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.