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Well, hello there.  It’s been a while since we’ve cast a line, literally and figuratively.  So, I figured with the 2023 Bassmaster Opens EQ season right around the corner, what better time than now to recap what’s been going on here.  Remind me why I stayed in Pennsylvania again (chuckles).  It hasn’t been an overly terrible winter up here along the shores of Lake Erie unless you live in Buffalo.   But after spending the 2016-2019 winters on the St. Johns River, guiding and learning how to understand Florida bass a bit better, these few months during winter can be rough.  Up in our neck

Bass fishing in Erie, PA can be one of the most fun experiences for someone who enjoys catching smallmouth bass.  Lake Erie and Presque Isle Bay consistently rank in Bassmaster’s  top 10 Northern fisheries each season.  The sheer numbers of fish, not to mention the size, can be exceptional.   SPRING SMALLMOUTH BITE Smallmouth bass migrate from the main Lake Erie into Presque Isle Bay and more protected harbors and the surrounding areas.  This is generally the time of year people from all over the Eastern United States, and further, venture up to our neck of the woods in search of our plump, goby fed smallmouth

I don’t like to pick favorites, but the fall smallmouth fishing on Lake Erie is something special.  It can offer incredible fishing as fish essentially move back to a lot of areas they would use in the springtime.  As the thermocline breaks up with increased wave action, fish begin to scatter and use all depths due to oxygen levels becoming more uniform.  Bait moves constantly early on and it can be tough to stay with them initially.  As it cools and becomes more stable, the fishing cranks up ten fold.  Fish are hungry from moving and are having to bulk up for the winter time

Here in the Pennsylvania waters of Lake Erie, summertime usually coincides with the spawn being over and the postspawn period beginning.  As fish migrate from shallow flats, bays and harbors near Presque Isle Bay, they begin to scatter and look for cooler, well oxygenated waters to recoup and start feeding back up again.  Mid-depth breaklines, humps and rock piles are good places to find our recuperating fish first, then moving deeper as the summer progresses.  Find the bait though and you’ll usually collide with the bass.   The thermocline will develop and change with heavy winds and sun penetration.  This can be the hardest period of

We are going to take you through the seasons here on Lake Erie in these next few blogs.  Coming up very soon, we’ll be in our spring season, which is generally a really fun one.  The smallmouth bass largely migrate towards the Presque Isle Bay peninsula area, searching for food, shelter from the wind and prime spawning habitat.  The area around Presque Isle Bay here in Erie, PA, offers all of these things in the springtime.   I often wonder how far these fish will migrate to come here in the spring.  A good friend of mine, Jeff Hippert of Lake Erie Trophy Bass Charters in Buffalo, recently