The Xtreme Bass Tackle™ – Brown Craw™ makes a comeback

4" Brown Craw tube

This bait was introduced in 2007 along with Sand Craw™, Green Craw™, Hybrid Craw™ and Golden Goby™.  Along with Sand Craw™, the Xtreme Bass Tackle™ Brown Craw™ has distinguished itself as one of the top baits of that year class.  It is effective all year long on both Great Lakes and inland waters.  It is hard to find a better tube color for August through Fall for Lake St. Clair and connecting waters.  It is going to be available in a limited quantity again this August and advance orders have already been taken.  Get a good supply of Brown Craw™ just in time for the “big fish” time of the year before supplies run out.

Bait specs™: Laminated tube – Green pumpkin with small orange and small chartreuse flake on top, a clear belly with true copper flake, small chartreuse flake and medium black flake on the bottom.

As soon as it comes in you can find this bait at:

Nautical Mile BP Tackle Shop – 9 Mile and Jefferson (586) 498-7650

The Bait and Tackle Box – Jefferson and Grosse Ile Parkway (734) 301-3281

Xtreme Bass Tackle – www.xtremebasstackle.com or (877) 485-2223

(c) 2011 Wayne Carpenter

Xtreme Bass Tackle Baits now at the Bait and Tackle Box – Trenton, MI

If you’re launching from Elizabeth Park or Lake Erie Metropark you can now load up on Xtreme Bass Tackle baits nearby.  The Bait and Tackle Box is well stocked and ready to cater to bass anglers of all types.  You will find the parking excellent for boats with trailers and other items you might need like drinks or ice for the day.  When you go in expect to see Paul, Charlie or the owner Dave and expect to get good quality information about the baits and what has been happening on Lake Erie and the Detroit River.

This is the display when it started. It has since been expanded and you will find the top baits at the front of the store

As of this writing The Bait and Tackle Box is the only store with 4″ St. Clair Crayfish™ tubes which have sold out everywhere.  They carry Xtreme Bass Tackle 4″ tubes, 5″ tubes, drop-shot tubes, X-worms, Skirted Twin Tails, Creature Baits, jigs, books, DVD’s and more.

This location couldn’t be more convenient…it’s right at Jefferson and Grosse Ile Parkway!

(c) 2011 Wayne Carpenter

2010 in review

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

Crunchy numbers

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 12,000 times in 2010. That’s about 29 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 180 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 187 posts. There were 236 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 79mb. That’s about 5 pictures per week.

The busiest day of the year was June 14th with 221 views. The most popular post that day was Lake St. Clair – The Color Shift is On 2010.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were greatlakesbass.com, mail.yahoo.com, mail.live.com, webmail.aol.com, and nbaa-bass.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for bass to the future, sonar viewer, tube baits, basstothefuture, and lake st clair chart.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

Lake St. Clair – The Color Shift is On 2010 June 2010

2

Tube Bait Designs with a Purpose – Xtreme Bass Tackle Baits March 2010
7 comments

3

FREE Internet Sources – Lowrance® Sonar Log Viewer April 2010
3 comments

4

JUST RELEASED! New Fishing Chart for Lake St. Clair June 2010

5

Bass Fishing Regulations 2010 Overview April 2010
2 comments

Catch the Lake St. Clair WebTV Network Show This Week

New broadcast every Friday by 9pm

CLICK HERE TO SEE IT ON YOUTUBE

This week the broadcast covers:

NBAA Double Barrel Shootout Season Finale – With an interview with tournament director Paul Sacks

NBAA Sunday St. Clair Challenge Season Finale – With an interview with tournament director Pete Lusis.

SEAVIEWER UNDERWATER CAMERA – Video of the week

Also…

THE BIG 10 CHAMPIONSHIP held on Lake St. Clair on October 2nd & 3rd
These college age anglers are coming in from all around the region and can use your help with providing a boat for practice on Saturday and/or the tournament on Sunday. This is a super event and an opportunity to give something back to the sport. Contact Cameron at: ckortes@umich.edu

The Michigan State Team won the event in 2009

(c) 2010 Wayne Carpenter

Lake St. Clair – Another Toad Succumbs to Muskegon Goby

The bite on Lake St. Clair has been showing some signs of trending toward fall patterns and the Xtreme Bass Tackle tube bait, Muskegon Goby fits right into the slot when it comes to fall bait color selection. Just ask Frank Keller (Croswell, MI) about his recent success:

This 5.7 lb. smallie was caught on Tuesday, 08/24/2010 on a 4 inch Muskegon Goby tube in Lake St. Clair

Congratulations Frank and the rest of us will be right behind you!

Photo of a goby from Muskegon Lake (above) Muskegon Goby tube by Xtreme Bass Tackle

Xtreme Bass Tackle Muskegon Goby tubes can be found now at Nautical Mile BP Tackle Shop at 9 Mile and Jefferson.

(c) Wayne Carpenter

David Hasty Leads BASS Northern Open on Day 1

Captain David Hasty at the fishing show this year.

Captain David Hasty leads the BASS Northern Open after day one with 22-3 lbs.

The following top three results are from the REALTIME LEADERBOARD at:

http://proxy.espn.go.com/outdoors/bassmaster/members/ldr/leaderboard?tournamentId=938

Pro Division
1 David Hasty 5 bass for 22- 3
2 Scott Dobson 5 bass for 21-12
3 Chris King 5 bass for 21- 6

Co-angler Division
1 Christopher Helfer 3 bass for 13- 9
2 Joseph Nega 3 bass for 12-14
3 William Schwartz 3 bass for 12-11

David talks about his day one strategy and what he caught his fish on including upgrading with Xtreme Bass Tackle baits. See video interview of David from the BASSCam by clicking here

Get more information about the event at:

BASS Northern Open front page

You can book at trip with Captain David by contacting him at Erie’s Edge Guide Service.

(c) 2010 Wayne Carpenter

Lake St. Clair WebTV Network – Week 7

New broadcast every Friday by 9pm

This week there is an extended tournament report covering several NBAA tournament circuits along with some standings at this point in the season.  One tournament result came from Div. 42 where the first place finishers had 24.oo pounds and second place had 17.66 pounds.  That was during a three hour event.

I do a Seaviewer Underwater Video promotion but there is some cool video footage from 46 feet deep in the St. Clair River.

Also a word from one of our sponsors.

You can view the latest program at: Combat Bass Fishing and click on the video on the front page.

NEXT WEEK

I’ve got some BFL coverage including an interview with Capt. David Hasty of Erie’s Edge Charter Service.  We discuss how his day went then talk a bit about the value of running down to Lake Erie from Lake St. Clair to get fish.

Lake St. Clair – Lake or River?

It’s the annual tipping point to decide  between chasing Lake St. Clair lake fish or river fish. The lure of the big bite in the river is almost impossible to ignore for even the most die hard lake angler yet there are no guarantees. The smallmouth bite over the last two years has shown moments of brilliance but easy 20 lb. sacks have been harder to find. The hot years are the best of all yet 2008 was a hot year and also the best fishing season I have ever seen on this fishery yet the river schools were small and tight to structure. No-one really knows how the river bite during the summer months of 2010 will work out but the hot weather we have had so far gives it the best chance to be outstanding. Stay tuned.

(c) 2010 Wayne Carpenter

Lake St. Clair Bass Fishing – Awareness

Lake St. Clair in low light conditions. An awesome place to be.

It was such a decent evening with winds just strong enough to keep the insects at bay yet light enough to allow an ease of navigation. It was one of those times where even fine boat control techniques could be freely used. All the usual Lake St. Clair elements were there with the ships going up and down the shipping channel, terns squawking overhead, the occasional cruiser wake to manage and the bass were biting. In the distance we could see dark clouds and heard a continuous rumbling that sounded like thunder, yet there was no rain in the forecast. We chalked it up to something being done at Selfridge AFB but it was still impossible to completely ignore the sky.

It’s days like these that can push the memories back of spearing waves and managing multiple drift socks to stay on fish. In fact it is amazing how a day like this can bleed off the stress of the job with every mile from shore and every bass put in the boat. It wasn’t even the ultimate fishing day with four and five pound bass jumping in the boat but is was an ultimate experience to share with my friend Scott as we worked our way through various structures to find the bass that were available.

Scott during a previous trip in Anchor Bay

Popping a 3 lb. smallmouth on a piece of river structure that might not have had any fish at all yet was cool. Really cool was to see Scott with his fluid spinnerbait hookset pull the biggest smallie caught off this one structure in 10 years. At one point I mentioned to him that it seemed like the mouth of the smallmouth was even smaller this year and asked him if he had noticed that too? For whatever reason lipping smallies has been a chore for me this season. It could just be the old age and eyesight thing but I swear their mouths were bigger before. It’s a good thing to have a friend around who will humor you though as Scott proceeded to struggle with one smallmouth at the side of the boat and mentioned that what I said just might be true.

It was the third time this year where the trip back required the navigation lights to be turned on and the wisdom to travel back at a moderate speed just in case something I couldn’t avoid was floating in the now black expanse before me. No matter what this big body of what throws at me next time it can never take away the memory of this trip and the value of good times spent recharging the spirit with the promise that we will do it again, soon.

(c) 2010 Wayne Carpenter

Lake St. Clair Web TV Network – Week 5

New broadcast every Friday after 9pm

Following changes in the environment, both natural and man-made, can be essential to gaining and edge on the big water. This week we take a look at two things: A dredging operation and the increased presence of cormorants.

The U.S. Corps of Engineers is continuously surveying the shipping channel to monitor changes in the depth and the shape of river for ship traffic. You’ll see these boats towing a sonar array off to each side to get wide coverage. Each year they go back and dredge out parts of the channel that have shifted and potentially influence traffic lanes in the river. This week one such operation was under way at the Firecracker.

Although the area directly around the Firecracker itself wasn’t being dredged, it was close. The newly configured bottom could affect how the schooling smallmouth use the flat around the marker but it most definitely changes that corner under buoy X32 and how that works out will remain to be seen.

Cormorants around one of the range finder markers near the Detroit River in 2002

Cormorant migrations are nothing new to Lake St. Clair but knowing what stage the migration is in can help with our bass fishing. It can be helpful to know if a spot is “on” every year when the cormorants first show up, become numerous or the numbers begin to taper off. In this broadcast you can see them up close from video shot this week.

There is also the weekly coverage of tournament results on Lake St. Clair with mention of the tournaments coming up on the weekend.

Next week: Interviews with the top finishers for the MBCF Jr. State Championship on Cass Lake

Click here to see the broadcast on the Combat Bass Fishing website

(c) 2010 Wayne Carpenter