While I rig a grub, fishing partner Dave Lehman fires his first cast of the day. His jigging spoon barely settles to the bottom before he yells, “Fish on! And it’s a big one!”

I drop my rod and grab the landing net. The powerful fish does not yield to pressure from the arched rod. First it pulls left, and then it runs right. From 22 feet deep, the fish starts for the surface only to reverse course. Lehman gains line and then loses some. Gradually, he works the fish to the boat for confirmation. As expected, a big, beautiful smallmouth bass.

As I position the net for scooping the fish, the smallie reacts by diving under the boat. Tense moments follow, but finally the fish is secure in the net.

Lehman checks its weight; the bronzeback registers 6.2 pounds. Just over 20 inches, it is legal size for Pennsylvania’s spring trophy season, but we have no intention of keeping it.  After a couple quick photos, we release it.

“A 6-pounder on my first cast! That’s the way to start the season on Lake Erie,” Lehman said.

Happening Now

Lehman uses a unique spooning technique to lure big smallies.

It wasn’t many years ago bass season did not open until mid-June across most jurisdictions of Lake Erie. Today, special springtime catch-and-release regulations are in effect in Ohio waters, as well as a one-bass trophy season in Pennsylvania and New York. Ontario waters remain closed to springtime bass fishing.

“In the world of smallmouth fishing, Lake Erie is special,” said fishing industry veteran Mark Davis, who visits Lake Erie each spring.

“Anglers tend to hear about a ‘hot’ bass lake after the lake’s prime,” Davis said. “But Lake Erie is in its prime today. Ask 20 experienced anglers where the best place to catch redfish, brook trout or largemouth bass is, and they will name 20 different waters. But ask those same 20 guys where the best place for smallmouth is today, and they all will name Lake Erie. 

“You can fish legendary smallmouth waters like Pickwick Lake, Dale Hollow or the New River and maybe catch a 5-pound smallmouth. But devoting several days on Erie in the spring, you expect to catch a smallmouth over 6 pounds. My personal best is 71/4 pounds.”

Based on bottom topography, 240-mile long Lake Erie is divided into three basins, with the Western Basin the shallowest and the Eastern Basin the deepest. Depending on structures and depths in each basin, smallies spend winter between 25 to 45 feet. At ice-out, bronzebacks begin moving from winter sites to spawning flats over several weeks, staging at key depths along the way. The migration timeline progresses from west to east, following the melting ice.

Using water temperature readings, anglers attempt to predict the position and activity level of bass during spring movement. However, temperature readings can be misleading. The temperature near bottom in deep water is sure to be colder than the surface, and wind storms on the lake disrupt uniform warming. Therefore, keep in mind other factors, such as length of daylight and lunar  periods, also work to keep bass moving toward the shallows.

Ohio’s Bass Islands

“The smallmouth bite begins in late March around the Bass Islands,” said professional bass tournament angler Mike Trombly of Perrysburg, Ohio. “However, if high winds dirty the water, we have trouble catching them early.”

Trombly's chief cold-water lure is a white hair jig, which he swims just above the bottom.

Trombly says in 35-degree water he targets depths of 25 to 35 feet. “A drop of only two feet in the Western Basin may hold a big pack of wintering smallies. You can usually see them on the sonar screen, stacked in an area no larger than the deck of my boat.”

During the coldest water temperature period, Trombly relies on a hand-tied, white hair jig as his primary lure.

“Usually it’s a three-eighths-ounce jig, but I’ll go to a half-ounce when the wind blows. I’m not trying to bang the bottom. Rather I am gliding it over the bottom, just ticking rocks occasionally. A hair jig gets more bites that way.”

On Trombly’s second rod will be a metal, vibrating jig lure called a Vib-E, used for vertical presentation in deep water. “I get right over the fish-holding structure and drop the Vib-E to the bottom,” he said. “Next I’ll pull it off the bottom until I feel it vibrate then let it fall back down. I refer to this as feathering a blade.”

As water warms Trombly says smallies are more willing to hit tubes that are dragged or hopped along the bottom.

During the spring, a Vib-E metal vibrating bait is deadly in the hands of expert deep-water angler Mike Trombly.

“When water temperature stabilizes above 50 degrees, bass begin showing up on spawning flats,” he said. “This is jerkbait time. My preferred jerkbait is Lucky Craft’s Pointer 100, or if the bass are skittish, the smaller Pointer 78. Ghost Minnow or Table Rock Shad are my go-to colors. The   retrieve cadence is snap, snap, pause, with pause lasting from five to 10 seconds.”

Pennsylvania’s North Coast

Over in the Pennsylvania waters of Lake Erie, Dave Lehman has been monitoring the melting ice in Presque Isle, a 3,500-acre, protected bay that is a spring feeding and spawning area for smallmouths.

“I encounter my first smallies in Presque Isle Bay during early April while ice still covers the main lake,” said Lehman, a 30-year veteran of Erie bass fishing. “Migrating from the main lake into the rapidly warming bay, smallies hold in 20 to 25 feet until the shallows hit about 50 degrees. This past season, I caught my first Bay bass in 37-degree water.

“By the third week of April, I head out on the main lake where the water temperature is registering in the mid-40s and deep-water bass are just starting to stir.  My best spots are small, hard bottom rises in 30 to 40 feet of water — rock rubble knobs surrounded by softer material.”

Whether in Presque Isle Bay or on Lake Erie proper, Lehman uses only two lures during the early coldwater period: a jigging spoon and a curl-tail grub.

“I fish a half-ounce Hopkins Spoon with a jig-like horizontal retrieve,” he said. “I let the spoon settle to the bottom and then work it very slowly back to the boat by pulling and shaking it and letting it fall back to the bottom. I’ll include an occasional hard snap, too. Sometimes smallies pick the spoon off the bottom. I rarely fish the spoon shallower than 20 feet.”

With soft-plastic swim-tail grubs, Lehman utilizes a slow, steady, bottom-hugging retrieve. “I like the smoke, 4-inch Galida’s

A swim-tail grub is Dave Lehman's backup when the spoon isn't producing.

Toward the end of May, water temperatures reach the mid 50s, and bass show up on main lake flats. Lehman breaks out crankbaits, including a lipless XCalibur Xr50 and suspending Norman Little N, to target aggressive fish in 8 to 15 feet of water. “Typically these lures do not produce numbers of smallies, but I sure like to feel a big bronze bass slamming one every now and then,” he said.

With warmer water comes clingy moss that attaches to rocks from the shallows out to depths of 25 feet. If the shallow crankbait bite isn’t working, Lehman turns to a drop-shot rig with 4-inch Yum Houdini Worms for deep fish. Dragging it slowly over the bottom like a Carolina rig, the worm remains 10 to 12 inches above the slimy algae. 

In The Shadow Of Buffalo’s Skyline

Lake Erie guide Frank Campbell says the first smallies taken in New York waters each spring come from structure in 25 to 40 feet of water. “The deep breaks in the Eastern Basin are typically drops of 5 to 10 feet,” he said. “Wintering smallies are not necessarily stacked right on the break, but they will be lying on the bottom not far from the drop-off. We start to catch them in 37- or 38-degree water, but the strong bite does not kick in until the water temperature reaches 40 degrees.”

With broken ice cover on the lake near Buffalo until almost May, when smallmouths begin moving they do so rather quickly because of the late start. Under a strong warming trend, smallie schools may move literally overnight along rock rubble points and onto flats.

“We typically have fantastic smallie fishing off the Buffalo Harbor breakwalls by the second week in May,” Campbell said. “Smallies come shallow to feed on emerald shiners and stick around to spawn in the harbor and creek mouths.”

Live emerald shiners on three-way rigs, Gulp Emerald Shiners on drop-shot rigs and Yum Tube jigs comprise the primary presentations for Campbell and his clients as smallies transition from deeper water to shallower water. A controlled drift while dragging either live-bait rigs or tubes is the popular presentation method. If lacking suitable breeze, the trolling motor is used to move the boat.

“But like other areas of the lake, when the water temperature remains steady above 50 degrees, we begin catching smallies on shallower chunk rock flats with more aggressive hard-bait presentations,” Campbell said. “By late May and into early June, jerkbaits rule in 6 to 10 feet of water. Smithwick Rogues, XCalibur Xs4 and Rapala X Rap are my favorites.” 

Although the water is cold, Erie smallmouth fishing is hot in the early spring. Get the jump on anglers who wait until summer.