The past two years I have been fishing the Lake Erie shoreline around the Cleveland area for Largemouths. Thats right I said Largemouths not Smallies. There are no flats in this area because the shoreline was extended by landfilling behind breakwalls. The water is about 15' just off the walls and drops to more than 25' after that. Most of the bass I catch are hooked within 5' of the wall near weed beds. We seem to always catch good numbers of Largemouths but never any over 3 pounds. I would think with the large amount of bait fish in this area plus the size of the body of water we would catch larger fish. We use baits that should catch larger fish but with no luck.

Any help would be appriciated.

Well, I would NEVER fish for green bass when brown is an option, but to answer your question: Try moving out to fish the deeper water with bigger baits. DD22, 1/2 oz jigs and Micro Munch El Gordo tubes are specific suggestions. Another is 3/4 or 1 oz Ledgebuster Single Willow Blade spinnerbait, but with this lure you might get "unlucky" and hook-up one of those smalljaws!

RW,

Thanks for the tip.

I agree, smallies are a blast to catch and have had much luck on Eire. The problem is my boat is to small for the Big Water past the outer breakwall. so my Smallie fishing is limited to when I get out on other boats.

My graph shows that there is not much structure past the weedbeds in the deeper water that I think would hold Largemouths. I will give your suggestions a try and let you know how I do.

I don't know if your have ever fished Eire's Brown Bass but I think you would have a great time. Let me know if you ever need help planning a trip.

Regards,

Gary

(Bugman)

Well, I would NEVER fish for green bass when brown is an option

Amen to that!!!!  8-)

I second that...i really need to get out to lake erie soon,seems like nothing is biting much around here though.