CLEVELAND, Ohio — Lake Erie’s plentiful walleye are in the spotlight all year round, but many of us would rather enjoy a hefty smallmouth bass on the line, and they’ve been biting this week around Lake Erie’s rocky habitats.

The broad-shouldered bass are usually prowling the lake bottom for crayfish, gobies and gizzard shad, but when hooked, quickly head to the surface and put on a display as they struggle to dislodge the hook.

Bass anglers are generally catch-and-release fishermen. If it’s dinner they desire, most prefer to put a few tasty walleye in the cooler.

This is the time of year when smallmouth bass are plentiful along the Ohio shoreline, prowling the rocky areas along the Ohio mainland from Marblehead to Huron, Lorain, Cleveland and Conneaut.

A favorite area over the years has been the shoreline from Cranberry Creek to Ruggles Beach and The Castle, where casting a tube jig and dragging it along the lake bottom can spell success.

They are plentiful around the Bass Islands, which take their name from the fish, as well as Kelleys Island.

Presidents Grover Cleveland and William Howard Taft were avid anglers, and one of their favorite locations was Lake Erie’s Bass Islands.

Trophy fishermen target Pelee Island, where the Great Lakes record 10.15-pound smallmouth bass was caught by Gregg Gallagher, a schoolteacher from Fremont, Ohio. It is an Ontario and Canadian record. The Ohio record is a 9.5-pounder caught from the west side of the Bass Islands in 1993 by Randy Van Dam of Kalamazoo, Mich.

“We had a kayak fisherman out there the other morning who reported catching 19 smallmouth bass in about an hour and a half with PowerBait tubes,” said Troy Webb this week at Cranberry Creek Marina in Huron. “The smallmouth fishing has been very good in the near shore areas, and the walleye are biting offshore.”

Avon Lake’s Jeff Liskay of Great Lakes Fly Fishing guides both fly and spinning tackle fishermen, and he had Scott VanDenHaue and his son, Gabriel, of Strongsville casting the Marblehead Peninsula recently. Gabriel hauled in a trophy bass, among a variety of other species of fish. Liskay regularly guides fly anglers around the Bass Islands and Pelee Island, as well as walleye and sheepshead on a fly.

“The Lake Erie smallmouth bass population is very good right now,” said Lake Erie Fisheries Supervisor Eric Weimer of the Ohio Division of Wildlife’s Sandusky Fisheries Research Unit. “We only do fall bass surveys, so we don’t really have a handle on the success of each smallmouth bass year class, but the catch-and-release ethic of sport anglers has helped to maintain a healthy population.”

Huron, Lorain walleye hot spots

The waters off Huron continue to attract western Lake Erie anglers, with excellent catches from the Huron Dumping Grounds a few miles north of the Huron River. The 30- to 32-foot depths have anglers scoring while trolling nightcrawler harnesses, and deep-diving Bandit crankbaits are reported to do well in the 44-foot depths.

Prolific lure painter Mike Chaffin at Erie Outfitters in Sheffield Lake is sending anglers to the 48- to 52-foot depths off Lorain for limits of walleye this week. He said the deep-diving Bandits and Berkley Flicker No. 7 and No. 9 crankbaits are producing. Chaffin paints about 2,000 Bandit and Flicker lures each year. He says chrome-based lures with a splash of orange and complemented with black dots are best sellers.

Yellow perch biting

Early morning yellow perch fishermen are finding some success in the deeper waters both north and east of Niagara Reef, west of Catawba Island and off Green and Rattlesnake islands. The perch, as usual, are taking emerald shiner minnows on spreaders, crappie rigs and perch fly rigs, which have dropper loops to hang flashy artificial flies that float naturally.

The clouds of invasive spiny water fleas are starting to gather around Lake Erie. Expect the schools of yellow perch to switch to grazing in deeper waters where the spiny water fleas suspend.

Controlled hunt applications

Ohio offers controlled hunts on select areas around the Buckeye State for deer, waterfowl, dove, pheasants, ruffed grouse, squirrel, rabbit, raccoon and bobwhite quail, but sportsmen must apply before July 31. The controlled grouse hunts on four areas in southern Ohio are new this year. The dove hunts are held on 13 areas, with pheasant hunts on 21 areas.

For information visit ohiodnr.gov, and click on Controlled Hunting Permit Applications Now Open. The permits are typically $3 per hunt. A valid 2026-27 license is needed to apply. Each controlled hunt is unique, and applicants should review the site-specific information.