We are heading to spend this weekend at the In-laws in Door County. I am planning on taking my boat and hope to spend some time chasing smallmouth in the Stugeon Bay area. The fishery is new to me, any suggestions regarding where the fish are in the spawning cycle, areas to fish, etc. would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you
If this is any indication, you should be in luck.
http://www.doorcountydailynews.com/sports/details.cfm?clientid=28&id=78122#.UZo2VSi9Kc1
The fish are pre-spawn and holding in 20-25 fow.
How would you fish them?
pm sent. throw jerkbaits or drag tubes.
tubes and drop shot. gold works very well out there 
Quote:
How would you fish them?
A green-pumpkin tube is probably the best all-time smallie bait. Rig it on a tube jig just heavy enough to keep it on the bottom. Make long casts and let the tube sit on the bottom for a spell before slowly sweeping your rod tip to move it across the bottom to imitate a goby or crayfish, reeling up your slack (i.e. don’t cast and reel straight back like a spinnerbait).
I generally fish tubes on 10-pound braid with an 8-pound fluorocarbon leader tied on with a uni-to-uni knot. Others prefer straight fluoro. I like the sensitivity of braid (for feeling light bites), and its ability to transmit a hookset quickly and efficiently with no line stretch.
You can pick up some tube-fishing-for-smallies tips in this IDO “Hooked Up!” video I produced last year. Note: I was tending the camera on a tripod while trying to also fish, so you won’t see my catch as many fish as my fishing partner (I know – excuses, excuses, right!!!). Also, don’t be surprised if you catch a couple bonus big walleyes, as we did when filming this video.
We filmed this in the fall on Mille Lacs, but these tube tactics will work well in the spring on any good small fishery.
I’ve has good luck on smallies in recent years with Trigger X tubes in green pumpkin, peanut butter and jelly, pumpkin, watermelon red flake and smoke red flake. I choose my tube colors based on bottom composition, picking the color that best matches the bottom. I’ve found that if I pick a color that stands out from the bottom too much, I get less bites. But if the color blends in, they eat it (the movement attracts them, not a stand-out color). This is probably because crayfish and gobies blend in to the bottom and don’t stand out.
As a general rule, I use pumpkin and peanut butter and jelly over sand, smoke red flake over isolated rocks, and green pumpkin or watermelon red flake over rocks in weeds or near weed edges. If I could only have one color, though, it would be green pumpkin.
Tight lines!
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