Smallmouth Bass Lake Ontario

[mullygudger]

My fishing buddy and I have been catching a few nice smallmouth bass and perch in Lake Ontario between Putlneyville and Sodus, in 25 to 35 FOW. Use you electronics to find the schools of bass on the various points and shoals.
Drop shotting with brown or watermellon tube jigs has worked for us.
Had better luck on Saturday with size and numbers, but today was beautiful on the lake. Good news is there seems to be a healthy population of small to medium sized bass and perch, which should bode well for the future.

[BAZOOKAJOE]

Go out of port bay with soft-shelled crabs from now till labor day.   

[Master Basser]

I have been using a very similar technique and have found that smoke with red fleck colored tubes also work well.  I think the key is to find the fish, and if they are active, color is not too important.

[mullygudger]

I have been using a very similar technique and have found that smoke with red fleck colored tubes also work well.  I think the key is to find the fish, and if they are active, color is not too important.

You are probably right Master Basser, but until they stop biting on the water mellon and brown tubes I'll stick with sucess.

[DOORGUY]

Fished out of port bay sunday afternoon, watermellon tubes only managed two smallies and more gobies than you could shake a stick at, anyone else noticing a large number of gobies in the lake this summer?

[Master Basser]

We couldn't keep the gobies off our tube jigs so we switched to drop shotting the tubes and didn't catch anymore.  Couple smallies sounds familiar.

[busler15]

Well I went out Wednesday with my father and his boss on a charter with Dave McCrea out of Henderson Harbor. We caught our limit by 11 and caught many more as well. The fish were spread out. The gobies were very bad as well. We simply used crayfish on bottom in about 30-45 ft of water. You need to keep them raised so the gobies dont get them. Had a blast

[John M]

The Gobi's are bad? If the smallmouth in Ontario follow their brothers in Erie, those Gobi's are like gumdrops for the smallmouth. A NUTRITIONAL BONELESS DELICACY. That the smallmouth are ravishing. Evidence of the gobi's on the smallmouth population can be seen in weigh- ins  on Lake Erie at both the Make a Wish  tournament in May and the recent Elite series  tournament for BASS(ESPN). MAW is a two fish tournament that normally exceed twelve pounds to win. In the elite  tournament it took an AVERAGE of 4.5 lbs to win. That was a limit of five smallies daily over three days. The zebra mussels and gobi's have contributed to an outstanding smallmouth fishery. Are they a nuisance? of course, could they have a detrimental effect in the future or on other species of fish? of course. But the sight feeding smallmouth love them gobi's.

[trapper2003]

was winding in a goby and had a smallie nail it ya bass love them trouble is bass tring to keep gobys away from there nest

[gottum]

The Gobi's are bad? If the smallmouth in Ontario follow their brothers in Erie, those Gobi's are like gumdrops for the smallmouth. A NUTRITIONAL BONELESS DELICACY. That the smallmouth are ravishing. Evidence of the gobi's on the smallmouth population can be seen in weigh- ins  on Lake Erie at both the Make a Wish  tournament in May and the recent Elite series  tournament for BASS(ESPN). MAW is a two fish tournament that normally exceed twelve pounds to win. In the elite  tournament it took an AVERAGE of 4.5 lbs to win. That was a limit of five smallies daily over three days. The zebra mussels and gobi's have contributed to an outstanding smallmouth fishery. Are they a nuisance? of course, could they have a detrimental effect in the future or on other species of fish? of course. But the sight feeding smallmouth love them gobi's.

yup bass love them but there's been BIG SMB is Erie long before the gobies were around- have you ever seen one digested?
they have a very bony head w/ devil like forks sticking out- and they are linked to the spread of VHS in any warm water species that eats them- lots of dead smallies on this end of Lake O-
still think there so great?

[cnyiceguy]

I agree with GOTTUM.  My family members have fished Lake Erie (west-central basin) since the late 70s. Long before Erie became known as one of the "in" places to go for smallmouth. We caught many huge smallies long before gobies and mussels. We could catch all the walleye we wanted, then go fish for bass (C&R). Many times we could catch 40 or 50 bass EACH in the 1 to 3 pound range with some 5+ fish, in July and August!  My nephew fishes some tournaments there now, and it isn't nearly as good in the summer.  Yes, you can catch the big ones around the spawn in May and early June (Make-a-Wish), but numbers are down. Clear water (mussels), nest predation(gobies), and overfishing during the spawn have contributed. Yes, smallies are sight feeders, but the eat each others fry, too.

[mullygudger]

Doorman, drop shotting works better than just fishing a tube jig on the bottom, (where the gobies feed). My tube is tied into my line about 15 inches above the sinker.
My buddy and I went out again on Monday near Sodus and could have caught many large rock bass in 30 FOW, but we were looking for Smallies. Found a few scattered in 13 FOW in boulders on shoals. I think I'm going to hang it up until late August or so when the fall feeding should start.

Fished out of port bay sunday afternoon, watermellon tubes only managed two smallies and more gobies than you could shake a stick at, anyone else noticing a large number of gobies in the lake this summer?