Some BassFans fish the Great Lakes all the time. Others visit only occasionally. If you're the former, you know that the bite's all about the "feel." If you're the latter, many of your questions might concern how to rig to get that "feel."
The truth is, Great Lakes smallmouth fishing as a whole is a no-brainer. Get to a population of fish on a hump or reef, drag a tube or shake a dropshot, and you'll catch fish most of the day.
The problems start when the wind picks up. Suddenly, you can't feel bottom. So you beef up the weight, but then you start getting hung. Then your boat starts to drift too fast. So you go up in weight even more, and the downward spiral begins. It all ends as you pull up to the dock in frustration.
It happens all the time, and it's a shame, but it doesn't have to be that way. There is a system BassFans can use to maintain the right boat position and bottom contact in all but the nastiest weather.
In the following BassFan Pro Fishing Tip, Cleveland, Ohio pro Frank Scalish lays out his Great Lakes smallmouth system. And it works. In fact, he used it to win the Erie Bassmaster Northern Open out of Buffalo, N.Y. in 2004, and again the next year to finish 4th out of Sandusky, Ohio.
It all begins with boat control, Scalish said, and for that you need to come prepared with drift socks – parachute-like items that drag in the water to slow the boat. But they shouldn't be your standard over-the-counter drift socks.
Socks That Rock
"First and foremost, on any of the Great Lakes, you need drift socks, drift socks and more drift socks – the biggest you can find," Scalish said. "If you can find them the size of a tent, get them. And you should have at least three different sizes, but never, ever get a small drift sock. If you need to throw a small one out there, you don't need it. Buy the biggest you can find, then one the next size smaller than that."
He used to have his socks custom-made, but the source dried up. Now he finds his socks from marine dealers that cater to large cabin cruisers and other boats with significant freeboard. He runs as many drift socks off the side cleats as it takes to nearly stop the boat. And with multiple socks out, he can steer the drift.
"The whole key with the drift sock is to slow the boat down so it's barely moving – even in 10-footers – which is why you need the big ones," he noted. "When I won Buffalo, we had 9- to 10-footers and I had my custom-made drift socks. My boat would barely move and that's the key, because you can still throw 1/4- to 3/8-ounce weights."
The Feel
Once the boat-control problem is relatively solved, it's time to figure out the right weight to throw.
"Here's the idea – if you're dragging a tube, what you want to look for is you want it to periodically hit bottom," Scalish said. "You want that thing to go bunk...bunk...bunk. You don't want it constantly grinding. You just keep adding weight until you get the proper drag on your lure.
"It's a periodic bump of the bottom," he added. "You don't want to have zero bottom contact, but you don't want full bottom contact either. You want it to periodically hit bottom every 3 or 4 feet. Obviously, you'll hit bottom more coming up a break vs. coming down, but this is the idea."
Because he uses drift socks, he rarely fishes anything heavier than 3/8-ounce. And surprisingly, he uses comparatively heavy line.
Diameter Matters
Along with a tube, another one of Scalish's go-to rigs in the wind is a 3/8-ounce jighead with a Yum Dinger. He fishes both the tube and jighead on a 7'3" medium-heavy baitcaster.
He keep three setups on deck at all times spooled with 10-, 12- and 14-pound Silver Thread fluorocarbon. Rather than change weights, he uses line size to adjust bottom contact during the drift. If he's grabbing too much bottom, he'll move up in line size to float the bait a little more.
As for the old adage that heavier line means fewer bites in clear water, he said: "That's going to bring a lot of arguments. You hear it from a lot of people that light line gets more bites. I've been fishing Lake Erie my entire life and the only thing that going less than 10-pound has ever done for me is cost me fishing tournaments.
"The zebra mussels down there will nick your line just by touching against it. That could cut your line strength instantly in half. So if you're throwing 6-pound, and you're fighting a 2- or 3-pound smallmouth, that's trouble. If the fish were line-shy, I'd be pressing the fact for 6 or 8, but I don't personally see the difference. And it's fluorocarbon, so they can't see it anyway."
He does stick with 10-pound when dropshotting though, because on that rig the "mussels take the weight" and any nicks usually occur below the hook. Also, line weight does significantly impact lure action on a dropshot. He dropshots a lot, but he uses it primarily as a vertical presentation, so once waves get to the point where he can't stay vertical with a 3/8-ounce weight, he shifts to dragging.
"It's very difficult to dropshot in 7-foot waves – incredibly difficult," he noted. "When I won Buffalo, I couldn't keep the dropshot close enough to the boat, so I had to go to the jighead with a 4-inch Yum Dinger or Erie Darter. I'm not saying you won't catch dropshot fish on a horizontal drag, because you certainly will, but in wind, it gets to the point of, What's more effective?"
Notable
> Scalish, who currently fishes the FLW Series and Bassmaster Opens, is trying to requalify for the Bassmaster Elite Series. He had a rough start in the Southern Opens when he hit a submerged object in Lake George at the St. Johns season-opener and destroyed his hull. He had to take a zero at that event. But he followed up with a 35th at Santee Cooper. In the Central Opens, he finished 34th at the Red River, so he's 34th in the Central points with two events remaining.
> After he tore his hull at the St. Johns, he borrowed a boat to fish the Okeechobee Eastern FLW Series. That boat suffered an electrical failure on day 3. He weighed just one fish on day 3 and finished 144th (realistically, one fish short of a $10,000 check).
> About wanting to return to Elite Series, he said: "It's not a decision over which (tour) is better – it's a money decision based on how I built my sponsor base in the past. I built my sponsors through Bassmaster, so I don't have any FLW-compatible sponsors. And I really like (my title sponsor) OSI Pro Series. I like the people over there, and they've stuck with me through ups and downs, and there's a lot to be said for that."
