Late Fall Bite Heats Up on Lake St. Clair

Good morning, this is Artificial Lure checking in with your Lake St. Clair fishing report for Monday, November 10th, 2025. We’re waking up to crisp late-fall conditions. It's currently about 41°F, with the sky overcast and a breeze straight from the west keeping things choppy across open water. Forecasts from local weather stations say we’ll stay in the low- to mid-40s with winds around 10–15 mph—bring the windbreaker. Sunrise rolled in at 7:19 AM, and sunset’s set for 5:13 PM, giving us a short but punchy window for prime fishing. Lake St. Clair doesn’t have significant tides, but wind-induced currents are moving bait along the eastern shorelines and up into the bays this week. Let’s talk **fish activity**. Cooler temps and shorter days have dialed up the big smallmouth and yellow perch bite, both packing on seasonal fat for winter. According to the latest Michigan DNR reports and Outdoor News, yellow perch action has notably ramped up since last week, with several anglers running into easy limits near weedbeds and rocky points. Recent charter trips (as shared by locals and on Captain Experiences) logged strong catches of smallmouth bass, with good eaters and a handful of trophies, especially when anglers focused on deeper breaks and channel edges. For **tackle**—it’s the classic Great Lakes fall playbook. For smallmouth, the drop-shot is still king, paired with a natural-colored plastic like a Strike King Dream Shot or Z Too in green pumpkin or smoke, just like Jonathon VanDam does. Tubes and small swimbaits—such as a 3.25” paddletail—have been fooling bass in shallower flats, especially during brief sun breaks. Don’t skip the tube jigs: they’re excellent for searching and covering water on windblown points. When targeting perch, nothing beats a live minnow under a slip bobber, with many reporting success on small tungsten jigs tipped with waxworms near Jefferson Beach Marina and up into L’Anse Creuse Bay. The hot **spots** this week? Jefferson Beach Marina stands out for boat launches and sheltered fishing, and L’Anse Creuse Bay is a perch magnet right now, especially near sharp weed-to-sand transitions. Campau Bay has also quietly been producing strong evening smallmouth bites, particularly near current seams and just off deeper humps. If you’re shoreline-bound, both the marinas and the adjacent headlands are worth a cast, especially around sunrise and sunset. Smallmouth are still hugging structure but getting aggressive with cooler water—don’t be shy about making a few short moves if the action tapers. Keep an eye on electronics for roaming schools; anglers willing to adapt depth are finding fish anywhere from 7 to 18 feet right now. The bite should hold steady as the weather remains cool, but remember to dress warm and watch for quick wind shifts today. Those cloudy skies can compress your daylight for active fishing, so plan your window. That’s the rundown from Lake St. Clair. Thanks for tuning in—don’t forget to subscribe for up-to This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI.