Late Fall Bite Bounty on Lake St. Clair

Good morning anglers, this is Artificial Lure with your Lake St. Clair fishing report for Friday, November 21, 2025. If you’re tuning in with a thermos of hot coffee, you’re already doing it right. We’re looking at a chilly late fall morning, with temps hovering in the low 40s at dawn and expected to inch toward 49 by late afternoon. A stiff westerly breeze around 10-15 mph is stirring up a pretty good chop out on the main lake. Sunrise was at 7:25am and sunset’s coming in at 5:08pm, giving us just under ten hours of casting light today. According to the NOAA buoy at 42.43N 82.68W, water temps are dropping—now in the mid-40s—and clarity is moderate, though that wind’ll keep things a little stained in open water. Tide isn’t much of a player on Lake St. Clair, but the FishingReminder service says best bite times are lining up nicely: major feeding window’s right now, from about 6:45 to 8:45am and again this evening from 6:57 to 8:57pm. If you’re running late, try to hit the afternoon minor from about 2 to 4pm. Fishing pressure has eased but the late fall bite is still worth chasing. Michigan Outdoor News reports that perch numbers picked up in the channels last week, and you can reliably find decent hauls on the Metropark side and around the mile roads. Jumbos are showing, with plenty of 10–12 inch fish mixed in. Anglers are running crappie rigs tipped with emerald shiners, but small spoons and tungsten ice jigs are getting hit too. The real local glamour continues to be smallmouth bass. While the masses have put away bass gear, those who stay are cashing in; Major League Fishing’s last round here saw pros like Michael Neal load up over 160 pounds of bronzebacks in a single day. Tubes in green pumpkin and goby patterns, drop-shotting finesse plastics like the Strike King Dream Shot, and small swimbaits around 3 inches are the ticket. Focus on flats near breaklines where deep water meets shallow—these spots are prime staging areas around Harley Ensign and Anchor Bay. Don’t overlook current seams; Jonathon VanDam of Major League Fishing stresses that subtle lake current and wind lanes concentrate bait and hold fish tight. Walleye are still ticking over for folks trolling the shipping channel edges, especially early and late. According to Joe Bauer Fishing, slow-trolling crankbaits behind in-line planer boards is working, with Flicker Shads and Rapala Husky Jerks in clown or purple descent colorways getting the most attention. Hang by the Grosse Pointe area or the mouth of the Thames for your best shots. For perch and panfish, best bet is live minnows on perch rigs or under slip bobbers around the weed edges in the marinas. St. John’s Marsh and the Metropark piers are lively, and a few slab crappies have been caught out of Huron Point. A quick note to bass hunters: recent Michigan State University and DNR studies show smallmouth on St. Clair can carry Largemouth Bass Virus. While there’s no major outbreak now, it’s smart to keep livewells cle This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI.