A little better day today but still a little slow. We boated probably 25 bass plus a bunch of rockies and white bass. Maybe 10 or so were keepers and the rest short fish. It was tough because the wind turned from the North and ramped up making it nearly unfishable. We used a drift sock to slow down, but it was still really tough. GP Shores was a bust. The only real action was out near Ford's Cove and around 12 Mile down to 10 Mile in 6-9 FOW. Here's the crazy thing...no tube fish at all. Nearly everything was caught on 1/2 oz chart. spinnerbaits. Fished with a couple of new friends from TN. It was a fun outing. Too bad the wind blew us off the water.
Thanks for the update. I was wondering about a spinnerbait with the wind. I'm still going because we took the day off. We plan on being on the water by 6:00 AM so I'm hoping we get some time in without too much wind.
With North Wind, you can still take advantage of the excellent largemouth fishing in the canals and you can also fish L'Anse Cruise Bay or Northern Anchor Bay. I prefer the former. Let me know if you need someone to show you around if you're not from around here. If you are...then you know... :) GO GET EM!
Great report Tom
Tom,
Your offer is appreciated. Perhaps someday we can get together. I am from the Fowlerville area but have only been fishing St. Clair on my own since 2010 as that is when I purchased a larger boat. All total I have only fished it maybe12-15 times. I read what everyone has to say and learn from it. As all of you have said that fish the lake often and post great reports you need to spend time on the lake to learn it.
Your suggestion if too windy, to fish the canals is a good one. Our plan is to launch at Harley Ensign and give it a try. Our backup plan is we may go to Kent lake as it's on the way home. No matter what we took the day off to fish so we are going to fish somewhere.
Have a great weekend,
Mark
Ok. Here is my St. Clair fishing report for fri May 24th. I am a day late posting because my fingers are still frozen. It was our intent to launch out of Harley Ensign but changed our minds due to the cold. We instead launched out of 11 mile ramp. We got there at 6:00 AM and the guy at the gate said we might be a bit crazy because the wind was already blowing at 15 knots and was suppose to increase to 25 knots. Perfect!! Took a day off for this. We launched and headed out. Once past the no wake bouys I turned left, put it up on plane and went about 1/4 mile out to 7 fow. We caught a couple of fish right away on a tube, a drop shot and a SK red eye shad in sexy shad. Wind was pushing us pretty good so we moved in closer to shore to about 5 fow and threw out the drift sock. That helped slow us down and we picked up a few more fish but by this time 2 of us had switched to the SK lure. I was to stubborn to change from a tube. We again moved in a bit closer to 3 to 4 fow and fishing picked up with nicer size fish in the 3 lb class all on the SK lure. The wind picked up and we were not having a good time so we were off the lake by 8:15 AM. The guy even offered our money back but my fingers were too cold to accept it.
The 3 of us were dressed for cold weather but what we did not anticipate was how cold our fingers got. We had some gloves but nothing worked well. All total we caught 16 fish in about 1 1/2 hrs before the cold got to us. The SK lure was the ticket and had we not come in we felt we could have had a very good day. I only caught 3 fish, one really big rocky and 2 1.5 lb smallies on a tube. I could move my fingers good enough to tie on a red eye shad so I was not catching the better fish the other two were getting.
I guess that makes us wimps but I hate not having fun which for me is the point of fishing. It would have been nice to have gone out this morning but I had to much to do around the house. I hope someone posts a great report because the full moon was last night and I think the fish were moving in.
I would appreciate any info on what kind of gloves are available for fishing in the cold, can get wet, be able to handle a rod and reel and most important keep your hands warm. The all weather golf gloves I was using did not work but it was awful cold. The guy at the ramp said the air temp was 38 so I don't know what the wind chill was.
Mark
Anybody want a rider for tomorrow 5-26. Will split expenses. Just tell me what ramp and time.
look for fingerless fleece gloves. I use them steelheading in the winter and work well. you can even put a hand warmer in the palm and form it around your rod handle. the key is if they get wet, take them off wring them out and shake them almost dry. the heat from your hands will warm them back up. another bonus is the hooks do not stick to them much. I started with ragwool, and that was a disaster.
you can find them at BPS or cabelas, gander, dicks,....
I'm with ya Mark. I consider myself fairly hardcore when it comes to fishing, but when it's freezing, it's just no fun...and that's why I fish. It's not whimpy to skip those days. I feel ya. I use neoprene gloves that have the fingers that fold back out of the way when you need to. It's a waterproof material, so it keeps your hands pretty dry. Got em at BPS.
All suggestions are appreciated.