St. Lawrence River fishing report 8/17/2011

[Baron49]

After getting my registration number from the CBSA headed out to my favorite spots on the St. Lawrence River.  These spots are close to and in some places are in Canadian waters.  Was a little apprehensive about fishing there, but figured I had done all that was published about registering with Canadian Customs.

Thought today I would fish some old wrecks in about 15 to 25 foot of water.  The water temps were holding around 74 degrees and the water was crystal clear.  In the early morning light before the wind came up I could see all the details of the wrecks even in 20+ feet of water.  First wreck I drop-shotting a 4" worm down and got bit right away, however the fish took me right into the wreck and with the old metal, wood, and zebra mussels got my line shredded.  Moved up to a C-rig with a 14 lb test Gamma leader and got bit and again the fish ducked into the wreck and shredded the line.  Tried my jig and pig rod with 50 lb braid and all the fish would do is bite off both legs of my trailers.  I much as I hate to fish a Senko in deep water I pick up my 7' M spinning rod with 14 lb Fireline and fired the first cast out to the stern of the wreck.  The water there is only about 12 feet deep.  Saw a flash and my line jumped. tightened up the line as I use 3/0 circle hooks when fishing wacky rigged soft stick baits.  A nice 2/12 pound Largemouth came to the boat, after that I caught several more the same way.  I am learning to be more patient and these do work even in deeper water.  Fished several more wrecks the same way until the wind came up.  Caught several largemouths off each wreck.  On a deep drop off next to another wreck I drop-shotted the deeper side and caught several 2 lb Smallmouths.  Not the size I expected, but fun on an UL rod just the same. 

Hit several of my favorite weed lines after the sun was high in the sky and the wind got moving at about 10 to 15 mph.  Had one bite on a beaver and lost the fish.  It appeared the fish were just nipping at the bigger baits.  Got out "ole faithful" a 6'6'' MH spinning rod with 14 lb test Fireline.  This is my favorite finesse fishing rod when I am in the weeds.  The Fireline seems to cut through the weeds better then anything else I have tried on spinning tackle.  Rigged up a 4" finesse worm texas style on a Gammy round bend hook and put a 1/16 oz slip sinker on.  This worked perfectly and I caught several more fish in the 2 1/2 to 3 pound range out of the pockets in the weedlines.  Finally, under an over hanging willow tree after skipping the small worm up under neath I set the hooks on a nice 4 lber  that would be the biggest of the day.

Headed back to the good ole USA waters and decided to take the late afternoon to drop shot some docks that have very deep water and see if I could find some Smallmouths.  Did not catch a single one, but instead started catching Largemouths out of 20 to 30 feet of water on the drop-shot rig.  Was a bit surprised as these spots normally hold Smallies, not complaining as the Largemouth seemed to be schooled up and catching them on the light rod was a good time.

All in all a good day, not sure why the Largemouths were in the normal Smallmouth spots, but the bite was on and small finesse baits and wacky baits were the ticket for the second time this year on two totally different bodies of water.

[TheBossT127]

Great story with excellent details.

[nybass]

nice report baron!! I see youve been using fire line on ur spinning rods ive been debating whether or not to do this i think im gona give it a shot.