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 right out of the water? If you do then you should go smallmouth fishing in Lake Erie near Port Colborne, Ontario. I’ve been fishing this area for over three decades and I’m not kidding when I say I’ve caught over 100 smallmouth in a day many times.

My mom and dad have had a trailer at Sherkston, a resort community about 10 minutes from Port Colborne, for over 30 years. The lake is so clean that you can see the bottom when you’re in 20 feet of water. I don’t bring my a boat so unless someone takes me out fishing, I have to fish water I can stand in. Luckily, 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 price of steel skyrocketed, someone decided to salvage as much of the wreck as they could. They constructed a coffer dam to dry the lake bed from the shore to the barge. 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 fantastic smallmouth fishery.

Most of the time, the old road is covered by 1 – 4 feet of water for the first half mile or so toward the remains of the barge. From the edge of the road, the water immediately drops off to 5 – 8 feet deep. This is where the smallmouth hang out looking for food. I’ve found that top water baits with no weight work fantastically for an hour after dawn and an hour before dark. For the rest of the day I like to use a suspending crank bait. I’ve yet to find a time of day that these bass won’t bite when they’re in the mood. Most of the bass I’ve caught while wading toward the wreck are between 10 and 15 inches in length and the biggest one I caught was 21 inches long. These fish taste great so make sure you bring your bbq tools and cook them up.

The Sherkston resort is made up of a combination of seasonal and short term 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 amazing bass fishing, you can swim either in the lake, the deep, cold quarry or in the pool. There are miniature golf, an arcade and water slides 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 fantastic smallmouth bass fishing. I hope you get a chance to get up there and check it out.