David Simmons shows off a big 5 pound 2 ounce Lake St. Clair smallmouth bass!
I was back in Michigan again during August 2001 for the Bassmasters and had the chance to get out on St. Clair for a day of fishing with long-time fishing buddy Dan Kimmel of Lansing. The day started out rough and dark, but we managed to boat a few bass and Dan landed one decent Musky. Our persistence paid off with another Lake St. Clair trophy smallmouth. The beautiful 5 lbs. 2 oz. brownie was caught on a shad-colored Right-Bite tube with a 1/2oz head “vertically” jigging a seawall in 22 feet of water. She fought so hard my arms were shaking afterwards.
A hawg smallie like this really tops off a great day of fishing on a quality fishery like St. Clair. We had a terrific time discussing fishing, the tournament scene and Yamaha outboards, of course. Dan’s understanding of the fish and the market come from years of involvement with local organizations and State agencies. I was lucky to spend a day with him and learn a lot more than just how hard a big smallmouth pulls. Thanks Dan!
By David Simmons
Field Promotions Coordinator
Yamaha Marine Power Group*
Current-swept St. Clair River seawalls can produce some huge smallies with the right presentation like this beauty caught by David Simmons.
For those of you who haven’t been fortunate enough to meet David Simmons before, he’s an outgoing fellow who’s a friend to all anglers. He’s a pretty good angler too.
David is formerly from Lansing Michigan where he and I met years ago. David did a stint at Bass Pro Shops before moving on to his present post at Yamaha in Kennesaw Georgia. To say he’s thrived there is an understatement. Yamaha is in the tournament and fishing motor scene in a big way and David is a driving force behind that. Yamaha motors received the JD Powers awardsfor customer satisfaction in outboards.
In recognition of David’s impact for Yamaha Motors, and the fishing industry and tournament scene, he was recently awarded the first ever Bassfan.com 6th Man Award. Click here to read about more about this fine honor for a worthy, but “humble” person. It’s not difficult to see he’s the perfect person for the job and that he loves what he’s doing. I know I hope we get to spend another day on the water together sometime in the not-to-far future.
* David Simmons moved on from Yamaha to a dream job with FLW Outdoors helping rev up the crowd before the Tour weigh-ins among many other duties. He has now left FLW Outdoors, had a family and is an avid angler still instilling great character in his children for fishing and the outdoors.
The Michigan DNR is conducting an acoustic tagging study on Lake St. Clair Smallmouth Bass to better understand their distribution through the lake and habitat use.
Everyone used to hate it, is how Doug Roher explains the feelings fellow bass anglers had towards the St. Joe River. In recent times though, size, quality, and consequently, feelings have changed towards this one-time nemesis of Northern Indiana bass anglers.
For the last 16 years, my job has been to find spots on Lake St. Clair to document for smallmouth anglers. In spite of all my efforts to do so, I can unequivocally say that we are just scratching the surface on what is available in this fishery.
Another fun year of fishing in and around Michigan this year. With the low water even affecting some inland lakes, we didn’t boat near as many big crappie as last spring, but marauding bass like this one made up for the slower fishing.
With the Great Lakes ever more popular for bass anglers thanks to some of the best bass fishing ever, a popular topic for anglers just venturing out and a good refresher for those already with experience, is advice on how to safely handle all that big water.
COMMUNICATE – A lot of problems can be ironed out with a question. Like after the boater misses a fish “Do you mind if I throw in there?” I’ve offered my baits up first thing in the morning; by saying “If you need anything just ask.”
