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Team Toyota’s Matt Arey is one of 50 Elite Series anglers who have been braving the inland ocean of Lake St. Clair that serves as the playing field for the Toyota Angler of the Year Championship this week.

High winds, big waves, and drifts have been a consistent talking point throughout practice for the anglers and that theme has continued today for day number one of competition. Arey is sitting in great position to qualify for his 1st ever Bassmaster Classic next March and graciously offered three tips on drifting for smallmouth bass.

Use your electronics but don’t rely on them

The first tip Arey offered is to avoid using electronics to find fish, specifically on featureless fisheries Lake St Clair. That doesn’t mean Arey ignores his graphs altogether, he just uses them to scan the bottom for grass as opposed to individual bass.

“On Lake St Clair I’m looking for clean, sandy bottom areas around scattered grass,” Arey explained. “This week the ideal depth for me has been 14 to 20-feet of water and I want to see patches of grass mixed in with areas of clean bottom. After you find the right type of cover, it comes down to getting on the trolling motor and fishing to find out what lives there.”

The time of the year and water temperature dictates what depth range Arey spends the majority of his time in, but scattered grass and sand has been a key in every trip he’s made to the “sixth Great Lake”.

When the wind is howling and the waves are rolling like they have this week, Arey would rather spend his time casting in opportune locations as opposed to looking at his electronics.

Have a search bait and a clean up bait

Once Arey has found a potential area he employs both reactionary-type search baits and a “clean up” presentation throughout his drifts.

“I like to start my drifts with a search bait like a crankbait or swimbait to cover as much water as possible,” Arey said. “Smallmouth are sight feeders and will often come a long ways to eat a lure, especially if the sun is shining. If I’m struggling to get fish to commit to a moving bait I will go back through an area with a tube jig or a dropshot to mop up any fish I missed.”

The weather conditions play a big role in what kind of presentation Arey uses while making these long drifts. High winds throughout the entirety of practice for the 2019 Toyota Angler of the Year Championship led to a search bait being key for Arey; simply because it’s difficult to feel subtle bites with a bottom bait while bouncing in big waves.

“When I get a bite or catch a bass with a crankbait or a jerkbait I’ll quickly drop a waypoint on my graph,” Arey said. “Truth be told finding smallmouth can be kind of random on St. Clair, but they definitely group up in little wads. The hope is you can run back to those waypoints and catch several fish in a small area. Dragging a dropshot or tube is ideal in this scenario if the conditions allow.”

Be conscious of drift speeds

One last tip Arey gave specific to drifting for bass is to pay very close attention to how fast, or how slow your boat is moving.

“Drift speed is super key on Lake St. Clair,” Arey admitted. “The wind and the current changes your speed depending on the conditions and where you are fishing, but a 1mph change can be a big difference. Be conscious of that.”

Arey explained it is hard to consistently slow a drift down using only a trolling motor, but drift socks or Power Pole Drift Paddles are excellent tools for controlling the speed of a drift. Judging by the weather report this week, Arey may need to use both if he is to have any kind of control over the ever-present wind.

Get all the products Matt relies on here.

Toyota Tundra driving pros Matt Arey, Chad Pipkens, and Brandon Lester took a break from the college football game being shown on the back of the “Tailgate Tundra” at Fan Appreciation Day to preview the Bassmaster Elite Series event on Lake St. Clair that kicks-off Sunday.

Q: Big musky and sturgeon swim in Lake St. Clair. What’s the biggest fish of any species you’ve caught in practice?

Arey: a 4 pound 12 ounce Smallmouth
Pipkens: a 38” Northern Pike
Lester: a 20-pound Channel Catfish on a drop shot

Q: Other than a drop shot and a plastic tube, name two lures every bass angler needs to bring to St. Clair.

Arey: a medium depth crankbait, and a jerkbait.
Pipkens: a Damiki DC 300 crankbait, and a jerkbait.
Lester: a mid depth crankbait, and a jerkbait.

Q: Bassmaster Elite Series winners here in recent years have averaged 21 pounds a day on St. Clair. Do you expect catches to be equally as awesome this year?

Arey: Yes – just about exactly that good.
Pipkens: Yes – it’ll take around 65 pounds to win this 3-day event.
Lester: Yes – at least 21 pounds a day to win for sure.

Q: This is the last Elite Series event of the 2019 season, looking back, what moment or day means the most to you?

Arey: The final day at Guntersville. But unfortunately, not in a good way. I made fish landing mistakes that let a $100,000 win slip through my hands.

Pipkens: Day 2 at Lake Fork. I was leading after Day 1, and backed it up with a 30 pound 15 ounce limit on Day 2.

Lester: Day 2 at Lake Tenkiller last week in Oklahoma. I’m really proud of the fact that in such a tough event I kept grinding to catch 13 pounds. I went from 40th place to eventually finish 11th, and jumped four places in the Toyota Angler of the Year points.

Q: What are you most looking forward to when the season ends in a few days?

Arey: Spending time with my family, and time in a treestand deer hunting.
Pipkens: Tailgating with my wife and friends at Michigan State football games.
Lester: Spending time with my wife and two daughters, and deer hunting.

Bassmaster Elites Series rookie Tyler Rivet is hoping to end the 2019 season on a high note this week on beautiful but intimidating, Lake St. Clair. Rivet is coming into the AOY Championship in 41st place on the Toyota Angler of the Year standings – just barely inside the cut to qualify for his 1st Bassmaster Classic in March of 2020.

The amicable Louisiana native is much more comfortable fishing shallow water for largemouth as opposed to searching for smallmouth in the ocean-like waters of Lake St. Clair. But he knows he’ll need to hold or improve his position in the AOY points race to secure a Classic berth, which is why he is hunting smallies this week.

“I won’t lie, I’ve looked to the bank and thought about largemouth quite a few times while smashing through big waves during practice,” Rivet joked. “But I know I can’t bunt in this tournament; I have to fish to finish the highest I possibly can. I have to fish to win.”

Having his back up against the wall isn’t a new prospect for Rivet. A week ago on Lake Tenkiller, Rivet was merely hoping to qualify to fish this event. The former Carhartt College B.A.S.S. standout was in 50th place in the AOY rankings to begin the final regular season Elite Series tournament of the year. After stumbling on day one – only brining three keeper bass to the scales – Rivet knew his chances of qualifying to compete in the AOY Championship were slim.

But Rivet came out swinging on day two and sacked up one of the biggest limits of the tournament on a fickle Lake Tenkiller, including a 5+ pound largemouth that took big bass of the day honors. Ultimately finishing the event in 18th place, which raised his AOY stock to 41st place.

With his AOY Championship position locked in place, the brand new Toyota Bonus Bucks participant hopped in his Tundra to make the 20-hour trek to Michigan with dreams of giant smallmouth.

Sounds like a storybook, “buzzer beater” finish for Rivet to qualify for his first Classic and keep a childhood dream alive, right? Well it certainly was… the only problem is now he must do it again against the top 50 Elite Series anglers of the 2019 season this week. And he’ll have to do it on an unfamiliar fishery full of new challenges and opportunities.

“This is about as different from fishing in the backwater bayous of Louisiana as it can get,” Rivet said with a quick smile. “I’ve never fished on a lake like this and had never driven in waves as big as I was in yesterday. I’m talking like five or six footers. I was thanking God I was driving a Phoenix 721 Bass Boat as I was rolling through those waves.”

Rivet traded his flipping stick for a spinning rod and butt-seat on the front deck of his boat to fight the high winds, rolling waves, and hopefully plenty of big brown bass this week. While it’s not exactly his specialty, Rivet isn’t afraid to out work the water and step outside his comfort zone to chase down his dreams on Lake St. Clair.

“I actually like smallmouth fishing and believe it or not I love fishing with a dropshot,” Rivet said. “I had to learn how to fish a dropshot while fishing in college. The Carhartt College Bassmaster Series goes to diverse fisheries all over the country; being diverse and working hard were necessities in college just like they are on the Elite Series. Those qualities have served me well in the past and hopefully they’ll help me out this week, too.”

Even my retired neighbor who doesn’t fish probably knows Lake St. Clair smallmouth eat soft plastic tubes and drop shot rigs. But believe it or not, bass eat other lures on St. Clair too – including swimbaits and crankbaits, according to longtime Toyota Bonus Bucks member Keith Combs.

And look, just because Combs is best known for dredging up 40 pound limits of largemouth from legendary ponds like Lake Fork and Falcon, doesn’t mean he’s not dialed-in on how to score at St. Clair. The East Texas resident has notched two Top 5s in tour level events on the famous circular shaped fishery near Detroit.

“The Strike King 6XD is an awesome search bait on St. Clair anytime you’re in 17 to 19 feet of water. I crank it over the “short grass” growing about a foot off the bottom, and when I catch one, I drop a waypoint and just fan cast it around that waypoint,” says Combs.

Just about every small town around Lake St. Clair has a restaurant or pub that’s famous for serving up yellow perch. The locals, as well as visiting B.A.S.S. staff members, eat the tiny succulent filets with the same tenacity smallmouth gobble them whole out on the lake.

So no surprise, Combs’ favorite 6XD color is “sugar daddy” – painted to look just like a snack-sized perch. He ties it to 15-pound Seaguar fluorocarbon line.

Combs says halibut is actually his favorite fish to eat, and when he’s fishing a bit shallower on St. Clair, he reaches for a 3.8” Strike King Rage Swimmer on a ½ ounce Squadron head. He ties his tiny swimbaits to 15-pound line too.

“This is the lure I throw a lot on St. Clair in 12 feet of water or less. I like to let it fall almost to the bottom before I start retrieving it. It’s just super versatile,” says the 43-year-old Dallas Cowboys fan.

So if you’re headed to St. Clair, take a lesson from a highly accomplished Texan – pack some crankbaits and swimbaits to go along with your tubes and drop shots. And if you wouldn’t mind, just for the heck of it, share Combs’ advice with my retired neighbor who doesn’t fish too.