Meeting my cousin in early May to go fish St Claire and was wondering if ya'll had any suggestions for a smallmouth guide there! A scoper is fine. I'm pretty solid on that outside of not being a bass fisherman.

Thanks!

Slew

What kind of fisherman are you?

If you are going to go for a few days, I would look for a guide that can pull double duty on some musky. Spencer Berman, or anyone in his crew. Jon Bondy is more of a bass guy that musky fishes, im not sure if he still takes clients but look him up, he also has bondy bait co. or did.

Marcels Guide Service. Have done yearly trips with them for probably 6 years now. Best there is up there.

Show KVD did is gonna ruin that place

Cool!! My cousin is trying to book with them but I figured I would ask in case they’re already booked! Be fun to catch a smallie. Caught one on table rock Prefishing the crappie expo years ago.

NFL I chase crappie 99.9 percent of the time but I love any kind of fishing!

That’s a big pond, and far from most people of the people that want to catch them, will be tough to ruin.

Gotta be careful though, you fish with his guides and next thing you know you’re buying a new boat when you get home 😂. Seriously though, he’s a great guide and so are the guides that work for him.

That's a great way to describe it... A big 'ol pond... Most locals don't fish for smallmouths or as they refer to them, trash fish... Walleye is king, followed by perch... Dan

I have made 2 trips to St. Clair with my sons and both were in June. We didn't us use guides, but you can get a lot of good info if you watch some of Zona's videos. That lake is a huge shallow bowl. I think the average depth is something like 11 ft. You have to watch out for the wind though. It can turn that place into a giant washing machine. The roughest water I have ever been on was at St. Clair. We spent most of our time drifting with drop shots on the west side in the Mile Road area. It's pretty easy to find smallies that want to bite through there. Also keep in mind that the US/Canada border runs through the lake, and if you want to fish on the Canada side you will need another fishing license. Good luck and let us know how you do.

Marcel’s Guide service - hands down. I’ve been with him many, many years in a row and I will until I can’t fish anymore.

Zona gets his info from Marcel

People been on Rayburn and said they seen 4’ rollers. You ain’t seen [censored] til you been in St Claire and seen a REAL 4’ roller.

haha thats a fact. St. Clair really isn't fit for a bass boat on a windy day. Way better off in a 20'+ Deep Vee if you want to stay safe and moderately dry. Ranger 620 would be a good start.

My mom has already requested I bring home walleye for her!! If we get on a yellow perch I’m done smallmouth fishing!! Those suckers are delicious too!! I’ve been eying a winter ice fishing trip to devils lake ND to chase perch but devils lake isn’t near anything!!

We’re taking my cousins boat. He’s got a fairly new 21’ Lund with a 250xs. Only thing I’m gonna be missing is the Ultrex and the Livescope! Electric steer motors drive me nuts. I’ll just fish and let him run the boat. Or maybe I fly up with my spare Garmin!! That’s not off the table!

haha, you're for sure going to need to sure get your livescope set up on some sort of mobile mount.

Agree with you on the electric steer trolling motor, but luckily up there you just have to spot lock, or point it into the wind and let it crawl forward slowly, then drift back over or whatever. Not many stumps or other stuff. heck most of those guys run their trolling motors from the back of their boat on a remote haha.

You'll def. need your livescope, you'd better find a way to make it mobile, haha