Official Practice Day

As much as I hated to do it, I took Friday off and spent most of the day pre-fishing lake St. Clair with fellow club member Scott Hartman. I had been there a few weeks ago and found the fishing to be tough but wanted to hit some old hotspots and do a little searching and ended up having a pretty decent day on the water. Here are some of my findings.

The water is pretty clear and that has been the case for most of the summer. The water temps are in the mid-70's but I think that is irrelevant at this time of year. Most fish are in their summer patterns and to me the lake is fishing like a few weeks later due to the hot weather recently.

I've heard guys tell me the've been catching them from 8 to 17 feet of water so I decided to let the fish tell me what was going on. I have a few coordinates shallow and decided to check them first and caught nothing. We eventually moved deeper, up to 15 foot and had zero bites there so they must be in between right?

Actually, I have several good waypoints in the 9-12 fow range and that is where we had the best action. I could not catch fish shallow or deep but this depth was a consistent producer today and finding isolated weedbeds in this zone proved to be most productive.

We didn't catch any huge fish, 3 1/2 was probably the biggest but the 2-3 pound fish were cooperative and we probably caught three limits worth total. Most fish were caught on smoke colored tubes fished on 3/8 oz jigheads with a couple coming on a dropshot rig with a gulp minnow on the business end.

If I were to make a plan for Sunday I think I would just look for these isolated "dark spots" that indicate small weedbeds in the 9-12 foot range and throw tubes and grubs and expect to catch about 10-13 pounds. I like to find bigger concentrations of fish and try and catch a limit and if a big fish appears then it's that much better. I don't think this is a pattern that will catch 15 pounds which is what it usually takes to win our club event but I believe it's a solid approach and has earned me a few checks over the years.

One other small note, there is construction on 696 near I-94 so leave yourselves extra time Sunday morning. The traffic shouldn't be bad at 6am but leave a little early to avoid being late. The weatherman is calling for temps around the mid-80's with plenty of sun, enough to see those weedbeds, so bring the sunscreen. Hope to see a good turnout.