Tecumseh Reef still good for smallie?

[GaraldT]

Wow that’s crazy. So when you launch, you obviously have someone in the boat while you park the truck? And when you come back to get in the boat you just walk on the dock that’s under the water and hop in the boat which is about ankle deep?

[OhioFisherman]

On 9/2/2019 at 7:51 PM, GaraldT said:

Wow good to know about leeches, I’ll make sure my dad uses those instead of worms next time.

I was mostly drop shotting and had a few bites when we were the reef along with the one fish but mind you we probably only stayed in that area for about a half hour due to some new stronger wind and also my buddy that was with us was getting kind of sick, I told him to pull his skirt up but it didn’t work lol.

Wish we would have just went straight there when we launched instead of stopping at different spots on the way.

 

@Steve Piggott awesome work man. Thanks for the tip on launching using waders. How deep would you have to be to launch there, is the water waste deep before you get in the boat seeing that there’s no dock to access anymore?

Also, what were you guys using when you caught those smallies?

Thanks!

Here in Ohio a lot of bait shops near the Erie Island area sold crawfish and what they called bass minnows in the spring as Smallmouth bait, the so called bass minnows were just hatchery raised Golden Shiners in the 3 - 5 inch range, I can't recall ever seeing leeches for sale here like in Ontario.

Live bait gives you an edge at times, some days while fun fishing it saved a day or trip for me. I am not sure how much the actual type of live bait matters, smallies will take a worm, if you can get past all the other smaller fish that will get to them first.

Them smallies in my avatar are just a couple of many caught in Lake Erie when I lived 1/2 mile from it.

[dave524]

4 hours ago, OhioFisherman said:

Here in Ohio a lot of bait shops near the Erie Island area sold crawfish and what they called bass minnows in the spring as Smallmouth bait, the so called bass minnows were just hatchery raised Golden Shiners in the 3 - 5 inch range, I can't recall ever seeing leeches for sale here like in Ontario.

Fishing smallmouth with dad back in the 60's out of Port Colborne, we would always go to one of the local clay bottomed ponds with a triangular framed , fine meshed net and pick up  several dozen crawfish apiece. Don't think we ever fished them any other way, number 4 or 6 baitholder beak hook and a few splitshot ?. Now you can't do that, illegal to transport crawfish due an invasive species.

Edited September 4, 2019 by dave524

[Old Ironmaker]

 Soft Shell Crabs are no longer sold as bait. I'm not sure if it's illegal to use them. It really wasn't fair as they just hammered them, Large and Smallmouth Bass. We had neighbours that had 6 kids all about a year apart and they would catch them here under rocks close to shore. I paid them a dime for each crawfish. Then they wanted 25 cents and I fired them little shysters. The crabs here have a blue tinge to them so I used a blue Sharpie to tune up my hardware. 

[dave524]

1 hour ago, Old Ironmaker said:

 Soft Shell Crabs are no longer sold as bait. I'm not sure if it's illegal to use them. It really wasn't fair as they just hammered them, Large and Smallmouth Bass. We had neighbours that had 6 kids all about a year apart and they would catch them here under rocks close to shore. I paid them a dime for each crawfish. Then they wanted 25 cents and I fired them little shysters. The crabs here have a blue tinge to them so I used a blue Sharpie to tune up my hardware. 

As I understand it, you can still use them but they must be from the same body of water that you are using them in.

[OhioFisherman]

1 hour ago, Old Ironmaker said:

 Soft Shell Crabs are no longer sold as bait. I'm not sure if it's illegal to use them. It really wasn't fair as they just hammered them, Large and Smallmouth Bass. We had neighbours that had 6 kids all about a year apart and they would catch them here under rocks close to shore. I paid them a dime for each crawfish. Then they wanted 25 cents and I fired them little shysters. The crabs here have a blue tinge to them so I used a blue Sharpie to tune up my hardware. 

A dime? they were like 4.50 a dozen here,  The price in some areas seems to have gone up?

https://www.smithcreekfishfarm.com/index.php/bait/crayfish-for-bait.html

[Old Ironmaker]

20 hours ago, OhioFisherman said:

A dime? they were like 4.50 a dozen here,  The price in some areas seems to have gone up?

https://www.smithcreekfishfarm.com/index.php/bait/crayfish-for-bait.html

I always buy wholesale.