St Joe River Benton Harbor

[TritonTR20]

Anyone fished this streach before that is willing to shead a little light. Is it mostly smallmouth or largemouth? I have only fished it once and that was ten years ago. Any info would be greatly appriciated.

[TCook]

I fish the benton harbor stretch 1-2 times a week. All I catch is smallmouth but that is what I target. Obviously the spring time was on fire and the action has died down some. Out of 25 times or so on the river this year I have gotten solid limits 23 times. I am just starting to find some 4-5 pound class smallies which has eluded me until the last 3 weeks. If you want some good info on this stretch of the river visit southwestmichiganbass.com and check out the posts in the forum and the bass fishing reports at the main page on the st. joe river. The guy who runs that site Justin Hahaj is an expert out there and dishes out some good info regularly. My next goal on the Joe is to find the schools off of the peir heads in lake michigan which you could try but would take countless hours of searching. As for the river my best pattern has been a 3/8 oz green pumpkin char/purp tube fished on rock or slab where the current is somewhat slack. If you do throw a tube prepair to lose 10-20 tubes, the rocky areas the smallies hang out in are bait snatching machines. You can still catch the smallies in the current of course but the slack water near current produce best for me. The peir heads, coastguard station, and adjasent marina are a must to check out but has been somewhat dead of late, the sheaphead and flathead catfish have moved in. For more info check out that site.

T