As consistent as the sun rising and setting each day, each spring, big Lake Erie smallmouth make their pilgrimage to their temporary home in Presque Isle Bay in Erie, Pennsylvania. The timing largely depends on the severity of the winter. If the winter is mild and the water begins warming sometime in February, smallmouth usually arrive in the Bay in good numbers by March. However, if it’s a harsh winter with heavy ice coverage that lingers, it can be early April before we see a strong push of smallmouth into Presque Isle Bay. This year fell into the latter category. Over the past week, though, smallmouth bass from the main body of Lake Erie have started to funnel in to feed up and prepare for their spawning rituals, which will take place over the next couple of months. April is generally the most consistent month for fishing; when you find them, they usually have quite a few friends with them. During this prespawn period, smallmouth bass group up around structures like hard-bottom areas and flats near drop-offs. It’s a great time of year not only to catch good numbers of fish, but also to have a real shot at landing a trophy bass. The big females are carrying extra weight with their eggs and, just like in the fall during the pre-winter feed, this is when they weigh their heaviest. In Presque Isle Bay, a six-pounder is a big fish, but there’s definitely potential for seven-pound-class bass and even larger. The fishery is loaded with three- to four-pound fish, with plenty of five-pounders mixed in as well. It’s truly a world-class smallmouth fishery—and often one of the first places in the Northeast to warm up and become fishable, thanks to its shallowness and relatively southern location. It also offers some wind protection from spring’s volatile weather patterns, but like any cold or big water, always use caution and check resources like NOAA before heading out. We just wrapped up a trip with one of our favorite clients, JD from Ohio. The action started fast—we quickly boated ten fish up to five pounds and kept at it until we tallied sixty bass for the day. The air temps were cold with some scattered flurries early on, but the winds were light, and the sun eventually broke through, making for excellent fishing conditions. Some of the most effective presentations during this time include swimbaits, jerkbaits, blade baits, spoons, tubes, and a variety of other plastics and hard baits as the water warms. If you're looking to get in on some of the most exciting early-season smallmouth fishing around, come join us at Big Fat Bass Guide Service! We still have availability on April 18th (1:30 p.m. to dark), April 23rd, April 30th, and select weekdays in May. Come experience what Lake Erie and Presque Isle Bay have to offer—book your trip with us today! Tight lines, – Captain Destin DeMarion

Presque Isle Bay and Lake Erie is slowly warming up and the big perch bite on fire this spring. March has been a terrific month to tangle with these trophy class perch and early-mid April should be another terrific time to target them as well. I am primarily catching them with artificial baits, utilizing my sonar to efficiently target schools and the biggest fish available. Fish are moving shallow some, but a vast majority are still staging in 10-30' of water a ripe for the picking. The smallmouth bass bite in Presque Isle Bay and Lake Erie is starting to emerge following a hard winter, but I predict the bite to be excellent within the next couple weeks. I only have a couple weekdays left for bass in April (the 23rd and 30th), but could squeeze in a few perch trips in the upcoming week, so make sure to contact us to book now! Tightlines! - Captain Destin DeMarion

Got out for a couple hours this morning on the Bay. It was a bit chilly, but the perch seemed to not mind too much. We fished mostly deeper the other day, but today had the best luck in 10-15' dropshotting plastics with a 1/4 oz tungsten for more feel. Caught a lot of really good keepers. Tightlines! -Captain Destin DeMarion

Open water season is finally here! Like most of us, the cabin fever was very strong up until this point. I used to spend my winter’s guiding in Florida at the St. John’s River and at least breaking up the cabin fever fishing tournaments across the country in the winter, be it when I was on the Bassmaster Elite Series, fishing the Bassmaster Opens, or even the Bassmaster Team Championship. The open water fishing on Lake Erie is largely seasonal, and this “hardwater” period was especially long for us diehard open water guys. The ice fishing on Presque Isle Bay and Lake Erie can be killer, as I used to partake, especially when I was in college at Gannon University right downtown. Now, I take the winter to be more involved with my family, friends, church, and prepare for the open water season. Yesterday, after repacking the boat, checking over safety equipment (definitely check those flares for expiration dates), charging batteries, treating fuel, and rigging a couple Douglas XMatrix rods, it was finally time to get the Phoenix 21 XE out on Presque Isle Bay. The intent was to mostly just check gear and run the engine, but I had to partake in some of the excellent early spring perch fishing Presque Isle Bay offers, too. Surprise, surprise. When I cranked up the Yamaha (first turn, thankfully), I began idling around to listen to the engine and dial back in visually with my graphs. The 250 SHO purred nicely all day and the graphs were as crispy and dialed in as our last trip on December 28th - if you want to dial in your graphs and learn how to interpret them to the highest level, book an electronics trip with me. After getting on plane, I decided to start graphing some no-man's land type areas and eventually settled in to do some perching. Lake Erie jumbo perch are something special. Both Presque Isle Bay and Lake Erie proper offer some excellent perch fishing, and trophy perch at that. Right now they are about ready to pop as they make their way to spawning areas early on after the ice is off. Both deep and shallow areas play, depending on the phase of those particular fish. I mostly focused deep with artificial trying to dial back in on my FFS game with my Active Target 2. It didn’t take long with my drop shot to start picking off fish. They were a bit finicky, but even with all artificial I was able to pluck some nice eating sized fish out of the depths, 15-30’. Some guys were talking about catching some shallow as well, as expected with the 80 degree air temps! It was a beautiful day to be out and there were a few other boats out enjoying the nice day and coming out of winter hibernation here in Erie, PA. My first bass guide trip will be at the end of March, but if you’d like to come catch some perch for dinner, learn how to use both artificial lures, and your electronics to target them, reach out and book a perch fishing trip while that bite is still hot. I can’t wait to get after the bass here in the next week or so. Tightlines! -Captain Destin DeMarion

Queue the wake up yawn with the morning stretch. We are all waking up here in Erie, PA, after a long, hard winter. That means Presque Isle Bay and Lake Erie are thawing as well, and some great fishing is just around the corner. Living here in Erie, PA (Harborcreek now), we all are chomping at the bit once that ice comes off to get the boats back out and start chasing a multitude of fish: perch, walleye, bass, trout, and panfish, to name a few. There is something for everyone once our ice comes off. Our target, when the ice comes off, is almost always big Lake Erie smallmouth bass. Fishing for smallmouth bass on Lake Erie and Presque Isle Bay in the spring is world class. It doesn’t take long for their metabolism to start kicking in and feeding heavily again after a long winter locked under the ice. The typical season starts sometime in March or early April. Once the water temps start getting into those upper 30s or low 40s, the bite can be really good. We only target them by casting with artificial, but some folks have good luck with live bait as well. The largemouth fishing in Presque Isle Bay usually gets good around this same time, as they can often ramp up even before the smallmouth thaw out from their deeper water haunts. The perch and panfish bite is usually great early, too, as well as trout (in the streams and in the Lake/Bay), and walleye start kicking some, too. To stay up to date with the most current Lake Erie and Presque Isle Bay fishing reports, check out our page, as we’ll be updating them weekly during the peak seasons. We hope you are ready for some great Lake Erie bass fishing this year! Tightlines. -Captain Destin

Is is spring yet? After having a few years of milder winters, this year we paid for it up on Lake Erie. As of now, we still have around 95% of ice coverage on the entire lake, with very thick ice, still on places like Presque Isle Bay in certain places. This means, it will take some time for it to melt off. More time than it did last year, where we were enjoying open water fishing beginning in late January! It is good for the ice guys as they are getting a solid ice season and the reports are very good for perch, panfish, and even some walleye. Within the next month or two, we will most likely continue our freeze/thaw period. If I had to guess, we may see some open water fishing by sometime in March. Presque Isle Bay usually thaws at some point in March or earlier (last year). I’m hoping to be getting the boat out there by mid/late-March if conditions permit. If you are taking your own boat, be very careful of remnants of ice still around. They are often not easily visible. Always use extreme caution when fishing in the cold weather months. This period can offer some lights out bass fishing, be it for largemouth or smallmouth in Presque Isle Bay and Lake Erie. For me, once that water hovers around that upper 30-40 degree range, the bite can get hot. With a hard winter this year, it may be a good thing for our bass fishing prospectus in 2025. With less fishing pressure over the past few months and most likely the next month or two, it should get them reset well, and ready to bite once again. The conditions definitely matter during this fishing period, as a good warming trend with some stable weather usually creates a solid bite. With a lot of back and forth in the weather conditions, it will affect them. Some of my favorite early season tactics involve jigging a blade bait, small spoon, jerkbait, and throwing small to medium sized swimbaits and minnow imiations. Especially, with a cold, hard winter, we should get a good shad kill in the Bay this year. When this happens, it offers easy prey for hungry bass. One of the best imitations for these slowly dying shad is a jerkbait. Depending on the depth the fish are using, I’ve had success with a shallow diving or deep diving jerkbait for both largemouth and smallmouth. Cadence is king. The colder and slower moving things are, I typically fish my jerkbait very slow with long pauses (up to 10 seconds or more). But, this is not always set in stone. The fish can surprise you and never be afraid to experiment with cadences if the bite is slow, or if you are getting some bites, but feel like you should be getting more. Blade baits and jigging spoons are ideal off the drop offs and out around the channel in the Bay. I typically throw a 1/4 -1/2 oz Fish Sense Binsky Blade Bait in sexy shad, gold, silver, etc. These are all good baitfish imitations and the fish really key on white/silvery type baitfish early. Much like the jerkbait, I let the water temp and fishes mood dictate how I work my bait. This is a bait I typically vertically jig off the bottom, but it can be effective when fished horizontally in certain situations. When it comes to swimbaits and small, soft plastic minnow imitations on a ballhead type jighead, these are very effective at various levels in the water column. My favorite all-around size for the jighead is 1/4 oz and I almost exclusively throw the Angler Tungsten Eclipse Head with both baits. If you need to keep it down when fishing deeper, I will sometimes go heavier. If I’m fishing it high or in shallower water, I will use something down to even 1/8 oz. Translucent and more solid white, silvery and baitfish type patterns all work well depending on the water clarity. I steer towards more translucent the clearer the water and more solid colors when there is more stain to it. Swimbaits can be effective dragged slowly on the bottom, slow rolled, or fished above the fish. The jighead minnow can be good both deadsticked or fished horizontally. I use a variety of soft plastics, but Keitech swimbaits are a great starting point and for minnow baits, the list is endless of what I use. The Deps Sakamata Shad has been popular over the past few years and I’ve caught a lot of 6 pound class fish on it this past season. If you are looking for any of these baits, Doc’s Tackle, should be stocked up with all the aforementioned baits for springtime fishing. Remember, be safe and smart. Keep tabs on the weather, discussion boards, etc., to get a good beat on whether it’s ideal to get out with your boat on Presque Isle/Lake Erie this spring. Always take extra precautions in the cold weather season as falling in this time of year could be fatal. If you don’t have a boat or don’t want to drag it up here, give us a call at Big Fat Bass Guide Service and we’ll get you on some big prespawn smallmouth this year. Tightlines, Captain Destin.