Hey Bernie,
All of us die hard smallie chasers go through the same thing. Here today gone tomorrow. This time of year smallies scatter and spread out making them tough to find. There may be only one or two smallies using a certain rock pile. Early July the are still grouped up and much easier to target. Also wind direction plays a big role. For instance, down at Long Point a couple of days of East winds usually cools the water temperatures closer to shore and smallies will move up shallower. One thing I do this time of year is to idle around (smallies can be using depths as deep as 35 feet) with a drop shot or tube at the ready. If I idle over a rock pile /shoal/hump and mark fish I will put the boat into neutral toss the bait over the stern and see if there are any takers. (be prepared a number of fish I mark using this technique are sheephead however they do put up a good fight) If there are smallies there I circle back around to make a waypoint and add it to my milk run. It doesn't take long before you build up a number of spots on your graph. There is no secret to catching Lake Erie smallies. You have to put in idle time to find where they are living. They will continue to use the same offshore spots year after year. P.S. I don't like to troll because I never know if baits like Rapalas are running at the correct depth or if they are close enough to the bottom. They also get fouled with weeds. That is why I like to use tubes/drop shots.
Hope this helps,
Jeff
