Rapala Husky Jerk produces trophy Lake Erie, NY Smallmouth Bass.
Posted on June 13th, 2009Tony Brecknock, John Cowie and I targeted “post-spawn”, trophy smallmouth bass on the NY side of Lake Erie yesterday. Conditions at 8am where cool and overcast as we headed across Lake Erie to the NY-side.
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It took as about 1/2 hr. to locate some big smallmouth bass, but as soon as we did, John Cowie and Tony Brecknock hooked a double-header. Tonys fish ended up being the biggest fish of the day.
To our surprise, over the last week weeds had grown several feet high in 7-12′ of water making it challenging to fish the Rapala Husky Jerk #13 without getting weeds on the lure.
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Twitching with stiffer Rapala R-Type & ST2 rods along with the Rapala Taitanium Line made it easy for us to “rip” the Husky Jerk right through the weeds.
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John Cowie also landed a chunky largemouth bass that was mixed-in with the smallmouth.
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In addition to catching the smallmouth & largemouth bass, we ended up also catching sheepshead, pike, and rock bass. Lake Erie water are still pretty cool around the 59C range on most in-shore shoals and reefs.
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As surface water temperatures warm-up, it should make for excellent top-water fishing for smallmouth bass!
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