Smallmouth Bass Fishing at Sherkston
Do you agree with me when I say that smallmouth bass are pound for pound the toughest fish in the water? Do you love hooking a smallmouth on light tackle and watching him jump all the way out of the water? If you do then you need to fish for smallies in Lake Erie near Port Colborne, Ontario. I’ve been fishing here for over three decades and I kid you not when I say I’ve caught over 100 smallmouth in a day many times.
My mother and father have had a summer home at Sherkston, a resort community about 10 miles from Port Colborne, for over 30 years. The lake is so crystal clear that you can be in 20 feet of water and still see the bottom. I don’t bring my a boat so unless I can hitch a ride, I have to wade or fish from the shore. Fortunately, there is an ideal spot to go wading and fish for smallmouth. About a mile from shore there is a wreck of an old barge. During World War II when the value of steel went way up, someone decided to salvage as much of the wreck as possible. They constructed a coffer dam to dry the lake bed from the shore to the wreck. Then they built a road and were able to salvage most of the wreck. When they removed the dam and flooded the road, they left behind a fisherman’s paradise.
Most of the time, the water over the old road is about 1 – 4 feet deep for the first half mile or so toward the remains of the wreck. Where the road ends on each side, the water immediately drops off to a depth of 5 – 8 feet. This is where the fish hang out looking for food. I’ve found that top water baits with no weight work best for the first hour after dawn and an hour before dark. For the middle of the day I like to use a shallow diving crank bait. I’ve yet to find a time of day that you can’t catch these bass. Most of the bass I’ve caught off the road are between 10 and 15 inches in length and the biggest one I caught was 21 inches long. These fish taste fantastic so make sure you bring your bbq tools and cook them up.
The resort at Sherkston is made up of a combination of seasonal and daily use campers. Most people stay in small cottages that are can be bought or rented but there is also an area where you can camp in your family camping tent. Besides the fantastic smallmouth fishing, you can swim either in the lake, the pool or the deep, cold quarry. There are water slides, miniature golf and an arcade for the children and there is a fully stocked camp store where you can stock up your picnic coolers.
Sherkson has grown up a lot in the 40 years since I started going there. Some of the development is good and some I wish had never happened. The one thing that hasn’t changed is the great smallmouth bass fishing. I hope you get a chance to get up there and check it out.
Tags: bass fishing, Fishing, Lake Erie bass fishing, Lake Erie fishing, Lake Erie smallmouth bass fishing, smallmouth bass fishing