The Mr Bass West, 2 day event was part of the Pennsylvania Bass Federation tournament schedule and i was looking forward to fish this body of water. Lake Erie fishermen always brag about the size of their smallmouth. Most other lakes the largemouth bass is king; because it weighs more, but Lake Erie the smallmouth is the king, 5-6# smallmouth are not un-common.

I asked Centre Sportsman’s Marketing and Advertising Director Jim Brown if he wanted to fish this tournament with me, he said” he never fished Lake Erie and always wanted to try his luck, and yes he was interested.

” Boy was he in for a surprise”!

I gave him a briefing on lures and tactics that work best. Dragging a tube and drop shotting are two of the most productive tactics on Lake Erie and the lures are green pumpkin tubes, (Slamming tubes and Powerbait tubes), and for the drop shotting, 3″ Gulp leech (green pumpkin, goby magic) gets the nod, along with Gulp 3″ minnows and Gulp frys (green pumpkin). http://www.berkley-fishing.com/cat.php?k=95677&sk=95677

I started the day drop shotting a 3″ Gulp leech (in the”new” goby magic color), with 10# 100% Trilene Fluorocarbon . I wasn’t fishing long when I felt that familiar tap on the line. I set the hook and a huge smallie  jumped out of the water. I got it to the boat, but lost it when my partner tried to net the fish. I pulled the fish towards the net and it jumped one more time…..GONE!  My jaw dropped with disappointment, “WOW what a big fish” my partner said. ” That fish was definitely over 5#s”.   After a moment of disblief  i gathered my composure and starting fishing again. I was hoping for another chance at a Lake Erie giant smallmouth. I caught a lot of short keepers (must be 15″) that day and moments later….bam!…. another 5# smallie. I didn’t lose this one… with the guidance of my partner,…he said “take your time with this fish”. I landed a beautiful 5# + smallie. I had a 4 fish limit of nice fish, but needed to replace the smaller ones….imagine a 2# smallmouth,too small, and needs to be replaced. Several fish later i managed to catch a 4+# smallie and upgraded my limit. I was happy now!

Jim Brown caught several nice smallmouth dragging a Green Pumpkin/Chartreuse Slammin Tube. He was very impressed with the large size of the smallmouths, and wants to return to Lake Erie.

Jim did well in the tournament, he placed 5th, and I placed 8th.  For a rookie tournament fisherman he did a great job.

….(a blind squirrel finds an acorn sometimes)….

Day 2 of the tournament small craft warnings made the lake off limits to fishing, so we had to fish in the bay. Sevier storms and lightning hampered the day and the fishing was slow.

I promise we will film a show on the how-to’s of fishing for smallmouth bass on Lake Erie if you promise me you will release the fish!

This fishery needs to be protected. All the bass in the tournament where released to fight another day.

What a weekend, …..an exhausted Scott

Who said there is only one way to fish a lure? Most fisherman know that you can Texas Rig and Wacky Rig a senko style lure…..but did you know that you can Carolina Rig it too? You can Carolina Rig just about any lure, worms, creature baits, tubes, Slammin Sink Worms and Slammin Beavers.      

 That is what my Centre Sportsman Pro Staffer, Herb Wadsworth does, he is the Carolina Rigging king! He always has several Carolina Rig rods on his boat at all times. He says” the Carolina Rig is his favorite way to fish, because you can cover a lot of water and it gives the lure a slow presentation.

What is a Carolina Rig? Basically the Carolina Rig is a weight, bead and barrel swivel attached to the main line and 12”-18” leader of fluorocarbon or mono tied to the other side of the barrel swivel, and a hook. The hook size is determined by the body size of the bait, 3/0 is the basic all around size.  

Fishing the Carolina Rig has a technique of its own, casting and retrieving are different than a basic fishing style. You lob cast the bait and use the rod to sweep the rig slowly back to the boat.  When you feel the strike sweep the rod back…not up!

We started fishing down the mountain side of Sayers Dam and it didn’t take long for Herb to hook up with a nice largemouth bass. “Hey they are biting today….great!” said Herb. Herb was fishing a Slammin Beaver bait and I was fishing the Slammin Sink Worm.  Both of us were fishing the baits Carolina Rig style.

We caught several fish down the mountain side (the side of the lake that the Bald Eagle Mountain meets the water) that morning. The trick to fishing the mountain side is….fish deeper than normal, because the old railroad bed runs parallel with the shoreline. The bass like to stage on the deeper side of the railroad bed and there is a ton of rocks.  Another trick is when you feel  hung up on a rock….don’t pull on your line but move directly above your bait and give it a pop with your rod tip. Most of the time this will get your Carolina Rig un-stuck.

We decided to move to one of the many road beds that are hidden at Sayers and fish them. (HINT: when at Sayers always fish the roadbeds) The bigger bass already moved out to the deeper road beds. The females are always the first to leave the spawning area, and they start to feed up.  I caught several nice smallies off of the roadbed in front of the Howard ramp.

Conclusion:  want to fish something different? Try a Carolina Rig with your favorite lure, or try Centre Sportsman’s Slammin Sink Worm or Slammin Beaver. Fish the roadbeds on Sayers, and you will be successful, “that’s guaranteed!”

Tight lines, Scott

When I first saw Lake Champlain I must admit it was a bit intimidating with the size of lake. Over 100 miles long!….but we planned to fish the northern end of the lake, just north of Plattsburgh, New York.

My first thoughts were ……..”where does one start fishing?”  So I got a map out and said to my brother-in-law Mike, let’s start shallow and work our way deeper.  The bass should be shallow and just finishing up the spawn.  I tied on a Slammin Shad bait and started twitching it over the flats in the back of a cove.  Well it didn’t take long and a smallmouth smashed the bait.  The smallies in the flats ranged from 1#-3#’s, nice fish, but we were after the bigger smallmouth.  My brother-in-law Mike tied a Slammin Sink Worm and slowly fished the bait back to the boat. The lure soon enticed a strike and he caught a nice smallie, about 2#’s. We both caught a lot of smaller fish but the shad bait produced more strikes.  The bass were keying on minnow baits.  We had a plan, one guy fish a faster bait (Slammin Shad) and the other throw a slower bait( Slammin Sink worm); we use this strategy a lot to determine the mood of the fish. Then we fish with the bait the fish want.  …DAH !

The next day we moved to one of the shoals and we started to catch bigger smallmouth. My son Dana went along and he had fun catching big smallies on topwater, “I can’t believe this lake….fish everywhere!” he said.

We caught smallies with topwater baits, Slammin Tubes, Slammin Beavers, Slammin Sink Worms and my favorite, Slammin Shads.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wNeA5OXq7s

We did catch nice largemouth back in the bays that had reeds and weeds. The largemouth were hitting Slammin sink worms Texas rigged. I would look for the reeds that had the most clumps of reeds, say three or more together. Just toss the bait in the reeds and hang on.  One thing I noticed  the bigger bass were in one section of the bay. I could see dark and light bottom transitions, and that’s were the bigger bass were located. I caught several 3#-4# with a Texas rig Slammin Sink Worm.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQspjJEFk9Y

BAITS: The Slammin Shad is a plastic jerkbait that has a lot of action, plus you can kill the bait and watch it slowly fall to the bottom, and if you see the bait disappear….SET THE HOOK !

I rig the Slammin Shad with a #5 sickle hook , fluorocarbon leader and the main line, Fireline. “I love the stuff”.  The Fireline helps with the hook set.  Try a white Slammin Shad when you have clear water conditions, the fish will smash the bait.

The Slammin Sink Worm is a senko style worm that does it all. You can Texas rig it or wacky rig it. I Texas rig the worm when I am casting to an object, such as wood, thick weeds..etc.  Wacky style is when I am fishing open water and the fish want a slow presentation.  I wacky rig the weeds when there is pockets or openings in the weeds. This is a KILLER of a rig. 

Try a Slammin Sink Worm when you have open pockets of deep weeds.

Conclusion: We caught hundreds of bass and that’s no CHAMP story( Lake Monster that is supposed to live in Lake Champlain).

 Lake Champlain has some of the best bass fishing on the east coast, PERIOD!  WOW that was a fun week.

later……..a worn out Scott!

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