Lake Erie Tributaries

Crushing the smallies! Great lake run smallmouth fishing in all the Erie tributaries. Fish are aggressively taken streamers fished upstream and stripped back down. Concentrate on pools where pods of prespawn smallmouth are holding, and try to avoid casting to fish sitting on beds. Remember these are natural populations that are directly correlated to spawning success, so pulling fish off beds isn't necessarily in the species' best interest. Good patterns are olive zonkers or woolly buggers, or even flashy big steelhead patterns in black, blue, olive, and tan. With low and clear water, fish a long leader with a split shot right above the fly to give it a jigging action as it is stripped.