Personal Erie Summer Best

After a successful half day charter on Sat I decided to scout some water that I don't usually fish. I had some crayfish left over so I decided to use the remaining dozen up. I drove around for some time looking for the furthest and deepest transition from soft to hard bottom on this particular shoal. I used my Lowrance X27 equipped with a broadband sounder to find a drop at the end of the shoal from 29 to 35 feet. It looked to have several boulders with hooks around them. The new Lowrance HDS units come with built in broadband in them. Its an awesome tool when scouting for deep structure and fish. I put a crayfish on my drop shot rig and lowered it down. As I drifted up the slope I felt that distinct dropshot bite and raised my rod and began reeling. I knew it was a good fish and my suspicions where verified when the smallmouth rocketed out of the water. After a stressful battle on six lb test the fish was in the net. I was shocked when I lifted the fish from the net, I hadn't really seen a fish this big since the spring NY trophy season. The fish measured 6 lbs 4 ozs and measured 22 inches long. I have caught alot of 6 lb fish but most of them in the spring. This fish was truly a tank. I suspect it would go 7 lbs in the spring. I tried to duplicate my luck but only managed to catch much smaller fish from the spot. This fish must have been a loner. I wish I had more time to just drive around and look for spots like this. When your electronics perform like this it makes exploring alot of fun.

Mid summer smallmouth on Erie

Smallmouth fishing on lake Erie has been tremendous so far this summer. Many 30-50 fish days with some fish to 5 lbs. The warm weather really has them revved up, the fish are fighting so hard and the arial accrobatics are spectacular with some fish jumping as high as 4 feet out of the water! Drifting dropshot rigs with soft plastics has been deadly. See you on the water.