After 16 days off the air, the longest gap the Sportsman's Direct fishing report has run in years, John Backrell returned to the camera on Friday with a Lake St. Clair update that effectively bookends one fishery and triggers another. The Detroit River walleye run is sliding past peak. The lake's smallmouth bass — fat, pre-spawn, and stacked along the southern shoreline — are, in his words, "ready to blow."
Water at Belle Isle is hovering around 50°F, where it has bounced for two to three weeks. Main-lake water temperatures range from low to mid-50s along Metro Beach and the southern mile roads, with the north end still showing 48 to 49 around the channels. That patchwork is the engine of Lake St. Clair's spring fishery.
"That's just the way this system is, and that's what makes it one of the things that makes it so special," Backrell told viewers. "You have different fish at different stages this early in the spring — for walleye and smallies and perch and everything — different stages of the spawn based on the water temperature at different areas on the lake."
On the Canadian side, perch have been firing for three to four weeks in 11 to 21 feet of water. Backrell said anglers running forward-facing sonar tell a much bigger story than a glance at the surface would suggest.
"I've had guys tell me that they're on a pot of fish and it's like 50 yards wide, and then I've had guys tell me that are over there scoping with the LiveScope that the schools of fish that they were on was like a mile wide," he said. "There is a lot of big perch action going on over there on the Canadian side, and it's a whole lot of water."
The Detroit River walleye run is in its post-peak phase. Most fish have spawned out, the playbook has shifted from jigging to crawler harnesses pulled in slightly deeper water, and an early wave of post-spawn fish is already trickling up the lake's mile-road shoreline. White bass are starting to show in the lower river — early but on schedule for a Memorial Day push. Smallmouth stacking near Alter Road and the Delphine Channel are using the river-mouth flats as a staging area for their own spawn.
The headline call, though, is the impending smallmouth detonation. Brief warm spells over the past month pushed a small percentage of fish through the spawn, but the bulk of the population is still pre-spawn. With the 10-day forecast threatening mid-70s air temperatures, Backrell expects a mass push.
"There's going to be a huge shot of fish, especially those fish from the Lake St. Clair Metropark down through the mile roads and down into the south end of the lake, which is where you're going to have the warmest water," he said. "Those fish are going to pile in and it's going to be spawn city. They've held back a long time and they're ready to blow. These fish are fat right now and they are going to go in and they are going to start spawning."
That urgency is shaping how he is talking to small-boat owners. Walleye are within shore-casting range right now in front of Lake St. Clair Metropark, with anglers casting flickers from the bank putting fish on the rocks alongside boats trolling small cranks and crawler harnesses.
"This is the time of the year, if you're a small boat owner and you don't have your boat ready, you are missing it right now, because now is the time when all of these fish are the easiest and closest to shore," Backrell said.
The St. Clair River is throwing up an unusual side bonus. Backrell's friend Fly Rod John pulled a 7-pound, 12-ounce king salmon from the gin-clear river this week, and shop staffer Spencer followed it with a coho the next day. Salmon, steelhead and Atlantics remain in the system in real numbers.