Tough time on St. Clair

[Firefighter Jeff]

It's a little belated but wanted to post a report on the trip I took with my brother to St. Clair last week.  We headed up Monday morning and got out to fish about 1:00 pm.  We launched out of 9 mile.  The water temp was 58.7 degrees.  We started shallow right out from the channel in 5 to 7 feet of water.  The first fish I caught was a nice 4.5 smallie on a spinnerbait.



It was a great start but it wouldn't last.  We ended up boating 8 fish for the afternoon close to 9 mile.

Tuesday the winds changed to the south south/east and started to muddy things up on the West shore.  We did hit 11 mile and up around Metro beach but got nothing there.  Didn't spend a whole lot of time at those places.  Just skipping around searching a little.  We did go back to 9 mile and got on a little pattern in 9 to 10 feet of water throwing crankbaits.  We ended up with 15 fish for the day.

Here is a pic of Mark with his two best.  I think the bigger one went 4.7



Mark also caught a nice 3 1/2 pound walleye.



Here is a 4.2 I got the same day.




Wednesday there were high winds out of the west.  We didn't get out til later in the morning, in hopes the winds would die down.  They did some, but not much.  We fished at 9 mile again and the fishing was even tougher. We were able to hug the shoreline and headed to Grosse Point flats on the advice of my other brother from home.  lol  Cell phones come in handy.  We did get a few fish there but not much size.  We ended up with 11 fish for the half day.

Thursday the winds were better but from the southeast again.  We ended up getting 11 fish for the day, mostly on crankbaits in 9 to 10 feet between the green bouys. 

   So we ended up with 45 smallies for 3 1/2 days of fishing, that walleye and a small Musky.  Only a few in the 3 and 4 pound range.  Not what we had hoped for, that's for sure.  But we had heard the water temp had dropped 10 degrees in a week before we arrived and it dropped 3 more degrees while we were there.  Spent a lot of time in the raingear and wind.  Still, it was time well spent with my brother and it was fun catching my favorite fish.  I need to get Mark up there in the Spring  !!!