Welcome to TheOhioOutdoors
Wanting to join the rest of our members? Login or sign up today!
Login / Join

Went fishing...again.

brock ratcliff

Dignitary Member
Supporting Member
24,834
247
I'll keep this short. Mason, myself, and my buddy Dan went to Lake St Clair Sunday and fished through Monday. Skipped this morning due to a cold front that has slowed 'em down, and motored on home. We caught fish. Lots of 'em, but not as many as we hoped due to horrible weather.

I was in good company. My buddy, Dan, is an interesting guy. He killed the state record typical back in 1965 or something...it was the record for 25 years or so. It netted 187 6/8. What is most interesting about it is that he killed it with a couple of miles of my grandpa's farm in Vinton Co., and his dad shot one nearly as big 15 minutes before Dan shot his! They look strikingly similar. Outdoor Life paid for the mounting of the deer in return for the rights to the story. Dan is quite an outdoorsman, a muzzleloading fanatic, bow hunter, and one heck of a good fisherman. I've had the pleasure of elk hunting with him in NM, and of course fishing...he adds a lot to the enjoyment of any trip!

Mason and I decided to go to St Clair on a "scouting mission" for my mom. She is a perch fishing nut, and doesn't care if there is even any other fish in the lake...it's all about perch with her. It didn't take a lot of convincing on her part to get me to go have a look around, though we spent the vast majority of our time catching bass, both smallmouth and largemouth. I cannot believe the average size of the fish we caught...they are huge! The smallmouth were nearly all between 16-18 inches, with several over 20". Dan caught two largemouth that were over 21", the largemouth I caught were all between 15 and 18".

Yesterday afternoon it occurred to me we should probably actually look for perch. We did, for maybe a half hour. We caught 10 or so, with only one small one in the bunch. They were 10-12"...nice perch, and I will be happy to give mom my blessing to go to St Clair....she will clean that lake out!:)

Here are some pictures:
 

Attachments

  • Clay-20130811-00965.jpg
    Clay-20130811-00965.jpg
    204.1 KB · Views: 185
  • Clay-20130812-00967.jpg
    Clay-20130812-00967.jpg
    198.6 KB · Views: 213
  • Clay-20130812-00970.jpg
    Clay-20130812-00970.jpg
    180.2 KB · Views: 206
  • Clay-20130812-00971.jpg
    Clay-20130812-00971.jpg
    154 KB · Views: 198
  • Grosse Pointe Farms-20130812-00978.jpg
    Grosse Pointe Farms-20130812-00978.jpg
    31.2 KB · Views: 188
  • Grosse Pointe-20130812-00976.jpg
    Grosse Pointe-20130812-00976.jpg
    185.8 KB · Views: 218
  • Grosse Pointe-20130812-00977.jpg
    Grosse Pointe-20130812-00977.jpg
    132.6 KB · Views: 217
  • IMG-20130811-00954.jpg
    IMG-20130811-00954.jpg
    202.1 KB · Views: 217

brock ratcliff

Dignitary Member
Supporting Member
24,834
247
BTW, here is a crappy pic of Dan's deer, along with the deer his dad shot 15 minutes prior, one ridge over.
 

Attachments

  • Madison-20130811-00953 (1).jpg
    Madison-20130811-00953 (1).jpg
    205.9 KB · Views: 194

brock ratcliff

Dignitary Member
Supporting Member
24,834
247
St Clair is always a great bass location.... Lots of great black bass fishing.....

J, as you know, I about swore off bass fishing 20 years ago. I just don't enjoy it as I once did. However, St Clair is such a unique bass fishery, I actually left a hole full of walleye to continue bass fishing. I kid you not, the swarm of walleye I found was like nothing I've ever stumbled onto. Another fisherman showed up, and I directed him to their exact location. He trolled maybe 50 yards before getting his first of the day, a solid 20" fish. He didn't really need any direction from me as he was a local, and had that hole pegged long before we pointed him to it. Super nice guy, and gave us some really good pointers to some locations I hope to check out on another trip. Everyone we spoke with was that way. The locals are nothing but helpful, really nice folks. You can't say that about every place I fish!
 

"J"

Git Off My Lawn
Supporting Member
56,741
274
North Carolina
J, as you know, I about swore off bass fishing 20 years ago. I just don't enjoy it as I once did. However, St Clair is such a unique bass fishery, I actually left a hole full of walleye to continue bass fishing. I kid you not, the swarm of walleye I found was like nothing I've ever stumbled onto. Another fisherman showed up, and I directed him to their exact location. He trolled maybe 50 yards before getting his first of the day, a solid 20" fish. He didn't really need any direction from me as he was a local, and had that hole pegged long before we pointed him to it. Super nice guy, and gave us some really good pointers to some locations I hope to check out on another trip. Everyone we spoke with was that way. The locals are nothing but helpful, really nice folks. You can't say that about every place I fish!

Sounds great Brock, and you're right most anglers hide there spots like they're gold.....
 

aholdren

Senior Member
Supporting Member
5,178
151
South East Ohio
Wow Brock, Mason don't have a clue how fortunate he is to have a dad like yourself. He is getting some awesome opportunities as a youngster that's for sure. Sounds like his grandmother has some stiff competition with Mason, on who can catch fish.:smiley_clap:
 

brock ratcliff

Dignitary Member
Supporting Member
24,834
247
Wow Brock, Mason don't have a clue how fortunate he is to have a dad like yourself. He is getting some awesome opportunities as a youngster that's for sure. Sounds like his grandmother has some stiff competition with Mason, on who can catch fish.:smiley_clap:

I don't know how "lucky" he is to have me for a dad, but he does get to hunt and fish a whole lot more than I did at his age! :) I strongly feel that a day without fishing (or hunting), at least a little, is a wasted day. I don't think that will ever change, and I hope he feels the same at my age... it will keep him out of trouble.

You are also right about those deer, they do look a LOT alike. A biologist at the time of harvest told them he believed the smaller of the two was likely the father of Dan's. It was an older deer, but the small details in the rack have such a resemblance that they are surely related. I knew Dan's name from the "book" 20 years before I ever met him. We hunted Vinton Co exclusively when I was a kid, and I knew the state record typical came from there along with the lucky hunter's name. When I met my wife, my soon-to-be FIL's best friend was Dan. I felt like I met Babe Ruth, especially after I asked him if he ever hunted Vinton Co. I spent my childhood wondering what hill that deer was shot from. Imagine my surprise when I met the man that shot him and told me it was just out the ridge from my Grandpa's farm! Small world.
 

hickslawns

Dignitary Member
Supporting Member
39,721
248
Ohio
That is an awesome story Brock. Thank you for sharing it. I would say Mason is a lucky lil' feller as well.
 

Kaiser878

Senior Member
2,633
97
ohio
Very cool brock. A buddy and I are planning on going there next year possibly.... did u go out into the lake very far in search of smallies ? Or were they all stacked up everywhere ?

How long did it take into get there ?
 

brock ratcliff

Dignitary Member
Supporting Member
24,834
247
The lake's western shore is Detroit, Zach. We stayed at the north east corner in Anchor Bay. When we arrived Sunday afternoon we put our boat in at a DNR ramp that was close to our rental. I ran over to the dock that was provided with the house, loaded our gear and went back out on the lake. The north end is generally more shallow than the southern end. Dan knows a guide up there, but he generally fishes the south end around Detroit. He told Dan he has been getting into them in 11-13 FOW. With us being at the north end, I looked at my Lowrance, found 10-12 FOW and we headed out. Dan caught a 3 lber on the first cast! It was about a 5 mile run to the location from where we were staying. However, the water was really rough from the enormous pleasure boats, so we continued on hoping to find calmer water. We ran about ten miles south in total before heading back to fish the northern shores. Everyone said we needed to fish deep. However, I again looked at the trusty Lowrance, saw an area that had a unique contour and was close to our home for the night. When we arrived at that spot, there was a defined weedline. I got mighty excited, and on the first cast, I caught a 3 1/2 lb smallie. We eventually fished the shallow side of the weedline (4 FOW). We killed 'em, smallies, largemouth, even had a huge pike chase a bait to the boat. The point being, we caught fish in areas that looked "good" to me on my Lowrance chart... We ran a long way from the house to check areas, but managed to catch fish close to the house as well. We were dealing with a new area that neither of us were familiar with, and a cold front that really slowed things, but we still caught fish.

Dan was on St Clair just last weekend with his SIL. They fished around 9 mile (Southern End), close to Grosse Point. They slayed 'em...like in the hundreds over 2 days. So, Monday evening we trailered the boat and headed down there. We had been within 5 miles of the area on the lake Sunday evening, but with horrible weather, we didn't want to make a 15 mile run and get caught in a storm. Anyway, we fished from 9 Mile down to Grosse Pointe Farms, in 10-14 FOW, as the guide had prescribed. We caught fish, but I couldn't resist finding some structure to throw at... So, we moved up against some sea walls and caught 'em shallow too. With no sunshine, the fish weren't JUST in deeper water weeds, they were shallow too.

I'm no expert on that lake, but after running around for a day and a half on it, I do feel pretty comfortable saying that I'm pretty sure there are enough fish in that hole that anyone can catch 'em! I would also say that I would not want to stray far on that big water without a good chart/gps system like the Lowrance HDS series. I'm not one to boast about products, but I would rather leave my fishing rods at home than that thing. Knowing where you are, and being able to see the lake's subtle changes on big water like that is key to success and safety. Dan had never seen one of these systems in use, and doesn't have one on his boat. We arrived home at 3 yesterday, and he had one ordered by 5.

By the way, here is a pic of a perch... Everyone we spoke with said we couldn't catch nice perch at this time of year.... Apparently, they didn't know what they were talking about. They all said perch fishing was horrible this year...but I don't suppose those folks know what truly horrible perch fishing we are accustomed to on Rocky Fork! :)
 

Attachments

  • IMG-20130812-00983.jpg
    IMG-20130812-00983.jpg
    225.9 KB · Views: 208

finelyshedded

You know what!!!
Supporting Member
31,856
260
SW Ohio
What a great read throughout this trip thread! Sounds like y'all had a great trip and shared some great memories TOO I bet!

Both of those bucks were world class back in that era, a time when just seeing a deer was rare from I've been told. Thanks for sharing the history of how you two met as well, pretty neat story Brock!

My BIL loves LSC and heads up there 2-3 times a year now. Glad you guys caught some feesh and had a great time!