It’s not uncommon to spot a few people fishing along Windsor’s waterfront in spring and summer, but the shore of the Detroit River was packed on Saturday morning with hundreds of out-of-town anglers casting their bait for silver bass.
“It’s biting like crazy,” said Sergey Popov, who left Hamilton in the early morning hours to get to Windsor by 7:30 a.m. and start fishing on the shore at Centennial Park.
It seems word has spread that Windsor is the place to go for silver bass – also known more formally as white bass – in spring. Several anglers who came in from Toronto said they heard from friends or read online in fishing forums that the Detroit River is the best place in the region for this kind of fish.
Around this time each spring, the silver bass make their way up the Detroit River from Lake Erie to spawn and then head toward Lake St. Clair and Saginaw for the summer, said Willis Beam, a member of the Belle River chapter of the Muskies Canada sport fishing association and a well-known local bass fisherman.
The river is so full of fish in the spring that many anglers on the waterfront on Saturday had practically filled their coolers by lunch time.
Popov said this is the second year he has travelled to Windsor for a day to fish silver bass. The fish is tasty, clean and nearly boneless, Popov said.
It’s a common fish in Russian cuisine, he said, showing a cooler with about a dozen live, gleaming silver bass and the odd white perch inside. Popov, who fishes other species too, said he expected to catch between 20 and 25 fish on Saturday.
While he prefers to fish up north in a more natural setting, he said, fishing on the Detroit River is a whole other experience. “It’s urban fishing,” he said, describing how it’s clean, paved and you don’t even touch the water. “You can fish in a tuxedo here.”
Considered by many sports fishermen to be a “coarse” fish, silver bass are nonetheless extremely popular, said George Unis, a local musky fisherman and a fellow Muskies Canada member.
“You will catch them till your arms get sore,” Unis said, describing the volume of silver bass swimming through the Detroit River these days.
They’re fun to catch and silver bass are a good fish for kids – or anyone with a short attention span – to try for because they bite pretty quickly at this time, he said.
Indeed, it wasn’t just adults fishing in the Detroit River Saturday morning. Kids and teens were also there with their fishing rods. In between catches, families and groups of friends had set up picnics, tents and lawn chairs to relax.
Better water quality in the lakes has done a lot for the fish population, said Kim Kelly, the special events director at the Riverside Sportsmen’s Club and the organizer of Windsor’s first-ever bass and muskie show next weekend.
Anglers can catch silver bass all year round, but in a few weeks, Ontario’s large mouth and small mouth bass season will officially open and diehard bass anglers are expected to visit the region.
“Pound for pound they’re a wicked fighting fish,” Kelly said of small mouth and large mouth bass. “They put up a real good fight.”
Both Kelly and Beam said they expect to see even more tourism around here now that Lake St. Clair has just been named the Number 1 bass lake in North America by Bassmaster magazine.
“Everybody will be just working themselves into a frenzy just fishing for bass,” Beam said. Anglers in the southern U.S. are talking about getting up to Lake St. Clair for a shot at a muskie or a bass.
Back at Centennial Park, Alex Dinos said he left Toronto at 2 a.m. Saturday to get to Windsor in time to fish. Along with half a cooler full of silver bass, he also caught a catfish.
This was Dinos’ third year fishing in Windsor, he said, and the silver bass he caught will be either steamed or fried. It’s quite easy to catch silver bass, he said. After waiting a few minutes, Dinos lifts two silver bass out of the water.
“Sometimes you just throw (the bait) and lift one up,” he said.
bfantoni@windsorstar.com or Twitter.com/bfantoni
Hundreds of people fish for silver bass along the Detroit River at Centennial Park, Saturday, May 18, 2013. Silver bass are currently spawning in the Detroit River and migrating to Lake St. Clair. (DAX MELMER/The Windsor Star)
Hundreds of people fish for silver bass along the Detroit River at Centennial Park, Saturday, May 18, 2013. Silver bass are currently spawning in the Detroit River and migrating to Lake St. Clair. (DAX MELMER/The Windsor Star)
Alex Dinos, from Toronto, catches a silver bass while fishing along the Detroit River at Centennial Park, Saturday, May 18, 2013. Silver bass are currently spawning in the Detroit River and migrating to Lake St. Clair. (DAX MELMER/The Windsor Star)
Alex Dinos, from Toronto, uses a minnow to catch silver bass while fishing along the Detroit River at Centennial Park, Saturday, May 18, 2013. Silver bass are currently spawning in the Detroit River and migrating to Lake St. Clair. (DAX MELMER/The Windsor Star)
Alex Dinos, from Toronto, unhooks the silver bass he just caught while fishing along the Detroit River at Centennial Park, Saturday, May 18, 2013. Silver bass are currently spawning in the Detroit River and migrating to Lake St. Clair. (DAX MELMER/The Windsor Star)
Hundreds of people fish for silver bass along the Detroit River at Centennial Park, Saturday, May 18, 2013. Silver bass are currently spawning in the Detroit River and migrating to Lake St. Clair. (DAX MELMER/The Windsor Star)
