FISHING REPORT

Hello fishing fans! It’s July 4th - thanks for joining us for the Long Cast Guide Service fishing report. I’m Captain Kevin Long and here it is…

Scientific Stuff

Water Temp: 72-77 pm
Air Temp: High 70s, low 80s

Water Clarity: Good in many areas, greenish tint over many miles too.

Weather: Unusually high temperatures! Quite a bit of wind at the end of June with a few thunderstorms building in the afternoons.

Lake St. Clair Fishing Report

The smallmouth bass fishing on Lake St. Clair was a lot of fun on shallow water, post spawn fish during the first two weeks of June this year. We had strong mayfly hatches this June, and on the rare calm morning fish were busting everywhere. It was pretty cool!

The third week of June put most of the fish in transition, and we had to hit a lot of places from shallow to deep to catch a good number of smallies. Beginning last week, many of the fish have started to school up on certain deeper summer places. The smallies have put on some weight from the mayflies, and are now feeding on a lot of crawfish. Even the 2 pound fish all have nice bellies right now. For Derek Holmes (the manager of Gander Mountain in Pontiac, who says I never post numbers) we have averaged 46 bass per day on my last 5 smallmouth trips.

The summer months are a lot of fun to fish, with large schools of smallmouth ganging up on deep weed beds and rock piles. I have been working on a deep crankbait pattern the past couple seasons that has been paying off lately, and it should continue to hold for the next month or so.

The main lake basin of Lake St. Clair should stay strong though July, but I anticipate a good River bite in August and September this year as well.

Detroit River Musky Fishing Report

The Detroit River is producing 3-5 bites per day on musky jigging trips. We seem to be catching a good number of smaller fish than in years past, fish in the low to high 30 inch range. This is a great indication that we have some really strong musky fishing to look forward to over the next couple of seasons.

The casting bite has not really been happening this year on the Detroit River, probably because of the weather trend this season. Hot sunny days generally push fish down on the river edges, where jigging is the strongest pattern.

I was fortunate to find a couple new places last week that have produced several fish in the mid 40 inch range. This is pretty exciting, because these are small, hard to find places in a stretch of river that no musky fishermen target!

The peak bite for musky on the Detroit River is through mid July, than the St. Clair River generally gets hot. This year, because of the warm water temperatures, I feel that the St. Clair River bite will be stronger than normal, with fish digging the cool water coming down from Lake Huron. I have been wrong many times before, but I am confident on this call…

Tip of the Month

Musky Jigging Leaders

With the movement towards fluorocarbon leaders by musky fishermen over the past couple of seasons, I decided it was time to get in on the trend, hoping to get a few more bites. As far as casting goes, flouro leaders are the bomb. To save a LOT of money, tie your own using 90 pound Fluorocarbon leader material and a canoe knot. (To learn the canoe knot, check out thenextbite.com, and enter ‘canoe knot’ in their search box.)

For jigging applications, especially in fast current with wicked bottoms such as the Detroit and St. Clair Rivers, I have come to the conclusion that Fluorocarbon leaders stink. We lost between one and four jigging baits per day for a week, while in the past I would only loose this many lures in an entire season! The fluorocarbon simply cannot take the pounding of jagged rocks, cement chunks and rebar that many of our river ledges contain. For jigging in rivers, stick to stranded wire leaders in the 90-150 pound range.

A final tip to free the inevitable snagged lure is to jump on the big motor and idle up current of the bait. Apply medium pressure, and the lure will usually pop free. If you remain snagged, try changing your upstream angle, apply medium pressure, and that should do the trick!!

What’s a-happenin’

If you are in town this week looking for something to do off the water check out:

The Blue Goose Inn

28911 Jefferson

St. Clair Shores, MI 48081

Voted best blues bar in Metro Detroit - twice!!

Live music every Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday

(4 miles from most motels, and 1.5 miles from our main boat ramp)

Check out bluegooseinn.net for band schedules!

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A special thanks is in order to all of my fine clients who have kept me extremely

busy over the past couple of weeks! It was great seeing some old friends and

meeting some new ones. I sincerely appreciate your business!

Captain Kevin Long