1. by John Cleveland
There are significant perks to being in
the fishing business. One of them is the
opportunity to have customers share
fishing stories and occasionally divulge
details about their favorite places to fish
while I’m working the sport show circuit
representing Eppinger. Sometimes I’m
even lucky enough to have customers
invite me to their favorite fishing
destinations and experience the great
adventures they’ve told me about.
One of our regular customers, Frank
Roggenbuck, has been telling us tales
about the incredible spring smallmouth
fishing in the Thessalon area in Algoma
Country. The Algoma region consists of
over 18,000 square miles of wild Canadian
Shield granite, lush forests and hundreds
of glacial kettle lakes with ribbons of clear,
cool streams. My friend and fishing
partner Mike McGuire decided to make
the trip this past spring. Thessalon is
located 50 miles east of Sault Ste. Marie,
Ontario and the International Bridge is an
excellent base for fishing and outdoor
adventures. There are also motels and
resorts catering to families and sportsmen.
Frank has 28 years of experience
fishing in Algoma Country and explained
the best fishing begins when the water
temperatures reach 40 degrees in spring.
The prime range is 44 to 50 degrees for
smallmouths here. When fishing just after
ice-out, there’s no need to be on the water
early. In the early spring, bass begin to
move into the shallow water in the late
morning, approximately 10 a.m. or so. One
of his early-season strategies is to anchor
off of a shallow point and watch as big,
blocky shadows emerge from the deep,
positioning themselves on shallow sunlit
bays and reefs. Then you can do sight
fishing to the marauding football-sized
shadows cruising below. The fish will
generally stay in the shallows until late
afternoon before moving back into the
deeper waters for the night. We found the
best fishing was over boulder fields, rocky,
submerged points and breaks near deep
drop-offs. The exception was one
particular bay that was full of huge,
aggressive bronzebacks on our last
afternoon fishing a local lake.
Lessons learned
Our first day on the water was a reality
check—we had expected smallmouths to
be leaping into the boat like frogs after the
stories we had heard. An early ice-out had
changed the usual patterns of the bass for
this time of year, creating a less aggressive
bite. I landed my first smallmouth after
three hours of pounding the water with
spoons. I landed my next bass a couple
hours later. We found the fishing
challenging and hoped we could get some
good tips from the crew back at camp.
Much to our surprise, the other guys had
been quite successful and caught good
numbers of big bass. They discovered it
took a very slow retrieve with a long pause
to get the bass to commit. The take was
almost always as the lure sat suspended in
the water column. In the fog of
enthusiasm, Mike and I had continued to
fish hard and fast all day not taking time to
analyze why we weren’t catching. Lesson
learned.
The next two days we slowed
everything down and tried the retrieve
pause mantra with much better results. We
boated 20 to 24 bass with many up to 6
pounds along with pike up to 10. Frank’s
insights were very helpful to us as this was
our first time fishing this region. He
suggests switching out baits every 10 to 15
minutes until you discover what the bass
are seeking out as forage. It would vary
throughout the day as we prospected the
lake. We would usually start with smelt
imitations then switch to leech, crawfish or
other baitfish patterns until we found what
the bass were going to hit as we worked
the varied structure while slowly
maneuvering parallel to shore.
Smallmouths love smelt
Many of these lakes have robust
populations of smelt. These high-protein
forage fish are a favorite snack for
smallmouths. Smelt begin to spawn when
the water temperatures reach 45 degrees,
and the bite can be spectacular on the
sandy flats where they spawn. Large
February 2017Page 94 MidWest Outdoors “Helping you enjoy the outdoors”
Algoma Bronze
The size and quality of smallmouths in the Thessalon area are impressive.
John Cleveland and the boys did catch a few big hawgs
on spoons in deeper water.
The NEW MidWest Outdoors magazine...
SUBSCRIPTION ORDER BLANK
YES, I WANT ❏ $14.95/1 Year
❏ $29.90/2 Years
❏ $44.85/3 Years
❏ New
❏ Renewal
Name ___________________________________________________
Address _________________________________________________
City/State/Zip _____________________________________________
Send to: MidWest Outdoors, 111 Shore Drive, Burr Ridge, IL 60527
3 EASY WAYS TO SUBSCRIBE:
ONLINE MidWestOutdoors.com
PHONE 1-800-606-3474 (FISH)
MAIL 111 Shore Drive, Burr Ridge, IL 60527
Charge my order to my:
Email: _________________________________________________________
Card # _______________________________________ Exp. Date _________
(Please circle one)
Subscribe to the NEW MidWest Outdoors and you will enjoy
your fishing like never before! We've listened to our readers
and heard what Midwest fishermen want in a magazine. The
new MidWest Outdoors provides everything you need to
enjoy your fishing—where to go, what to use and how to use
it—and more! We're loaded to the gills with new articles and
information that you can use.
The new MidWest Outdoors is also more interactive. Many of
the articles will link with digital features on the new website,
MidWestOutdoors.com, including new podcasts, more tips &
techniques and videos galore. MidWestOutdoors.com is view-
able on all devices!
Check out this issue featuring an interview
with the legendary Ron Lindner!
More articles of interest to you!
• New! Marked lake maps
• New! Interactive features
• New! Outdoor cooking
• New! Interviews with the pros
• Easier and more fun to read
2. Eppinger Big Ed flutter spoons in Baitfish
patterns and big Silver Streamers are
especially effective if you are lucky
enough to hit the smelt run. The 50- to 60-
fish days are not unheard of during the
peak of the smelt run, according to Frank.
The ‘Bay of Pigs’
Mike and I fished hard all morning and
he landed a dozen nice bass that ranged 4
to 6 pounds using silver and blue body
baits similar to the Eppinger Sparkle tail
minnows. We took a break for lunch and a
power nap back at our cabin and returned
at 3 p.m. As it turned out, this would be
my afternoon to hit the smallmouth mother
lode using my fly rod. The wind was
blowing out of the north at 15 mph as we
navigated slowly along the points and
breaks casting toward shore while
retrieving with a slow, steady cadence. We
paused often in anticipation of the thump
of a big bass. As we had learned earlier,
smallmouths almost always hit our lures as
they sat suspended and motionless in the
water column. As we rounded a long,
rocky point, we came to the opening of a
10-acre bay with the wind blowing directly
into its mouth, making the surface choppy
and awash with foam. Windblown
shorelines and bays are high-percentage
targets for finding fish as the wind will
blow baitfish into the bay and stir up
aquatic life from the bottom. This creates a
natural feeding trough, thus forming
potentially high concentrations of fish. I
launched a crawfish pattern into the wind
and let the fly sink to the bottom. With the
first strip and pause of the fly, I felt a solid
“thump” as a big bass grabbed my fly and
charged around the bay bulldogging while
trying to shake the fly before coming to
the net. I soon discovered I had hit pay
dirt, as this bay was full of big hungry bass
that enjoyed the crawfish. Smallmouths hit
my fly like a piece of red meat for the next
hour as I brought 12 to 15 fish to the boat,
averaging 4 to 6 pounds with the best
measuring just under 22 inches. They were
exceptionally large-bodied fish with the
brawny girth of a linebacker that put up
spectacular battles on light tackle. At 6
p.m. the wind died down and the bite
turned off.
Equipment recommendations
We equipped ourselves with 6 1/2-foot
medium-weight spinning rods and 12-
pound-test braided line. There are good
quantities of northern pike in these lakes
requiring the use of light wire leaders or
heavy fluorocarbon bite tippets to keep
lures and flies from being bitten off when
ambushed by a pike. When fly fishing for
large smallmouths, I recommend a 7 or 8
weight fly rod so you have control of these
large fish without playing them out to
exhaustion. The more weighted rod will
also help with casting sink-tip lines and
large leech and streamer patterns preferred
by these bass in the spring. I always bring
a few surface plugs for my spinning gear
and poppers and mouse imitations for my
fly rod. There are occasions when bass will
become hyper-aggressive in spring and hit
anything that moves, including surface
presentations.
Lure and fly recommendations
Body baits such as the Eppinger Rattlin
Devle and Sparkle Tail minnows, as well
as other brands of suspending plugs and
swimbaits, all have their days on the water.
Spoons are very versatile in working all
positions in the water column for bass
including Eppinger’s Big Ed flutter spoon,
1/2-ounce Cop E Cats and 3/4-ounce
Klickers. If fly fishing, bring a good
selection of Clouser minnows, Deceivers,
Murdich minnows, Bunny Leeches,
crawfish patterns, mouse imitations and
surface poppers. Colors should include
rainbow smelt, crawfish, blue/silver,
chartreuse, fire tiger, and baitfish patterns
in various shades and colors such as white,
silver, brown and black.
Mike and I learned a lot on our first
attempt at spring smallmouths in Algoma
Country. Though we had expected to catch
more bass, what we did catch were some
of the largest bronze beasts either of us
had ever had the pleasure of encountering.
You can bet next spring we will be back in
early May, prepared to play with these big
bronzebacks of Algoma Country. MWO
John Cleveland may be reached at
john@eppinger.net or by calling 313-582-3205.
Page 95February 2017 MidWest Outdoors “Helping you enjoy the outdoors”
Outstanding
Smallmouth Fishing
es haAll cottag
oup r• Gr
entals• Boat r
yet friendlly• P
ailvates aav
w decksviee lak
Northern Ontario!
lebla
e lakves haavAll cottag•
esortowner@gmail.comchlakerbir
Contact Don St. Jules
chlakerbir
705-842-2219
wimming and outdoor actis
etay gor famillyeat ffoGr
w decksvieee lak
esortowner@gmail.com
Contact Don St. Jules
esort.netchlaker
705-842-2219
vitiesoutdoor actii
hunting,fishing,,,,yaaywaaw
For more information…
Email Algoma Tourism at
info@algomacountry.com or call them at
800-263-2546. Contact Don St. Jules,
owner of Birch Lake Resort, at 705-842-
2219 or visit birchlakeresort.net.
Mike McGuire with a couple of nice shallow-water bass.
Birch Lake Resort made for a convenient base camp while exploring the local lakes.
McGuire casting over a rocky shoal for football-sized
smallmouths.
Please see your local dealer or visit
www.eppinger.net
Toll free 888-771-8277
The Spin N Rex & Classic Rex spoons are a favorite
of freshwater anglers seeking pike and bass in heavy
cover such as thick weedbeds and difficult to reach
shallow water structure. The Rex has the ability
to get to where the fish are and entice them to strike
like no other lure on the market!
The Original
Rex Spoon
by
*All Eppinger lures are
made with pride in the
United States of America
Available in 5 finishes:
» Nickel
» Gold
» Copper
» Black
» Crackle Frog
Available skirt colors:
» Chartreuse
» White
» Black/Blue
» Chartreuse/White
» Chartreuse/Black
