smallmouth

[walleye33]

Thanks again for all the information. One more question. I am coming up thursday and staying until sunday. My friend wants to fish for smallmouth. Any suggestions on areas to fish and techniques to use.

[Walidave]

I love those fiesty bronzebacks!
You should have no problem catching them on most reefs using tube jig
Taking season is closed it opens end of june
good luck
we caught and realesed numerous 5 plus fish early this spring and one that went 6-4, .

[walleye33]

Thank you Walidave for the information. We are mainly going after walleyes but just want to take a break through out the day. I will let you know how we do.

[JMusic]

I'll let you in on another good eater its called red eyes or in Ohio rock bass. Full of eggs and taste like blue gill. You will catch smallies in the same area. Jig the docks and don't forget about jigging around the lights after dark,


Jim

[West Basin]

One thing to keep in mind about Lake Erie smallmouth fishing before the legal harvest season opens; if you do, you are helping to decrease the population of smallmouth.

The bass are spawning. The invasive species the Round Goby is all around the Smallmouth redds (nests). If the smallmouth guarding the eggs leaves the redd for even a minute, the gobies immediately move in and begin eating the eggs. When you catch one of these nest guarding smallmouth and take it off the nest for 5 minutes, the gobies will have eaten many of the eggs, if not most of them.

I have seen this first hand when scuba diving, and not just with smallmouth. The gobies are nortorious egg eaters, they even eat their own species eggs (I've watched this first hand also).

SO, if you fish for smallmouth before the spawning season is over, you are directly helping to degrade the fishery. You may have some fisherman tell you this either isn't true or not a big deal. I'd love to take those guys underwater and show them just how fast the gobies invade an open fish redd. I have video of this, so anyone who wants to challenge it is more than welcome to contact me.

West Basin

[Jfish]

One thing to keep in mind about Lake Erie smallmouth fishing before the legal harvest season opens; if you do, you are helping to decrease the population of smallmouth.

The bass are spawning. The invasive species the Round Goby is all around the Smallmouth redds (nests). If the smallmouth guarding the eggs leaves the redd for even a minute, the gobies immediately move in and begin eating the eggs. When you catch one of these nest guarding smallmouth and take it off the nest for 5 minutes, the gobies will have eaten many of the eggs, if not most of them.

I have seen this first hand when scuba diving, and not just with smallmouth. The gobies are nortorious egg eaters, they even eat their own species eggs (I've watched this first hand also).

SO, if you fish for smallmouth before the spawning season is over, you are directly helping to degrade the fishery. You may have some fisherman tell you this either isn't true or not a big deal. I'd love to take those guys underwater and show them just how fast the gobies invade an open fish redd. I have video of this, so anyone who wants to challenge it is more than welcome to contact me.

West Basin

Thank you for posting this.

I sure hope that all of those that can't wait until the end of June think twice before they fish for Smallmouth during their spawn.