Summertime Bassin

At this time every year the Big bass that were sitting on beds for much of the spring move out to the deeps in search of a summer home and a good food source. For most of these fish that means that one of the several reefs and shoals on Lake Erie's Eastern basin become home for the months of July and August. This past Sunday myself and fellow NPS member Josh Hedden decided to go out in search of these acrobatic creatures. We started where the river meets the lake a few miles up from the peaces bridge on the edge of the marked channel. These waters are known to host bigger bass, walleye and of course the pesky sheepshead. Once we drifted a few times and determined that the size wasnt avalaible we decided to move up one drift to the area known as the ruins. This is where the breakwall of waverly beach resides and is a known hot spot for bass fishing. First 2 drifts we encountered a few 3 pound smallmouth and a few beefy sheep-head. I decided to move a little more into the rubble field to pick of a few big bass that may be hiding in the rocks. Sure enough as we headed towards a section of the breakwall I hook up on a tank 4.5 pound smallmouth that fought like it was its last supper. After that bass was brought in we decided to cut the drift short ond go over that spot one more time at which point Josh hooked up on a 4.51 chunky bass that fought harder than the first one. Since this was josh's first time fishing for smallies on the big water the only thing he could say was "well there goes the record for my personal best Smallmouth bass" as one after another the size kept getting bigger. Lake Erie is starting to turn on for those deeper water Smallmouth and the tube is the trick to getting them and as you can see in the close up picture they will devour the jig when they see it.