Elite

A look at Lake St. Clair

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Written by
Mike Suchan
The Northern Swing begins this week with the AFTCO Bassmaster Elite at Lake St. Clair, Thursday through Sunday. It will be the 12th pro level B.A.S.S. event and fifth Elite tournament on the massive smallmouth fishery, once designated the sixth Great Lake.
Lake St. Clair is a famed smallmouth fishery in the middle of the world’s largest freshwater system. The heart-shaped lake between Lakes Huron and Erie covers about 430 square miles and has an average depth of 11 feet.
St. Clair is pretty much a shallow bowl, with the Great Lakes largest delta on the north end. Boundaries for the event include Canadian waters, with stipulations of not allowing anglers to set foot on land or anchor down, and extend into Lake Huron and Lake Erie.
Ranking seventh in Bassmaster Magazine’s Best Bass Lakes this year, St. Clair accounts for a third of the entire Great Lakes sport fishing catch each year and nearly half the entire fishing effort. There are approximately 150,000 registered watercraft on the U.S. side of the lake.  
Tournament central is Brandenburg Park, 50050 Jefferson Avenue in New Baltimore on the northwestern end of the lake. Takeoffs are set for 7 a.m. ET with weigh-ins scheduled for 2 p.m. ET daily. All B.A.S.S. events are free to attend, including the amped-up Expo that’s part of Macomb County’s Bass, Brews and BBQ Festival.
The most recent Elite on St. Clair was in 2020, and it produced one of the tightest finishes. Alabama’s Bill Weidler had the final day’s big bag of 22 pounds, 13 ounces to win with a total of 86-7.
Canadian brothers Cory (above) and Chris Johnston are always players in smallmouth events, and both made the Top 10. Cory and John Cox, along with Cody Hollen, were separated by 1 ounce when Championship Sunday began. Chris finished sixth, and Cory, who failed to top 20 pounds for the first time, was second by half a pound. Three others were within 1-5 of Weidler.
Weidler started Championship Sunday in eighth and had no idea he’d get comfortable on the Yeti Hot Seat. Going into the event, he had just been hoping for a decent finish. Weidler was cold on his first-day run and stopped to warm up. He ending up winning from that area.
Seth Feider said that’s an issue with St. Clair – that anglers can be fortunate to cross paths with the winning fish. Feider won three-day AOY Championship in 2019 on St. Clair with 77-15. He said it was the only time he’s found smallmouth there schooled up on a particular spot.
Feider also admitted that he was lucky. On Day 1, winds prevented the run to his school, and he found himself alone on a community hole. He caught a 6-12, the biggest bass of the event, in his leading limit of 26-12.
Winds can build treacherous waves on the fishery, as experienced by the field, including Chris Zaldain, in 2019. “The nice thing is, St. Clair is almost always fishable,” said Garrett Paquette, an Opens pro from Canton, Mich. “It would take a super-strong wind to not be able to navigate. To me, it is for the better. Wind allows you to cover water and triggers the fish to feed.”
There’s some inclement weather forecast during tournament week, including several storms, but again, wind is among the greatest considerations. “Erie is notorious for getting really rough,” Paquette said. “There have been some bigger bags of fish caught in Erie the last few years.”
Chad Pipkens, who won a 2014 Open on St. Clair, might be among the anglers who travel in hopes of finding monster bass in Lake Erie. Pipkens made the 70-mile run worth it, improving his limit about a pound each day to finish with 67-4 to reach his first Classic.
The potential for big fish is a draw to Erie. Last November, the first double-digit smallmouth in the Great Lakes was caught there. Grant Gallagher holds the behemoth, a 10.15-pounder that ranks as the fifth-largest smallmouth, caught by his father, Gregg.
Besides the title and its $100,000 first-place check, anglers will be chasing critical points in the Progressive Bassmaster Angler of the Year race, Classic qualifying and to re-qualify for the series. Kyle Welcher leads the standings that are topped by southern pros. There are about two dozen anglers who could move inside or fall outside the Classic cutoff of 40th.
Action gets under way at 7 a.m. ET Thursday. Bassmaster LIVE begins at 8 a.m. ET Thursday and Friday on Bassmaster.com, Tubi and the FOX Sports platforms, and FS1 will broadcast live with the tournament leaders Saturday and Sunday.

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