agrregmies

green brown whatever as long as its a bass I dont care especialy at the end of december

eagle pic

pic of jeff

some more thick ice

another pic

the channel

woke up this morning and decided to be bold and try to pull off 1 more boating trip for bass before a long winters wait, got ahold of jeff cox and met at the ramp on lk erie. we pulled up to 90% of the bay iced over and could see the channel was wedged from side to side with thick ice, I decided to launch and see if I could break it like I had this spring and we were able to get out after some "MAJOR" ice breaking. wonder if skeeter knows they developed an ice breaker/bass boat? it was up to 2 inches thick, the boat would raise up a foot or so then drop through it took about 10 minutes to go a couple hundred yards but we pushed and broke all the way out the channel till what we considered open water only a 1/4" of ice then it was smooth cruising to the pond, a couple times the boat went on top of the ice and got stuck so we jumped on the bow to break the ice under the boat. we cought 16 bass and 14 were 14" or bigger with many fish in the 2 to 3 1/4 range our best 5 each was about the same at about 14lbs. we seen bald eagles all over in the trees we counted 18 at 1 time, what a cool way to end a great seoson of bass fishing. after all the loud grinding and abuse all I could find for damage was my hambys keel shield had several large chunks taken out but the keel appears to be fine and I cant see any scratches on the side allthough it was getting dark and snowing hard guess I will see in the spring when it comes out of the garage.

I feel your pain with the financial setbacks, up until the last couple years that was a foreighn language to me I hope something changes soon with michigans economy. I have a clam 2000 2 man shanty looks like we will be on the hard water real soon lots of ice forming everywhere, I will get ahold of you when its time.

hey brian nice to see you here. water flowing stronger in the clinton is good news, I sure hope st clair gets back up by spring for the smallie spawn but Im sure I will find them regardless, I hate winter but on the other hand its the last season to get ready for the good stuff wish we had a few more days of above freezing weather Id like to get out one more time for the smallmouth on erie but looks like the rod guides would be freezing up from here on out and thats a pain. nice thing about the hot pond is the air temp is allmost allways above freezing so as long as the ice at the ramp is thin enough to launch I will be breaking it with the skeeter and headed to the pond you should have seen the icicles hanging off the trailer when we got back in ;D looks like Im out for the BFL next season I have a plan wich involves saving$$$$ to fish the tour if I get confirmed. it sucks that I cashed checks at 3 or 4 BFL's this year and Im still no where near breaking even so I realy only want to fish stuff that if I cash a check I can put some cash in my pocket instead of still being in debt on the gas card sooo digging out the ice chit eh... me too, I just bought the portable buddy heater at gander last week all I need is some waxies, Im sure we will fish some hard water together soon. ttyl skip

the smallies in breast bay and colchester are going full bore, guys are averaging 50 smallies each with most well over 3 lbs, I went to the hot pond sunday and I got 11 lm and my buddy got 10, we had a couple 3's and about 10 that were 2lbs or better, I got a 5-2 largie in there the week before. by the way the hot pond on lk erie is very dangerous to get to right now due to low water levels and the westerley winds pushing the water levels down so dont try it without someone that is very familier with the pond.

fished the south shore on st clair last weekend and cought plenty of smallmouth, this is the time of year that if you find them you realy find them good and lipless cranks are the ticket in 4 to 8ft. I fish all the way to dec 31st on st clair and erie, down on erie in the city of monroe theres a power plant thats uses water for cooling and they discharge into what we call the hot pond and it starts getting good about now and an average day is 25 fish best 5 about 16lbs mostley largies. it can be snowing and 30 or less degrees in december with water temp on erie in the high 30's but the hot pond water temp will be in the mid 60's and the air temp will stay above freezing becouse of the warm water so it wont foul up the guides with ice. you should see the fog from the hot water and cold air. I will attatch a pic of me and a buddy from dec 30th 2006 in the hot pond off erie we had a little fun team tourney we had 13lbs and 16 won it.

if your near sandiego try american bass anglers its not a club but they have several tournaments and usualy are boater heavy. http://www.americanbassanglers.com/districts2007.php?district=63

up here on st clair the mepps aglia #4 gold blade no hair seems to be best, I also use it on bedding smallies when they wont pick up a jig, they cant stand it slow rolled over the bed, last june I got a 22-4 limit in a ABA tournament and all I threw was a mepps #4 aglia.

Hi guys just joined the site and enjoyed the reading on this topic, you all keep mentioning erie, yep its easy to get 20lb plus limits and they are super hard fighters with nothing short of spectaculer jumps and averaging about 3 1/2 lbs plus but I havent seen mention of lk st clair? on an average day I exceed 18lbs with my best 5 and I get bummed if I dont catch at least 10 2lb plus smallies. If youve never fished st clair your missing out! by the way hardley anyone fishes largies here so 50 + fish days are common in the back canals.