Bass Fishing Jun - Jul 2020 | Page 45

World’s best smallmouth waters present moving targets, mega rewards ENT ESS By Cory Schmidt PHOTO BY ROB MATSUURA The power and enormity of the Great Lakes have been known to occasionally turn the legs of otherwise experienced anglers into Jell-O. Imagine, then, the unstoppable force created by collecting the entire volume of all five Great Lakes – approximately 6 quadrillion gallons – and squeezing it through a relatively narrow downhill corridor toward the ocean. You begin to understand the relentless energy and infinite conveyor belt of aquatic life that is the St. Lawrence River. As bass, walleye and muskie boats float downstream toward the Atlantic at an average clip of around 3 mph, current closer to bottom delivers a never-ending bass food buffet – round gobies, shad, shiners, perch, crayfish and anything else that more or less fits into the jaws of 4- to 7- pound smallmouth bass. Right now, the water level in Lake Ontario, which directly feeds the “St. Larry,” is higher than it’s been in a hundred years. More water means faster flows in the river, and even greater challenges for anglers attempting to position their boats and deliver baits to prime real estate. Certainly, when anglers visit the river for this summer’s Tackle Warehouse FLW TITLE presented by Toyota, they’ll be contending with some formidable flows. The silver lining, whether you’re planning an excursion to the St. Lawrence, Niagara, Detroit or another mega bass river, is this: Current means aggressively biting bronzebacks that grow as large and powerful as any specimens on Earth.