Photo by Tim Holschlag.

Smallmouth bass fishing along the Ohio and Pennsylvania coastline of Lake Erie during May and into early June is something that every fisherman should experience at least once. It is the best smallmouth bass fishing in the world, and now is the best time to do it. Experience it once, and it will almost certainly become your annual pilgrimage.

Great smallmouth bass fishing may be had along the lakeshore in both states. But of course some places are better than others. Strategic to locating the best smallmouth bass fishing is finding the right kind of bottom structure -- generally, a bottom covered by rocky rubble with irregular depths. Look for humps and dropoffs. Look where the bottom is composed of rocks of various sizes and shapes, as opposed to featureless flat shale or a soft bottom. Also focus on rocky reefs or manmade structures. Typically, depths for the hottest spring fishing will vary, from as shallow as five feet out to about 35 feet.

OHIO
In Ohio’s portion of Lake Erie, it is illegal to keep bass from May 1 through June 29.

“You are still allowed to fish for them,” said Kevin Kayle, an aquatic biology supervisor at the Fairport Fisheries Station.

In 2004, spring bass harvests were stopped in the Ohio portion of Lake Erie out of concern of overharvest. Since that time, the smallmouth bass population has been doing well, and one particularly good year-class has shown an excellent growth rate.

It was once feared that round gobies -- an exotic species introduced in the ballasts of ocean-going ships -- would destroy the smallmouth population. Now research has shown that gobies are the primary forage for smallmouth bass in Lake Erie. Once the bass grow large enough to eat round gobies, their growth spurts.

Ohio has by far the larger portion of Lake Erie, including most of the western basin and the central basin.

The western basin, shallowest of Lake Erie’s three basins, extends west from the Sandusky area. Very little of this water is deeper than 30 feet. To the west of Sandusky is Marblehead. There is good smallmouth structure around this big peninsula.

“To the west,” said Kayle, referring to the western basin, “you’re going to be fishing the area around the islands.

He specifically mentioned the famed and very appropriately named Bass islands. But there are numerous other islands in the western basin. One of the nicest things that islands do for smallmouth bass is create more shoreline, thus providing them a lot of excellent habitat.

Bottom structure around the islands tends to be rocky. There are numerous reefs in this area that do not break the water’s surface, providing more great smallmouth bass habitat.

Fishing tactics can be more diverse in the western basin than in most other portions of the lake because of the shallower water. If you want to catch smallmouth bass on crankbaits, this is likely the place to do it, though most serious smallmouth bass fishermen tend to use jigs.

To pursue smallmouths in the western basin, fishermen launch from ramps at Metzger’s Marsh, Mazurik, East Harbor, Catawba, Dempsey and Turtle Creek -- all state-owned facilities.

Smallmouth bass are abundant in the fertile water of the western basin, but there are not as many smallmouths over 21 inches in this area. Most of the biggest Lake Erie smallmouth bass come out of the central basin or from the eastern basin.