A St. Clair Summer

St. Clair Shores, MI — Autumn has not quite arrived as evidenced by the near 90 degree temps in mid-September. The various hunting seasons are close at hand with a few already started, but there is still plenty of time to enjoy fishing your favorite spots. Lake St. Clair in Michigan ranks very high on my list of favorite fishing holes, but my opportunity to return one more time before the snow flies looks doubtful at this point.

I made three trips to this smallmouth bass mecca. Two of those trips were traditional weeks with two different fishing partners. My son-in-law, Jeff Smith, and I have stayed in St. Clair Shores since the year we sputtered into Michigan Harbor in search of a gas pump. When no attendant showed at the gas station on our right, we decided to try a place called Ken’s Marine located directly to our left.

That missed opportunity at the first gas station led to years of staying in the camper that Ken rents along with the boat slip just outside our camper. After Jeff and I stay for most of a week, I usually return following the Memorial Day weekend with Mike Baughman for another four or five days of fishing. Smallmouth bass in the main lake is our primary target, but Jeff and I enjoy chasing the largemouth bass that inhabit the channels and marinas on the lake’s west shoreline.

The third trip was my first brush with the professional side of bass fishing. I fished the Bassmaster Open in July. My 109^th place finish convinced me that I should stick to writing about professional fishing. However, it was a great experience thanks to the pro anglers, Harvey Horne and Dalton Smith, who I drew as partners.

In the last couple of years, I added another approach to my Lake St. Clair plans after meeting Tom Kiefer at the National Fishing Expo held annually in Columbus during February. The year I met Tom there was very fortuitous because it marked the last time he secured a booth for the Expo. Tom runs a guide service called TKO Fishing at Lake St. Clair that specializes in smallmouth bass.

When we first talked about the fishing at St. Clair, I commented how such great fishing in May sours by August when the bass fishing becomes so difficult.

“That’s my favorite time to fish for them,” was Tom’s comeback to the above assessment I made that day. I called his bluff by reserving a August weekday trip, and then he produced a day that was all aces and no bluffing. Since then, I have booked trips with Tom that have included fishing buddies like Bill Nutt, Dan Johnson, and Jeff Smith.

This past summer Jeff and I booked a half day charter with Tom that had a slow start but finished with a flurry thanks to Tom’s expert guiding skills. When the fishing at Lake St. Clair is in the “easy-to-catch” spring, a guide is not a must-have. Just find the flotilla of bass boats and watch for what Mike Baughman calls the “tightline pattern.”

Jeff and I reserved Tom’s services at the start of our week so that we would have a bassing gameplan for the remainder of the week. Tom provides all the tackle and lures for the trip. He begins the day with a Ned rig for his customers, but he also has outfits rigged with drop shot baits. Tom always has a jerkbait ready to throw if a client wants to use another method besides the finesse tactics of Ned rigs and drop shots.

On our trip this past summer, Tom introduced Jeff and I to Forward Facing Sonar (FFS). It was fascinating to watch fish on the FFS screen, but it’s not as easy as the Bassmaster pro anglers make it look on TV. I prefer fishing without it.

Tom Kiefer is a great choice when it comes to hiring a guide at St. Clair. He knows how to find the bass which is much more challenging than catching them. If you have never fished Lake St. Clair, you should start making plans to do so. This premier fishing destination is an angling adventure that’s as accessible as it is outstanding.

Tom can be reached by email and phone. He may have a few open dates yet this season, but you should call soon.  I may have just talked myself into calling him for a final chapter to my St. Clair summer.