Great Lakes Bass Fishing Forum

I would like to know how to catch smallies when it is dead calm out on the lake I fish lake St.Clair most of the time when it is windy getting smallies to bite is not a problem but when faced with dead calm table top flat lake and throw in the sun it gets down right tough I have watched many weigh-ins online and see a lot of pros bring big bags of small mouth to the scales on the calm days ,So I know it can be done . So how do they do it ???????

Technique is a large part of it.  Smallies are aggressive.  I have found fishing soft plastics aggressively in deep water brings in smallies.  Prime example, I was out with a friend a few weeks ago.  In six hours, I had 7 keeper smallies and he only had 2 keeper largemouths.  He knew what I was throwing and yet could not get a single bite to save his life.  I was getting hit almost every 5 minutes while he sat idle throwing the exact same lure/setup.  It is all the way you present the lure.  If you are not getting hit, try speeding up the retrieve or slowing it down or hopping....  The possibilities are endless which is why the pros are as good as they are.

If the wind isn't creating current, move to find current.  Smallies like to relate to current.

On St. Clair I have found that on dead calm days simply moving to deeper water often helps find more fish.  I have some waypoints that are seemingly "in the middle of nowhere" but produce fish on a still day when my shallower points produce nothing.

Every angler on this site has an opinion of or I should say technique for catching smallies on calm days.  Every one of them is correct.  It is incorrect when you are doing different things and can't get them to bite.  If it is a calm hot day, I tend to head for river mouths whether the Detroit or St. Clair.  More biters near current as fiker said.  On calm cool days you'll find them in current but you will find them on main lake structure also.  If you see them on your graph, you should be able to catch them.  Try many different techniques until you find the one they like.  You'll know it when you start loading the boat.  Good luck.


BD                              ;D

I find dead calm hot sunny days the easiest to catch smallies on LSC.  Move around with the electric, see one on the graph, bonk him on the head with a drop shot and set the hook.  Its that easy.  Wind and waves make it harder to move around specific small weedbeds.  Flat calm lets you dictate exactly where you want to position.  It also moves the fish tighter to the bottom - cloudy days they start suspending and swiming around and that can make it harder to stay right on them.