situation

[John Bales]

A couple of years ago I was invited to fish with David Barker from Tennessee on Lake Erie around the bass islands. He has been fishing in this area for years and knows the area well. He allowed me to drive the boat which was my first time in a ranger with a tiller. I knew then that I was going to own one. Any ways, it was explained to me that a jerk bait was the tool that catches the most fish and we stay in the 8-10 foot zone most of the time. David trolled a jerkbait and I put a 250 on with no bo. We did not go 100 feet and he said fish. He caught several fish before we even got out of the bay and I had not gotten a fish. My thoughts were how can this be happening. He is getting all the fish and I am bumping the bottom and not getting anything. I made some changes in lures but still chose those that allowed me to maintain bottom contact but still David was getting all the fish. We did this for a day and a half. By then, I was getting familiar with the lay of the land and what existed in the area as far as structure situations. Mid way into the second day, I had realized that the weather conditions were improving and we had not checked the shallows. Knowing what was there, I suggested that we pick a bar and cast the shallows. As I was tying on a tube jig, I just knew that David would be wanting one of these after I put a few fish in the boat. He stuck with his jerk bait. After David put 4 fish in the boat, he asked me if I wanted one of those baits. I finally gave in , actually I had little choice but to join in if I wanted to catch any fish. We knocked their tails off after that. I came home doing a lot of thinking about all of the fish that were caught with free running lures. I even called Terry O'malley and we had a long talk about it. We did a lot of casting and some trolling in the deeper waters but did not locate any fish deeper. I am about to leave for this place with some good friends and fellow spoonpluggers for 6 days on the water. What was learned on those two trips which had the same results will be taken with me again this trip. I will be prepared for anything this time. How about some chatter on why my bottom bumping lure or any other bottom bumping type of control did not work at that particular time? I am leaving monday for this trip so if you dont hear from me, I am going after them again. John PS... Fran, you cant comment on this one...........

[JBidinger]

Fishing 8 to 10 Shallows, Stragglers. Water color...

[Gary Schiffner]

John,

I'm sure you know this, but this is my 2 cents on this. I relate Smallmouth to being like cats. The stop and go of the jerk bait tears them all to pieces. I have also seen this with Kentuckys here in TN. A crank bait ran "stop and go" is a killer for them. I think it triggers that "Striking Mechanism" in them when there shallow.

[John Bales]

I need more........... way more.......... John

[spnplgrkenny]

THERES ONE THING I KNOW FOR SURE JOHN, IF ANY ONE IN ERIE CATCHES THE FISH , IT SHOULD AND WILL BE YOU. I HOPE ALL THE CONDITIONS FALL INTO PLACE TO BE ALL YOU GUYS GREATEST TRIP YET. JUST REMEMBER, YOUR NOT PLAYING WITH CHILDREN HERE. ABOVE EVERYTHING ELSE, STAY SAFE!, AND TAKE ALOT OF PICTURES. YOUR FRIEND, KENNY

[indianabass]

Well, the smallmouth are prespawn and need lots of feeding between now and when they start the spawn. They will be oriented toward a pretty shallow region. It seems that the suspending smallmouth is a stage they are in until weather is stable enough for them to bed...hmmm...got my brain ticking.

Andy Jagger

[joseph radunz]

When we are in the shallows we are supposed to strain the water from top to bottom. After 8 -10 then we are supposed to stay glued to the bottom. Staying with the controlling of the two factors of Depth and Speed apparently the correct depth for that given situation was the free running jerk bait since you were in the shallow water zone. I know that we have had situations when ripping free running lures causes the fish to hit on the slower speed of the drop back. Maybe its the combo of the shallower depth and the slower speed of the rip?

[John Bales]

All good answers. Never have I been to a place where the smallies would not touch a bait if it was on the bottom. It was such a strange situation. Terry laughed at me and said hey stupid.......... The fish were not on the bottom, they were up off the bottom and the jerkbait did the trick. I also did not catch a single fish on a blade bait or a tube jig the two times I have been there. But I kept trying till I finally just gave up. Mr. Perry has said (in the blue book) that the smallies tend to take a free running lure more than the largemouth. I do know one thing and that is if you walk too hard on the troll out from the detroit river, you wont catch many smallmouth. They tend to like it either just tipping or actually just off the bottom but not hammering. Mr. Perry says that they tend to take a free running lure and that's good enough for me. It just took me 37 years to get enough experience to find it out. I just thought that it was just too interesting not to mention. John

[Fran Myers]

Hey guys,
This is something that I have experienced myself over the past few years. First year I concentrated on bouncing hard to just barely touching. I caught 1 fish in three days. Second year, I got the line length by bumping once then reeling in 2 or 3 turns. Catch went from nothing to 20 a day in poor weather conditions. I have experienced this on the Mississippi and other lakes with Smallmouth. However, it should be noted that I have never caught a Largemouth doing this. Whenever we caught a Largemouth it was when the lures were bumping.

Mike and I leave this afternoon to put these words into practice on Lake Erie. Hopefully my mobile broadband will work from the Island so I can post.

Good Morning,
Fran

[spoonpluggergino]

I have been following this thread about the Bass Island since three years ago when John Bales went fishing with his friend. I believe Spoonluggerkenny, I may be wrong. Anyway this is an awsome body of water. Just beeing on the water with John Bales would be an outing that no one would forget antyme soon. Even dough I love muskie fishing, I can tell you that smallmouth bass is another fish I love to hunt. I have Don Dickson tapes that he is fishing somewhere on the Great Lakes and he is fishing deep structure using spoonplugs with a piggy back plastic grub, and they are catching doubles, I am sure some of you have those tapes . As any one of you fished the Bass Islands during summer month. I would like to hear some info. I like to set up a trip with my brother Angelo during the summer, would be an awsome trip. Can't wait to get your reports.
I wish I was there I am jealous
Spoonpluggers have fun and catch big Smallmouth and most of all be careful, spring weather and the winds can be unpredictable. Do not take Lake Erie for granted

Gino

[Gary Schiffner]

Good Luck Guys, keep us posted! Again, Erie can be a mean, unforgiving old girl QUICKLY! Be careful, have fun!

[John Bales]

Thanks guys for your support and jealousy. It is all apreciated. Maybe some day we could make an outing for everyone to attend on the islands. You would not want to be out there in the summer. It is a party animal place in the summer. Not for us old guys. 12 hour days on the water and no sleep dont work.
A few of us are talking about getting a jamboree started again. This will be down the road a spell but I have already talked it over with several from different regions of the country and they are all for it. Kentucky lake seems to be a good central location and a great fishery. If we get enough chatter on this with some ideas and a lot of help from our spoonpluggers across the country, this could happen. I remember when there were 300 spoonpluggers in one campground. Those were the days. I would like to see that happen again sometime. The more that we can get together, the longer we will last and I would hope that is what the rest of you want to see happen also. We are a dying breed and this needs to change somehow so spoonplugging is around for our children and their children. John

[whopper Stopper]

John, the first thing that popped into my mind was,,,what kind of water color were you guys fishing. Why do I ask? I have experienced fish in clearer water hitting the suspended baits much better than a bottom bumping bait,,even over deep water. Its obvious that the visibility would be much better for the fish where as in dingy water it would make sense that the fish would hold tighter to a structure and hit a bumping lure, because thats exactly where the fish and the lure would meet . I also believe thats why Mr. Perry told us that lure color isnt all that important. Of course not,,,in water that offers the fish less visibility.
Last year, I was up on High Rock Lake. The boat-Jet Ski traffic was horribly congested. I could hardly troll my spoonplug without almost getting rocked out of my boat. I was trolling back and forth over a main lake bar that was between a creek channel and the main lake channel. The water color was very dingy with no more than 10-12 inch lure visibility from the surface down. Believe me when I say that I have done more than my share of striper fishing and 95 percent of my catches have always been made with suspended lures and baits,,but NOT on this day at High Rock. With all of that commotion around me,,,the fish could have cared less. The strange thing was that they would not TOUCH a suspended bait. Very, unusual for these fish. At least thats what I thought, that day. I anchored and threw my best arsonal at those fish. I even trolled suspended baits over them because I just knew they would take. Nope. The spoonplug HAD to be bumping bottom. Period. Iv never seen anything like it with stripers and Hybrids,,but guess what? I had never really fished dingy water for them either. I just tried to avoid it. Bingo. That was my revelation. It finally sunk in. Mr. Perry had been saying it all along but in my mind I thought,,,nah,, not stripers and hybrids,,,there a suspended bait catching fish. No sir. I was dead wrong. Mr. Perry was Right. Terry Omally had also told me over and over. The striper will hit a bottom bumping lure just like a bass. I thought I knew better. I learned that day, the connection of water color and structure related fish. Well,,,,I guess my point here is,,I just wonder if what you were experienced was just the opposite. In other words, you were expecting those fish to be on or very close to the bottom features, but because of the LACK of water color,, those fish were able to operate more on SIGHT and took the suspended baits because they didnt have to relate tightly to the bottom features,,meaning,,,,they just wasnt there on or near the bottom to start with ?????? Anyway,,enjoyed you sharing your experience! Interesting!

Just thinking out loud/Whopper Stopper
.

[John Bales]

Whopper....... Got back yesterday from erie. Came back early because of tornado's and 11 to 13 foot waves. I dont want none of that so we flew the coop... Things were a bit different this time. Best day was 20 smallmouth. Biggest for me was one a little over 5 3/4..........Before we went, it was looking like we were going to have some very stable weather. Then things changed. Bright clear skies with thunder storms between those conditions put a damper on the easy fishing. Only two fish came on the jerk bait. It became evident that the slower speeds were needed. For the first time in three years we caught most of our fish on a jig. 1/8 in the shallows, 1/4 in the mid depths and 3/8 and 1/2 ounce in the deeper waters and when the wind blew. Because it was slow for the smallies, we spent some time out in the deeper waters fishing for the walleye. Three way rigs with a spoonplug and a rapala type lure did the trick in 28 to 30 feet of water did the trick. Even that fishing was not fast or furious. Water temps were 60 on the last day and there were a few smallies spawning. You could see them where the water was clear but we did not actually sight fish for them. The weather caused things to be on the slow side for the catching but thats just the way that it is. A fisherman that can adapt to the conditions will always catch the fish but conditions can make it so you have to work hard to make any kind of a catch. It is always a learning experience and that is the fun of it. Having the right group of friends to fish with makes what ever conditions you face even more enjoyable. Fran made sure we all ate like kings. I may have to go out and buy all new clothes. Mike Brown brought some of his ice cream which is the best in the world. My only problem was that Mike Brown packed our lunches every day and after the first day, each day there was a suprise on my sandwich. The first day it was the left over bacon, the second day the cheese was 2 inches thick and the third was onions. They told me that if we wouldnt have left early it would have been halopeno peppers...... Never a dull moment. I dont think there was a day that we got to sleep before midnight. Great trip with good guys. John

[whopper Stopper]

John, Sounds like my kind of fishing trip,,,that is,,except maybe some of those sandwiches. Still, not sure about those yet. I use to take the Ol 3-way river rig and drift live bluegills across bars and humps, from spring on thru the summer months. It was a great fish producer. Id fly fish for bluegills part of the day and save the smaller gills for bait. Then the rest of the day was spent drifting gills over bars and humps. Killer technique for a mixed bag of the larger species of fish such as LM bass, stripers and cats. This was done before my knowledge of spoonplugging, however I must admit that during the slower, less active hours, its still a killer technique.
Iv watched Don Dixon fish the upper rivers with the three-way rigged with shallow made crankbaits , using a stop and go sweeping motion for the walleyes. There again it all boils down to matching the mood of the fish with plain OL depth and speed control. It never changes, does it? You just take mother natures dealing hand and play against it. Thats what the game is all about! Im going to start fishing hard starting in the next week or so. This year is going to be spent trolling on High Rock lake. Its the furtherest away from me on my home lakes, but it is also what I consider the best around for spoonplugging due to limited depths and a clean sand/gravel bottom with Good water color to boot. Its David Fritts home lake. Its also named, the crankbait capital. Anyway, its the big Hybrid Stripers that Im going to target. May even try the Tennesse boys techniques this year. Wished you could come down sometime and give it a try ,say during , the annual spoonplugging get-together at Mrs Perrys. High Rock is a spoonpluggers paradise! Those Hybrids are very aggressive and phenomenal fighters! In other words,,thell slam pull your chain! Most of the hybrids are around the 5-6-7 lb range. There also good sized stripers in there, not to mention its a really good LM bass lake.
Well,,,Its time to go back to zzz zzzzz zzzz zzzzz.

Stay in touch John and take Care, and, how about leaving a few in the water for me!
Ron Thompson/ WS