was to keep the tube just ticking the weed tops.
We planned on going up later in the month but the weather did not cooperate. All in all 2002 was another good year. We made a lot of trips and caught a boatload of smallmouth bass and a few muskies. We learned more about fishing the "Hump" at Lake St. Clair and about fishing the reefs on Lake Erie. Ah, this retirement is great!
Tell next year...Steve |
