Presque Isle Bay???

[Pittflyguy]

Hey All,

I have been fishing Presque Isle for years and love the species variety. I was up last weekend chasing bronze. Water was super high but managed to catch the latter half of the smallie spawn.

The strange thing is that with the mild winter and early spawn I figured the greenies would have been in full force but we only saw 1 in 3 days.

Anyone know what is going on with the Presque Isle largemouth population? Was scratching my head......

Thanks!

PFG

 

[RLeep2]

Well, the Bay is sort of a part of my home beat, so I'll take a crack at this although I'm not really sure I can tell you anything you don't already know...

For one thing, if you were expecting to find the LMB in the same areas that are usually the best for targeting bedding Presque Isle smallies, I don't think the timing was on your side. With a few exceptions, it was a pretty cool May up here. My guess is that this (perhaps along with the higher water levels) may have delayed the main LMB spawn a bit and that they are just now in full swing and hence may be in significantly more shallow and weedy water now than the best smallie spots, which seem to usually be in more open, sand/cobble bottom sections in say, 3-6 feet of water.

So, that may be part of it.

The only other thing I could offer is that the most recent PFBC biologist report that is posted online (from 2102) showed a fairly significant decline in the overall LMB population, particularly among fish in the say 12-15 or 16Z" class. So, there is that as well..

 

[Pittflyguy]

Yeah, we were actually trying to target them in places where you'd likely expect and just didn't see any. Blue Gills were on beds but no greenies.... Thanks for the insight though. Maybe the next few weeks will change that up? I have heard from a couple people that a once super healthy population of them is almost gone. Not at all sure why.

 

[Solitariolupo]

Usually it's the smallmouth first then the large mouth. Once it warms up a little.
Just something I heard don't know how true but I hear smallmouth are very aggressive and chase a lot of other fish away. So..

 

[Fredrick]

I always wanted to fish this area with some golby patterns. Especially to those meat eating carp.

 

[Pittflyguy]

Yeah Fredrick.... When the game is on it's awesome. Sadly there were none to be had and not enough sunshine for sight fishing to even be much of a possibility.

 

[troutbert]

Are you using a boat?

How practical is it to fish there without a boat?

 

[RLeep2]

T-Bert:

By and large, you can do ok wading in the Bay, particularly for LMB, at least until high summer kicks in and a lot of the near shore habitat that was good in June get kind of stagnant due to low water/O2 exchange. Then, the bass seem to move out to the reed beds and other cover in more open sections of the bay that are not reachable from shore.

You can also do OK on the Bay wading for SMB while they are in on the beds. But the percentage of good smallmouth habitat that can be reached by wading is a lot less than it is for LMB. Much of the best habitat is along shorelines that drop right off to 4 feet or more within a couple steps of shore. A lot this this water is also pretty open to the prevailing winds and 2 foot chops are not unusual. This can make it tough for a guy in a float tube as well, although there are portions of the shoreline too deep to wade where a tube could be used.

 

[AFISHN]

Fredrick...I have been fishing it in late May with my 18ft center console boat.PI and in front of Erie.Been at it about 7 years and missed it this year,because I couldn't find anyone to do it with (intruders with prime trout fishing).
If your interested, in May 2018 let me know...usually a 5 day trip.Kill a day each way towing a boat.The big advantage in a sw boat is the water can be too rough on Erie for a bass boat

 

[AFISHN]

Fredrick...I have been fishing it in late May with my 18ft center console boat.PI and in front of Erie.Been at it about 7 years and missed it this year,because I couldn't find anyone to do it with (intruders with prime trout fishing).
If your interested, in May 2018 let me know...usually a 5 day trip.Kill a day each way towing a boat.The big advantage in a sw boat is the water can be too rough on Erie for a bass boat

 

[Pittflyguy]

Ordinarily there are tons of parts of the bay that are wading accessible. (with normal water levels) A boat opens up a world of opportunity though. The bottom is relatively even and sand so not too many wading hazards to worry about. While the main lake can be pretty rough, Presque Isle tends to have shelter on one side or the other depending on which direction the wind is blowing so there are typically options to be had even without a boat!