Queue the wake up yawn with the morning stretch. We are all waking up here in Erie, PA, after a long, hard winter. That means Presque Isle Bay and Lake Erie are thawing as well, and some great fishing is just around the corner. Living here in Erie, PA (Harborcreek now), we all are chomping at the bit once that ice comes off, to get the boats back out and start chasing a multitude of fish: perch, walleye, bass, trout, and panfish, to name a few. There is something for everyone once our ice comes off. But our target, when the ice comes off, is almost always big Lake Erie smallmouth bass.
Fishing for smallmouth bass on Lake Erie and Presque Isle Bay in the spring is world class. It doesn’t take long for their metabolism to start kicking in and for them to start feeding heavily after a long winter locked under the ice. The typical season starts sometime in March or early April. Once the water temps start getting into those upper 30s or low 40s, the bite can be really good. We only target them by casting with artificial. We very much enjoy the technical aspect of the sport and love to share and help other people learn a multitude of techniques I’ve learned over the years while traveling the country and fishing/touring professionally. Some folks have good luck with live bait or by trolling as well. If you prefer this, I could get you in contact with some good options for those, too.
The largemouth fishing in Presque Isle Bay usually gets good around this same time, as they can often ramp up even before the smallmouth thaw out from their deeper water haunts. The perch and panfish bite is usually great early, too, as well as trout (in the streams and in the Lake/Bay), and walleye start kicking some, too.
To stay up to date with the most current Lake Erie and Presque Isle Bay fishing reports, check out our blog, as we’ll be updating them weekly during the peak seasons. We hope you are ready for some great Lake Erie bass fishing this spring!
Tightlines. -Captain Destin
