# St. Clair/Detroit River report



## bman (Apr 20, 2009)

Thursday - caught about 30 with three just over 3lbs (up to 3-4.) shortened day as we drove up from C-bus in the morning.

Friday - our only full day. As luck would have it, the winds shifted from the east and pushed all sorts of surface grass onto the west shorelines and into the D-River. That and bluebird skies made for a much tougher bite. We ended up with around 30 again but almost all were before and after the dead sea we encountered for a good 6 hr stretch in the middle of the day!

Saturday - fished until 3pm. Much better conditions with winds now from s-sw. caught 23 with big fish going 3-10. I lost my second biggest hooked smallie of my life Saturday and it's going to be on my mind for a while. It shook me off after a great jump - solid fish that would have bumped or even spilled over the 5lb mark. Stinks! But that's fishin'.

Most fish were 14-18" and were caught in anywhere from 3 FOW to 18 FOW. Best baits were traps, spinnerbaits, tubes, finesse plastics.

This is one of my favorite places to fish - and it's not too terrible of a drive from C-Bus which is nice. i need to find a way to fish it again this year!


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## justin3687 (May 29, 2009)

Great report those are some nice looking smallies 

From my Evo


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## Bucket Mouth (Aug 13, 2007)

I've never had the occasion to fish LSC, but I've fished the DR many many times. A great fishery for sure! My top 4 small jaws have all come from there.


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## little guy (Apr 11, 2009)

Hey! I know that spot!!

Nice looking fish. Glad you had a good trip.

LG


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## rdevincenzi (Aug 6, 2008)

Nice fish Brian!!!! With fall coming and Joe in school I'm hopeful for a few more trips out this year. Maybe even a trip up to LSC!!! I'm sure the wife and boys would love it. Great post!!


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## Crazy4Smallmouth (Apr 13, 2004)

I just got back from St Clair and the Detroit R. It was my first trip to either location, but had some experienced guys with me.

Friday we fished St Clair and it was tough. My boat caught about 8 bass in a full day of fishing. We caught about half on the lake and half in the N Channel. Tubes and drop shot! It was very disappointing, but that is fishing. Only saw about three other boats fishing the whole day. Lots of pleasure boating going on though. Lots of rude pleasure boaters too.

Saturday we headed for the Detroit R hoping to avoid another bad day. It was a good move. The DR was much nicer to us, but it still wasn't everything that I was hoping for. We fished the lake just outside the river and caught some quality fish, but we mainly caught small fish. Then we fished the river and the action was steady until the trolling motor finally died and our day ended. I will definitely be back again in about a month. Only a 2.5 hr drive from home and a quality fishery.


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## bman (Apr 20, 2009)

Crazy4Smallmouth said:


> I just got back from St Clair and the Detroit R. It was my first trip to either location, but had some experienced guys with me.
> 
> Friday we fished St Clair and it was tough. My boat caught about 8 bass in a full day of fishing. We caught about half on the lake and half in the N Channel. Tubes and drop shot! It was very disappointing, but that is fishing. Only saw about three other boats fishing the whole day. Lots of pleasure boating going on though. Lots of rude pleasure boaters too.
> 
> Saturday we headed for the Detroit R hoping to avoid another bad day. It was a good move. The DR was much nicer to us, but it still wasn't everything that I was hoping for. We fished the lake just outside the river and caught some quality fish, but we mainly caught small fish. Then we fished the river and the action was steady until the trolling motor finally died and our day ended. I will definitely be back again in about a month. Only a 2.5 hr drive from home and a quality fishery.


Nice smallies in the pictures. Where did you get those? 

You're even closer than I am to LSC/D-River being right off 75. Get up there again this fall! Wish I could do the same. Let us know how you do - never have been there in October - bet you can get into some real pigs then. Good luck!


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## MDBuckeye (Sep 29, 2009)

Nice work on the smallies guys!
I would really like to put some time in the DR sometime. I would probably get a charter first just to show me the ropes and such. I also hear the late fall/early spring walleye bite up there is excellent.

Congrats!


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## Crazy4Smallmouth (Apr 13, 2004)

Hey Bman,

Those smallies in the pics came from Erie PA in May. I was hoping for the same type of fish on the DR and LSC, but it was the wrong time of year this time. However, I know the DR and LSC are both as good as Erie PA in the spring so.... game on next spring! Who knows, maybe even this fall! Although, fishing was tough this time I still found the experience to be great, especially in the DR. I thought that was a blast.


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## Bucket Mouth (Aug 13, 2007)

I fished the DR yesterday, but I fished the lower stretch right near lake erie. It was a tough day to say the least. The wind stunk, we couldn't hold a good line w/ the trolling motor and we couldn't get the anchor to stick real well either.

We caught 11 perch and 10 smallmouth. One smallie was 17" and another was 5". All smalljaws except the big one were under a pound, but we caught all of them on perch rigs in the same spot. Pretty interesting spread. We wanted to smallie fish but the wind just messed it all up.

I saw a school of gar porposing all around our boat. We were in 14 FOW. I'm not sure what they were after but there had to be at least 100 of them. They stuck around for about 10 minutes and then we moved on.


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## Ry440 (May 11, 2011)

How are the wakes up there?? Are they the same as lake erie or are they usually not as bad since its not quite as large? Theres alot of days I cant run my bass boat on erie because of the wakes.


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## bman (Apr 20, 2009)

Ry440 said:


> How are the wakes up there?? Are they the same as lake erie or are they usually not as bad since its not quite as large? Theres alot of days I cant run my bass boat on erie because of the wakes.


Take a look at the first smallie picture in my original post...see the wet deck? That would be courtesy of a huge party boat running right by us at full-bore! Lots of that in the summertime on the D-River, unfortunately.

The waves from wind can be very, very treacherous on the lake due to the size, shape and relatively shallow basin of the lake. Rare is the trip that we don't have to deal some with wind and/or boat traffic on LSC/D-River.

That being said, you just need to be aware of weather and don't chance anything - have some ditch spots pre-marked in case a storm brews up quickly. The boat traffic issue - well, you just have to deal with that. I quickly learned to come off the deck when a big boat barrels past me and creates a large wake. Deck stays much drier that way!


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## Ry440 (May 11, 2011)

bman said:


> Take a look at the first smallie picture in my original post...see the wet deck? That would be courtesy of a huge party boat running right by us at full-bore! Lots of that in the summertime on the D-River, unfortunately.
> 
> The waves from wind can be very, very treacherous on the lake due to the size, shape and relatively shallow basin of the lake. Rare is the trip that we don't have to deal some with wind and/or boat traffic on LSC/D-River.
> 
> That being said, you just need to be aware of weather and don't chance anything - have some ditch spots pre-marked in case a storm brews up quickly. The boat traffic issue - well, you just have to deal with that. I quickly learned to come off the deck when a big boat barrels past me and creates a large wake. Deck stays much drier that way!


Alright thanks bud I appreciate the info!


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