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Whenever talk turns to smallmouth bass fishing, Lake Erie is naturally included, along with a discussion of dramatic changes in the lake's ecosystem that have affected how bass fishermen now tackle the bite. Many techniques that Erie anglers may have grown up with a quarter-century ago are not nearly as effective today.

In the last 15 years, in particular, Western baits have influenced the course of Lake Erie smallmouth fishing. Without a doubt, the western-bred tube has had the greatest impact on Erie bassin'. By the early 1990s, the tubejig had become the number-one smallmouth lure on the lake. But the Great Lakes bass angler faces continuing shifts in Erie's environs that call for different techniques. While certain Western methods have been modified for use on the Great Lakes, some homebred Erie techniques may prove useful on the clear water out West, as well. Lake Of Change

EverStart 2001 National Champion Joe Balog is a leading authority on Lake Erie smallmouth fishing. His father was a charter captain in the early 1980s, during the Western Basin walleye boom, so Joe literally grew up fishing Erie. In 1990, Balog turned to tournament bass fishing, and quickly established his reputation as a Great Lakes thinking-man's pro.

"Three things immediately come to mind when I reflect on Erie then and now," explains Balog. "First is the incredible change in water clarity. During the early 1980s in the Western Basin, we could only see bottom in about three feet of water. Today, following several calm days, it's possible to see bottom at 15 to 20 feet. This has changed smallmouth feeding behavior, and the bass have become more sight-dependent."

The second item has been a shift in smallmouth prey. According to Balog, 20 years ago, smallmouths fed heavily on crawfish, along with minnows. As water clarity improved, their primary emphasis shifted to open-water preyfish like emerald shiners, alewives, gizzard shad and smelt.

"But now with the establishment of the most-recent invasive species, specifically the round goby from Europe, there has been another major shift in the predator/prey relationship. Fisheries biologists tell us that today the bottom-hugging goby is the number-one prey for smallmouths through the late spring and summer. Furthermore, a diet of gobies has added growth to the smallmouths, raising their average weight."

And finally, Balog points to fishing pressure as a factor impacting the bass populations. With the notoriety given this outstanding bass fishery, the number of anglers chasing bass has increased substantially, along with the number of tournaments in some sections of the lake.

Increased water clarity, different predator/prey relationships and increased angling pressure have therefore created the need for different presentations.

Erie Dropshot

Recognizing that the Western dropshot was a clear-water, pressured-bass technique, Balog began experimenting with it on Erie several years ago.

"With some modification, it became my number-one presentation for those near-calm days in July and August when I'm probing individual rocks, rockpiles or wrecks in water 25 to nearly 40 feet deep," explains Balog.

"But I was pleasantly surprised to discover this past spring that it was an exceptional coldwater technique as well. With water temperatures only in the high 30s and low 40s during late March and early April, I had some remarkable days with a dropshot rig. On one trip I had four smallies over 5 pounds."

Balog's dropshot rig consists of a No. 2 or No. 1 round-bend, short-shank hook, such as a Gamakatsu Octopus or steelhead bait hook, tied 10 to 15 inches above the weight. "I don't like an overly long lead, nor a real short one. Rather, I want the bait to be visible just above the cover I'm fishing, which is generally individual rocks or small piles of cobble."

Balog chooses Bakudan weights, but says any weight with a swivel clip at the top will help reduce line twist. One modification is to go with a 3/8-ounce weight, rather than the often used 1/8- or 1/4-ounce. "Rarely are there absolutely dead-calm days on the Great Lakes, and even under 'calm' conditions, there is always current moving in Erie. I'm fishing primarily between 25 and 40 feet, so the heavier weight helps me stay in touch with my bait."

Balog insists on 6- or 8-pound Berkley Vanish fluorocarbon. While line visibility may come into play, it's reduced stretch and high abrasion resistance that make the case for fluorocarbon. "Zebra mussels can fray regular monofilament in an instant," he adds.

Wider is better when it comes to Balog's reel selection. "Compared to monofilament, fluorocarbon does not lay well on the spool of many of today's smaller spinning reels. I want a wide spool--not a long spool--to help reduce line coils. Ideally, the spinning-reel spool should be the same diameter of the throwaway storage spool, but realistically, you must settle for the largest spinning spool you can get. I use Daiwa 2500 SS spinning reels."

After experimenting with a variety of different dropshot baits from worms to small lizards, Balog went to work with two other famed Erie smallmouth anglers to design a new dropshot bait specifically for Lake Erie. "Anglers realized several years ago that smallmouths were feeding heavily on gobies. Several manufacturers brought out generic goby colors in their tubes. However, we felt that with a slower, in-place dropshot presentation, a stronger goby-profile bait was needed. After more than a year of studying gobies on the bottom with my underwater camera, we provided the key characteristics and various color phases of this fish to Poor Boy's Baits to create the Drop Shot Goby series."

This is a 4-inch, handpoured bait with a flat tail and large head--both key characteristics of gobies. A secondary advantage to the big head was discovered during field trials--the hook does not rip out of the meaty head as easily as with other handpoured worms. "Instead of one bait per fish, you can catch multiple fish on this bait," notes Balog. "Those four smallies over 5 pounds I caught this spring were all taken on a single Drop Shot Goby bait."

Offered in a half-dozen custom colors to exactly match the various phases of the goby--color phases ignored by other manufacturers--plus several baitfish colors, Drop Shot Gobys will be on the market this summer. "Smallmouths still feed on baitfish during particular times of the year, especially early and late in the season, so having patterns to match shiners, alewives and smelt is important. This will be a hot shape anywhere smallmouths feed on darters, too," adds Balog.

While a dropshot presentation can be effective in a variety of situations including a simple cast-and-drag retrieve, Balog says it really shines for pinpoint fishing atop isolated rocks and small vertical drops common to the Lake Erie bottom.

"As great as smallmouth fishing can be on Erie, there are also the days when bass are particularly tight-lipped. With so many bass now focusing on bottom-dwelling gobies, some smallmouths will always be tucked tight to structure and shipwrecks. With good electronics, I can identify these small ledges, rockpiles and other low-rise vertical structures, see one or more fish on it, and drop my bait right to them. I drag the dropshot rig up to the vertical structure and shake the bait without lifting it over the ledge."

According to Balog, the perfect scenario is watching the bow-mounted Garmin 320C color graph as his dropshot rig descends to the target in 25 feet of water, dancing the bait in place and watching the bass move over to take it. "For the angler, it doesn't get any better than this!"

Spoonin' Erie Style

Ron Perrine is the owner of Bass'N Bait Company and a 20-year veteran of Lake Erie bass tournaments. In the late 1980s he developed the first spoon with an internal rattle: the Rattle Snakie Jigging Spoon. This is the spoon Randy VanDam used in 1993 to catch the 9-pound, 8-ounce Ohio state-record smallmouth while fishing with Ron. Perrine definitely has some spooning knowledge to share.

"Many anglers think of a jigging spoon as only effective in cool water. But I am just as successful with spooning in the post-spawn and summer period as in the early spring," acknowledges Perrine.

Before diving into the lure presentation, Perrine insists consideration must be given to the rod, reel and line combo for effective spooning. "I use a baitcasting outfit with 15- to 20-pound test line. Line visibility is not a factor that concerns me with this technique, even in the clear waters of Lake Erie. Whether the bass see the line or not, I don't know. But I do know that heavy line does not keep them from striking the spoon. Heavier line is important for a solid hookset with a 1/2- to 3/4-ounce spoon, and thicker-diameter line also aids in slowing the drop rate of the spoon."

In terms of rods, Perrine recommends a spooning rod with a stiff tip and stiff butt, but "give" in the center of the blank. Too much flex in the tip will not impart the right action to the spoon, or a solid hookset, and an extra-fast taper on an overly stiff rod can result in a broken tip.

Perrine uses a custom-made rod with Tennessee side-wrap guides, explaining that line coming off the bottom of the tip is less likely to wrap the tip when working the spoon. Rods with all their guides on top tend to wrap more.

The Rattle Snakie is a lead spoon with an embedded glass rattle, plus an exterior dressed with prism tape for flash and color. With one flat side and the top slightly peaked, the spoon rocks back and forth on the drop. It's available in 1/8- to 1 1/2-ounce sizes.

"For spooning smallmouths on Erie and other lakes, I use the 1/2- and 3/4-ounce sizes most often when fishing 15 to 30 feet of water. On fairly calm days, or when fishing shallower than 15 feet, I downsize to the 3/8-ounce model," explains Perrine.

Color choices depend on the conditions. For clear water with bright skies, Perrine favors a silver or gold finish. For clear water with overcast skies, the green prism finish gets the nod. In dingy water, it's the chartreuse finish. And when fishing 40 to 50 feet deep, Perrine favors the glow-in-the-dark model that turns a greenish tint in deep water. "When it comes to locations for spooning, I'm strictly a structure fisherman. I'm searching for encounters with a school of bass, not individual fish. I hunt breaklines using the combination of a Pinpoint trolling motor and depthfinder to stay on a contour-line course projected by a C-Map in a Si-Tex Chart, looking for those quicker-than-usual breaks."

Although being able to follow breaklines is critical, the contour change itself isn't the secret to success during the warmer-water period of late spring and summer. Two other factors must come together as well.

"First, wind must be blowing on the structure," continues Perrine. "Now, I'm not talking about a big blow, but a breeze. A light chop or at least a riffle on the surface is necessary to activate the second factor--feeding baitfish.

"I am very attentive to any type of baitfish activity. The classic example is finding a school of yellow perch suspended over a breakline, off a point or in a trough between two structures. With the wind blowing, perch rise from the bottom to feed on emerald shiners or other young-of-the-year preyfish. Smaller bass--the 1- to 2-pounders--will be in the mix as well. However, the bigger smallmouths will be positioned below the perch and baitfish--usually near the bottom--to nab any injured baitfish that drift down, or yellow perch that stray from the school. Sometimes I can spot the bigger bass on the depthfinder, but many times I cannot, due to the signals from the perch school."

A typical scenario would be a perch school visible on the depthfinder at 17 feet over a 22-foot bottom. Like Balog, Perrine watches his spoon descend on the depthfinder screen. When it reaches the depth immediately below the baitfish, he jigs the spoon up and down for perhaps 15 seconds. Sometimes a good-size bass will grab it, but usually it will be a bass under 2 pounds.

If he cannot see the spoon drop, Perrine simply counts it down, knowing the drop rate on 15-pound line is two feet per second for the 1/2-ounce model and three feet per second for the 3/4-ounce.

After checking this intermediate depth, he continues dropping the spoon to the bottom, where his work begins in earnest. Perrine does not rip the spoon. Instead, he employs a rapid upward sweep, almost a jerk, moving the rodtip from the 8:00 to 10:00 position. This causes the spoon to jump 28 to 36 inches, with its rattle ticking on the way up and way down. During the return descent, he follows the spoon's natural rate of fall with the rodtip, so slack line does not form.

The technique is sometimes referred to as semi-slack line descent, with just a hint of slack line in order to "see" the line jump or twitch when a strike occurs. "Letting the spoon freefall back with coils of slack line prevents you from detecting a strike that always occurs on the drop," adds Perrine.

Perrine is convinced it's the perch/baitfish combination that attracts the attention of the biggest smallmouths. That was the situation that resulted in the state record.

During the cold-water period of early spring and late fall, he applies a more subtle spooning technique. Perrine refers to it as "lift and lower."

"Bass are not in a chasing mode, so I lift the spoon about six inches off the bottom and then lay it back down--nothing more. However, pro staff member Jim Duckworth holds the spoon just off the bottom and shakes it, achieving impressive success on the clear-water reservoirs of Middle Tennessee. Either way, the rattle plays an even greater role in attracting coldwater bites than it does during summer."

During his cold-water presentations, Perrine attaches the spoon with a quality snap swivel. But as soon as the water temperature hits 50 degrees, smallmouths become more aggressive, allowing Perrine to initiate his higher sweep-and-drop technique. For this technique, he attaches the spoon with just a duo-lock snap and ties a quality ball-bearing swivel inline about 36 inches above the lure. This arrangement helps reduce line twist better than a snap-swivel at the lure.

Adopt And Adapt

While Western anglers remain proud of their countless advancements in the world of bass fishing, the fact remains, they can learn from others as well. The West is riddled with clear-water impoundments that resemble Erie's stark bottom.

The anglers above have outlined their specific approaches to catching bruiser bronzebacks. But the key is "specific" approaches. Within their descriptions lie the subtle details, including baits rarely fished out West, that can make a huge difference in your smallmouth fishing. Try these techniques today, on your waters, exactly as described. Then adapt and modify them to fit your needs. That's how the body of angling knowledge advances, whether from West to East or East to West.

Swimbaits For Smallmouths

Dave Lefebre is a successful pro angler with an FLW Tour win under his belt, plus an appearance in both the Bassmaster Classic and FLW Jacobs Cup. He hails from the Pennsylvania shores of Lake Erie, and has learned a thing or two about smallmouths along the way.

"There are times on clear-water inland reservoirs and the Great Lakes system when smallmouth wolfpacks track baitfish schools in open water, picking off a baitfish every now and then. The bass are within casting distance, but finding a lure to trigger a big one once the fish sound can be frustrating. That's the situation that I faced on Pennsylvania's Raystown Lake about four years ago when I tried a swimbait for the first time. It worked."

Following that incident, Lefebre began limited experimentation with various hard and soft swimbaits. His most successful bait to date has been Storm's WildEye Swim Shad in the 6-inch size.

"My use of a swimbait revolves around the times smallmouths are out in the open, trailing baitfish schools near the surface and busting bait occasionally. When I observe this happening, I make a long cast beyond the last sighting of activity, count the swimbait down and slowly reel it back. The big-profile bait swimming lazily by attracts only quality smallmouth bites, eliminating any schoolie-size bass. This has produced for me on clear-water lakes, including Lake Erie."

Lefebre says he learned different swimbait models have an optimum retrieve speed. Crank too fast or too slow, and the bait does not provide enough attraction to generate a strike. Also, the type of rod is important for launching long casts. He uses a 7-foot, 9-inch Rogue Swimbait rod that features moderate action. He is currently working with Kinami Baits in developing a soft-plastic swimbait profile that may be better suited for smallmouth bass.