Guided Bass Trips 6/23-6/28

[GuidedBassTrips]

I have been very busy recently with guided bass trips on both Black Lake and the St. Lawrence River. Black Lake has continued to be on fire for the largemouth with a very limited smallmouth bite. I have been getting my customers away from the senkos more and taking the time to fish crayfish in smallmouth areas. But they have caught mostly largemouth on those too. It is common for post spawn smallmouth to seemingly disappear for a couple of weeks on Black Lake. I think they will begin to bite better soon. Biggest largemouth have been around 4 lbs each day with of course alot of fish near the 15'' size limit. There have been enough quality fish to satisfy my customers.

Two trips on the St. Lawrence have been out of Chippewa Bay. The smallmouth are still spawning on top of the shoals. We caught some that I believe were pre-spawn. The water temperature on the channel the first trip was 60-62 with mid 60's to low 70's coming back into Chippewa. Tubes and senkos caught all the fish. They have been spawning between 10 and 15 feet and are incredibly healthy. My customers caught several 3 to 3 1/2 lb bass that looked like footballs. We almost had a 5 pounder (4lbs 14oz) the first day. They caught approximately 20-30 bass both days. Some small largemouth were caught in the back of the bay but I did not spend much time targeting them. I'm not sure how long the shallow smallmouths will last. They tend to suddenly dissappear until I can relocate them in deeper areas later on.

[Niagara-eyes]

Captain Randy,
On the Niagara river and eastern end of Lake Erie I have noticed smallmouth SUSPENDED over deeper water adjacent to their spawning areas for 1-3 weeks after the spawn. I think they are feeding on emerald shiners and other baitfish for a little while before returning to their bottom feeding habits of crayfish and gobies. Casting silver/blue and gold/black crankbaits depending on daily conditions works great through the middle of July. After this period I have much better results fishing 3-4" tubes or worms on the bottom.
Maybe there is a similiar pattern for the areas you fish on the ST. Lawrence?

[vinnerbaits]

Hey folks,
I make my own soft baits and am coming up with my staff next week. What soft plastic colors should I be sure to (make) bring in your opinion? Thanks in advance. In past years we found darker colors such as blacks and dark watermelon/ green pumpkin to be productive. With the weeds be more sparse this year per some posters, has that changed tactics or color patterns this year?

[GuidedBassTrips]

I've often thought that is what post-spawn smallmouth do. The Black Lake smallmouth might be swimming under schools of panfish and hard to pinpoint where each day. The St. Lawrence smallmouth might be doing the same and feeding on emarald shiners and perch. It makes sense with the upper water column being warmer they probably aren't ready to go deeper yet.