By Adam Broughton
There is no doubt that spotted bass have more in common with smallmouths than largemouths. In fact, when the two are present in the same waters, they will mix to create a hybrid that anglers commonly refer to as the “Meanmouth”—an aggressive critter with war paint across the eye, a big powerful tail and a really bad attitude.
The small lures and finesse techniques commonly used to catch trophy‐sized spotted bass in the South are very similar to those used in the North to catch big smallmouths. And so it was natural that the Georgia boys at SpotSticker Baits wanted to take their spot-fishing expertise up North in May to take advantage of the incredible smallmouth bite on Lake Erie. This was the third SpotSticker trip to Lake Erie, and it’s quickly becoming an annual event. But some of the six guys on the trip had never caught a smallmouth. Would the 800-mile trip due north be worth it? Fishing for an unfamiliar species in unfamiliar water? Here’s what happened…
Leaving Buffalo, NY the first day, the two bass boats pulled up on long stretch of bank and started fishing. Within the first 15 minutes they had boated “trash fish:” two walleye tipping the scales at 8 pounds and 7.5 pounds. With a little exploring, they found the magic depth to be between 20 and 25 feet, which on Lake Erie falls between a ¼ and ¾ miles offshore. This was the region that the shoreline rock transitioned to smooth sand. With each drift along the transition, they would boat a few smallmouths, each time dropping waypoints. As the week progressed, the chart showed tight clusters of waypoints separated by long stretches of blank space. Fishing these hotspots proved productive on nearly every stop using SpotSticker Ball Heads, drop-shot rigs and creature baits. The local standard issue, a 3‐ to 4-inch Goby Tube, was also productive.
“You can literally catch 200 fish per day out there,” said SpotSticker owner Ryan Coleman. “The bigger females move in first, typically the first week in May. Your average size will be 4.5 to 5.5. Our smallest fish the first day out of Dunkirk was 3 pounds. That was the smallest! Our best one was a little over 6.”
While Atlanta was getting pummeled with unseasonably cold weather and flooding, the boys on Lake Erie were enjoying warm sun, light breezes and excellent fishing.
“Everything played out perfectly this year,” said Coleman. “You couldn’t ask for better conditions. It was just pure fishing fun. It was awesome.”
By day five of the trip, the numbers were starting to wear on the anglers. Richey Bolton, of Peachtree City, suffered the worst. Hunched over like an 80-year-old man and shuffling his feet back to the hotel, Bolton summed up the sentiments of the group.
“I can’t stop. It’s like fishing cocaine,” he muttered, seemingly ready to throw in the towel. “Ok. I’ll see you in the morning.”
A tour of the parking-lot trailers made it clear just how few New Yorkers take advantage of the incredible bite: West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky… In fact, most local anglers prefer other species over smallmouths. They like walleye, lake trout and salmon, not smallmouth. Hundreds of large, unpressured, hungry bass? For a southern bass fisherman, this just might be fishing paradise.
For more on SpotSticker Baits, please visit www.spotsticker.com.
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