Sturgeon Bay Weekend

Joined my buddy and his dog to his club’s annual tourney in the Sturgeon Bay area. The competition was on Saturday, but we went up a day early to have some pre-fun. It’s a three-species, honor system tourney, with a point system for eyes, bass, and pike. Being that the eyes have usually been the tough ones to find in previous years, our Friday scouting took us into the Bay for trolling boards for about 6 hours, looking for the jackpot. We hit Little Sturgeon Bay, Hendersons Point, and the area just south of Potowatami park, all pretty well shielded from the strong easterlies….kept the boat in about 10 to 12 fow,with a spread of boards that covered about 6 to 20 or so, and only got a couple bite-offs and a couple smallies, but no eyes. On the day of the tourney, our program was to get the smallies and pike early, then go hunt for the elusive eyes. Well, at least the smallies cooperated with our program. We boated a dozen or so and lost a few in two hours, pretty much all in the Flats at the west end of the shipping canal, with the 3 biggest at 17.5 to just under 20. But that was it for the rest of the day….couldn’t buy a pike if our life depended on it, and the elusive eyes remained elusive. Seems that most tourney boats found the same thing about the pike…only 3 boated out of over twenty boats. We all blamed it on the tough winds. There were a few eyes caught on saturday.
So as luck would have it, we made up for our dismal performance on Sunday, a day late, but a satisfying finale to a great trip, nevertheless. Fished an area with current in the canal, and boated the first of 6 eyes 15 minutes into it, a nice 21 incher, which was put into the livewell for dinner. And that was all she wrote for eaters…the next five fish ranged from 23.5 to 28.5 inches, plus a few missed hits. Dragging suckers in 20 to 25 fow did the trick, using circle hooks and half-ounce egg sinkers. Also picked up a couple pike and a few smallies before packing it up for the long drive home. Pitched plastic and dragged plastic as well, but not a single hit.
Heard tha the trollers were doing well in Rileys Bay, but never made it over there on this trip. For those looking to chase smallies, the bite should get progressively better in these waters over the next few weeks.
Water temps in the Bay were at 44 degrees, and in parts of the shipping canal, 49 to 51 degrees.

Oops! the pics of a 20.5 inch smallie and 28.5 inch eye from Sunday, and threw in a 14.75 inch perch from Lake MI last week.

Thanks for the report Z-man. I’m planning on making a trip up to Sturgeon Bay with a friend soon. Sounds like with the water temps where they are we should wait another week to go after smallies in the shallow flats around Potawatame Park.

Fishing for smallies should be decent from here on out. Wish I could go too. going to have to wait till June for my next trip up there. Good luck and let us know how you do.