Local fishing guides will tell you that late August and early September are the best times to catch a big smallmouth bass from the St. Lawrence River. Plus there’s the fact that one of the two New York record smallmouth bass, weighing 8 pounds, 4 ounces, was caught from the St. Lawrence River on August 28, 2016. (The other 8-4 came from Lake Erie.)
As Brandon Palaniuk put it, “These fish are fed up and set up.” In other words, they’ve been gobbling gobies since the spawn ended and are bunched mostly around deep structure in the river, rather than being scattered from deep to shallow like they were the last time the Elite Series came here July 20-23, 2017. They’re in a full summertime pattern now.
You can see the evidence in the chart below. Most telling is the fact that the average bass weighed on Day 1 this year was exactly a half-pound heavier than in the 2017 tournament in July. The average bass weighed yesterday was .41 heavier than on Day 2 a year ago.
| Day 2 | 2017 | 2018 |
|
Heaviest limit |
25-0 | 25-13 |
| Big bass | 5-11 | 6-9 |
|
25-lb. limits |
1 | 2 |
|
20-lb. limits |
13 | 34 |
|
50th place |
34-13 | 38-11 |
|
Total lbs. weighed |
1,767-13 | 1,887-14 |
|
Ave. wt./bass |
3.32 lbs. | 3.73 lbs. |
| Day 1 | 2017 | 2018 |
|
Heaviest limit |
24-5 | 27-12 |
|
Big bass |
6-1 | 6-12 |
|
25-lb. limits |
0 | 7 |
|
20-lb. limits |
20 | 52 |
|
50th place |
18-0 | 20-3 |
|
Total lbs. weighed |
1,855-1 | 2,081-6 |
| Ave. wt./bass | 3.45 lbs. | 3.95 lbs. |