Fishing Door County Bass and Walleyes
Spring time is a fantastic time here in Door County to take advantage of some awesome Smallmouth Bass fishing. As with most bodies of water the key to great shallow water fishing is having continuous warming water temps which will draw the fish into the shallows where they will begin to feed up before they get into there spawning period.
Our water temps have been warming slowly this season with one week being warm and temps beginning to rise and the following week we get hit with a cold front which slows the whole warming thing down for days. Over the past couple of weeks we have been finding the male bass showing up in the shallow water and on those warm sunny days as the water warms in the afternoon we have been able to find some good success fishing the warmest water we can find.
We have been finding success fishing the bass with Trigger X tubes in the green pumpkin color with 1/8th to 1/4oz VMC Tube jig heads along with casting Rapala Shadow Raps in the shallow water. The key for us with both baits that we are using has been to fish them slowly. When casting the Rapala Shadow Raps we have been making long casts and getting the bait down to its depth then making small quick twitches and then letting the bait sit on long pauses.
We still have been finding some larger walleyes relating to deeper water areas just outside some of the areas that they had spawned earlier in the season. For these fish we have been finding success casting both Rapala Rippin Raps along with also casting Rapala Jigging Raps both being worked right off the bottom. There also has been a good bite going in the southern portion of Green Bay for smaller size walleyes in the 18 to 25 inch range. Fishing these fish I have been finding success trolling and casting for these fish. On days where the wind is blowing harder we have been trolling Storm Smash Shads behind planer boards targeting the reef areas and on days when there is not much wind we have been casting with Rapala Rippin Raps along with also casting VMC mooneye jigs with a half of crawler attached.
Paul Delaney
WWW.lateeyessportfishing.com
