Hello!

My parents in law have a cottage on Johnson's Island, it is in Sandusky bay and the water surrounding it is 6-10ft deep.  I would like to target the small mouth during this up coming spring and any advice would be appreciated.  I have never targeted small mouth exclusively. 

I have a DSI Lowrance depth finder to help locate structure. 

Depth Map- zoom in

Google Maps

Thanks!

Hello and Welcome to Bass Resource ~

Check out the Bass Resource Article Section.  There's a ton of great info on all things Bass.

Here's a sample http://www.bassresource.com/fishing/spring-smallmouth-fishing.html

A-Jay

Most standard techniques will work depending on water temp and time of year. "Spring" is a pretty broad term. Start with jerk baits once the water is 50 degrees. As the water gets into the mid 50s crank baits will work. Concentrate on emergent weed/rock transitions. You will find many more largemouth than smallmouth in the bay as well as along the Ohio shoreline. You will also find the bay will be EXTREMELY muddy after wind and or rain events. Good Luck!

What time exactly in the spring?

1 hour ago, corn-on-the-rob said:

What time exactly in the spring?

Pre and post spawn.  My understanding is they should be in the drop offs around 15-20 ft during pre spawn and then waves of spawning bass will be cruising the 6-10 ft bay when they are spawning.  Just looking for some specific spots to start so I can pick up on the patterns. 

Any large mouth tips would be great (sorry mods, wasn't planning on many being in the bay when I posted this) as I have a tournament in august around marble head. 

 

Thanks!

what month... 

April-May

There we go!

Okay, as mentioned, there will be a mix of largemouth and smallmouth. In April and May is when the most smallmouth are in there, but you will catch largemouth too. Most other times of the year, it is predominately largemouth in the bay.

Target water from 2ft to 10ft around any rip rap in the bay which is plentiful, and the marinas (especially all the back!) get loaded this time of year, not so much the docks, the interior rock walls in the marina.

If all you threw was squarebills and tubes, you will have a good day. It is pretty hard to identify where smallmouth will be vs largemouth, most of the times you'll just fish each area the same way but some areas hold SM, some hold LM, and some hold both so don't get stuck on species.

The big marina inside johnson's island will be more likely LM and crappie but a great area. The rockwalls inside Venetian marina, cedar point marina, or sandusky bay marina are hot and do hold SM at times. Other than if you target any of the bridges, stay shallow, throw the two baits I mentioned, and you should do well. I will mention that often times just because one marina was not getting bites, other ones in basically the same conditions can be on fire.

 

goodluck, if you have any other questions let me know.