Lake St. Clair is known to many smallmouth anglers as a great fishery but you may not know what Kevin VanDam thinks of Lake St. Clair. KVD has said that Lake St. Clair is his favorite smallmouth bass fishery and I was excited to see that he is filming an upcoming show there.
Kevin VanDam Lake St. Clair
Let me tell you right now that Lake St. Clair is the best smallmouth fishery on the planet. I’m amazed at how the lake gets better each year.
I filmed there for more than two days; and while I didn’t catch any mega-giants, I caught numbers of quality fish, including dozens in the 2 1/2- to 3 1/2-pound class and several over four.
Because we were doing shows on specific baits and techniques, I was limited in where and how I fished. Otherwise, I know I would have boated some 5-pluses. The lake has a healthy portion of 5- and 6-pound smallies.
There just isn’t any place like it. It offers a lot of variety with rivers coming into the natural lake, expansive flats, weeds, rocks and nice dropoffs. Some fish live shallow and others deep. It’s that kind of lake.
I caught fish on everything from 3 feet of water with spinnerbaits to 30 feet in the river on drop shots. I caught ’em on crankbaits, swim jigs and tubes. That’s what’s cool – you can catch them with whatever method or lure you choose. Just name your poison and hang onto your rod.
Even though we’re in the depths of summer – one of the hottest I can ever remember for Michigan – the fish continue to bite. They spawned earlier than I can ever recall and have been in summer patterns ever since.
And the best is yet to come! The smallmouth bass will start to really feed up any day now through fall. The best time to catch a trophy is from early August through mid-September as the fish get ready for winter.
I’m telling you, there’s no place like St. Clair, where today is what we call the good ol’ days! Original article here
I don’t know about you but Lake St. Clair is sounding better and better. I don’t have a whole lot of desire to visit Detroit but if I can hook into some smallmouth bass like KVD is talking about, it would be worth the trip.