Erie’s Changing Smallmouth Scene

My timing was impeccable for developing a passion for smallmouth bass. I lived near Lake Erie all my life and spent my time pursuing its smallmouths. Over the past decade, Erie emerged as the world’s finest smallmouth fishery—arguably, more smallmouths from 4 to 6 pounds have been caught on Erie during that period than anywhere else. When fishing deep structure in summer, it’s common to catch at least one smallmouth over 5 pounds.

History suggests that Erie’s western basin often acts as an indicator for smallmouth fisheries of the other Great Lakes. If this trend holds true, the famous fisheries of the Thousand Islands, Saginaw Bay, Presque Isle, and Door County may be in for a boom in outsize bass, followed by a decline in size and numbers. Though recent tournament results demonstrate remarkable fishing, I feel that Erie’s western basin bass fishery maybe on the verge of collapse.

Clarity, Forage, Behavior

Exotics can change habitat, and Lake Erie is well known for the introduction of exotic species into the Great Lakes. The most famous case is the introduction of zebra mussels through the ballast water of commercial vessels. “Zebes” adapted immediately to the shallow western basin and, once established, began filtering Erie to unprecedented levels of clarity. Visibility down to 6 feet was once considered ultraclear. Today, visibility to 20 feet is common. Increasing light penetration opened a new world of deeper habitats for smallmouths, which now commonly inhabit flats and structures in the 30- to 40-foot range. My first tournament win on Erie came in 32 feet of water—a depth unheard of for bass fishing at the time.

Today, deep water is understood to be home for the biggest bass on Erie most of the year. Bass under 3 pounds are rarely caught when fishing the deepest structures of the western basin. It’s important to understand that at no time are bass required to inhabit shallow areas other than the first year of life, but that could now change.

Bass in Lake Erie have been discovered spawning at 18 to 22 feet. Underwater cameras reveal the same behaviors exhibited by shallow spawners: Deep-spawning smallmouths look for some kind of object—a stick, a boulder or the hull of a shipwreck. Following the spawn, most bass move out to even deeper structures, where they spend the remainder of the summer and most of the fall.

The best shallow-water spots are close to deep water. These areas produce thanks to exposure to strong, main-lake currents that create feeding opportunities for bass. Some of these shallow areas are so productive that the numbers of big fish seem endless. Last August, two pros and their amateur partners combined to catch 40 bass weighing over 150 pounds in two days from a small, isolated, shallow structure bordered by deep water. Exposed to the heaviest current of the west basin, this spot highlights how smallmouths can flock in huge numbers to small areas.

During that tournament I fished a spot 32 feet deep. I caught only 10 bass over two days, but they weighed 43 pounds. The following weekend the shallow structure failed to produce a single bass, while the deep sanctuaries continued to put fish in the livewell. I believe deep sanctuaries are now the holding areas, the main ambush and feeding spots for smallmouths of the Great Lakes. Smallmouths certainly appear to be roaming less and holding tight to deep cover more than in previous decades.