Just a quick note on the trip to A.J’s Little Sturgeon Bay paradise-complete with old grumpy neighbor right next store!(actually, the old guy Fuzzy and his wife were great people.) That big water is another world–first time in a boat I actually felt like I was going to puke my guts out, that water goes up and down well as side to side.
Friday was beautiful and the smallies, ones that were left in the bay, were cooperative–would have loved to be there 2 weeks earlier, with the gin clear water you could see empty beds everywhere, and in some cases they were a couple feet apart.
According to some locals we talked to, once they spawn they are gone-back out to Green Bay into 30FOW to feed on gobies, I presume.
With a change in the weather on Saturday(colder, low 60’s with rain and dropping temps as the day progressed) we switched gears and went out into Green Bay to find some walleyes–what a different world. On a side note, one of the biggest mistakes a fisherman can make going from one body of water to another is thinking that walleyes do the same thing everywhere. Think about it, you can live in Alaska, New York City or a tropical island-but you’d adapt to your surroundings and live different in each location.
To put it bluntly, the walleyes were not on the bottom nor related to any structure. No fish on the graph (Jason Halfen, where were you with your side imaging!)
but we were catching fish running cranks(minnow raps, #5 shad raps) 50 feet back over 15-30FOW. We immediately assumed that some, if not most of the fish, were being pushed off the sides by our approaching boat. Even in that clear water, if fish were hugging the lower portion of the water column, you’d at least mark a few. We marked absolutely next to none.
My guess was, the fish were feeding on pods of smelt, shiners and like suspended baitfish. We did catch some fish on spinner rigs with crawlers, but cranks were doing just fine with speeds around 1.5mph being preferred. I can see that in this situation, and which we did use, planer boards really seem to be the norm-one guys spread with 3 boards out each side had to cover 50 yards of water-that was impressive! Since my friend A.J. was new to this water as well (he just bought his place last summer and currently is boatless, pontoons do not count!) we spent much time searching and learning rather than pounding on a pod of fish.
All I can say is, he has quite a fishery to keep him busy: ice out pike, smallmouth prespawn and spawn, consistant walleye bite and into the summer-fall trout and salmon bite-plus, the other harbors such as Algoma are within 30 minutes.
I see a Labor day husky jerk salmon bite in my future!!!! And, I bet my friend A.J. is currently boat shopping!
Jeremy
