Great Lakes Bass Fishing Forum

I am coming with my son from GEORGIA and fishing June 9-11.  I have never fished Lake st. Clair.  I would consider myself an experienced fisherman down south but have never had the chance to fish for small mouth.  I would like as much help as you are willing o give me.  I will be staying Gross Pointe, Michigan.

I would like to know of maybe some areas I should target and some depths.  I have lowrance electronics on my boat.  So if someone could point me in the direction to have the most success with small mouth that would be great.  Also would like to know what techniques I should focus on tube, jerk baitbait, spinner bait etc...  On calm days on Lake lanier we bottom fish and windy days we use moving baits.  I assume that would be true for st. clair.  I catch and release all my fish so i wont be taking any of those beauties home with me. 

Also what about boat ramps.  Can I buy a pass to launch at any ramp.  I know I need an out of state fishing license.  Is there any other kind of registration I will need or anything I will need to have on my boat so I dont get a ticket from the dnr. 

Thanks and leave me as many details and tips as you can think of and i would greatly appreciate it. 

Thanks 

I'll start with baits - for St. Clair the mainstays are tubes and dropshots. Then depending on time of year - spring is jerkbaits and summer is crankbaits for me. Lots of guys use spinnerbaits and swimbaits as well.

I think for depths - it is similar, spring brings them up shallow to spawn and summer gets them deeper. It's been a cool spring and I think by the time you get here in early June, you can start shallow (5ft) or so and then work your way deeper until you run into them.

Thanks for joining. Make sure you search the forum. Many of your questions have been answered numerous times on here. Just a few days ago we posted some information on fishing areas, lures and boat ramps info to another angler visiting from North Carolina I think. I believe that thread is in the Lake St. Clair fishing reports forum. You can find out quite a few nice pieces of information from reading the posts in that forum.

That way you won't need to wait until others possibly answer some of your questions on this thread that way. May be more bass on beds at that time this year with the delays.

A few tips for now - no powerloading on our ramps - people do it, of course, but you can get a ticket. They don't build are ramps deep enough here so powerloading undercuts the ends.

Look up Recreation Passport (http://www.michigan.gov/recreationpassport) for the MDNR boat ramps. Cheaper to buy it ahead of time. The few other ramps are basically pay per day $10-$15.

Recommend you check your boat for Coast Guard/Michigan boating safety requirements because the Great Lakes are considered coastal waters. I don't have the links handy right now or I would post. You can find them easy with a Google search.

Subtleties are the key to finding and catching more bass on Lake St. Clair. It's a big, shallow fish bowl with lots of current. It can be a little like fishing a river at times.