7/ 22-23 Door County Smallmouth

“Livin’ the Dream” seems to be the theme I’m experiencing over the last couple weeks. With a low in my work schedule, I need to fill my time with something constructive. So after resting for two days from our last trip, it was off to Door County, WI. for some smallmouth action.
With the goofy weather pattern we’re experiencing, it was an adventure within itself. Every couple hours, the wind would shift and a glass like bay would turn to 3 footers. Fortunately, Door County has more miles of shoreline than a guy could fish in a season, so there was always a place to relocate to.

Over the couple days of fishing, I hit multiple bays. No sense in fighting the wind and waves when the pattern I was on proved itself to be very consistent.
There was more slicks of dead alewives floating through than I have seen in years. In addition to the floaters, I marked mega amounts of bait swimming along the deeper edges of the rock bars and shoals. It took no time at all to dial in active smallies. Crank on the drop-offs!

Positioning the boat in deeper water, fan casting lipless cranks at the top of the drop off quickly produced the most active fish. With the gin clear water, I noticed most of my hook ups came from longer distances from the boat. It was a blast to just have fun with the light medium gear, 15# braid / floro leader. My top producing cranks from the weekend were the Koppers Gizzard shad (surprised?), Koppers slow-sinking Herring swim bait, and a chrome/blue chug bug.
The first couple rock bars I hit were a bit of a learning curve for the weekends pattern. I spent way too much time dissecting the water. After pulling the most active fish, I drug tubes and drop-shotted a gobby or a Culprit Jerk shad. All produced fish, but at an expense of time. Since this wasn’t tournament conditions, I had the luxury of just seeking the premium bite. So run and gunning each rock bar or shoal was the best fit for me.

As I mentioned, the winds shifted often. Common sense is #1 on these waters as it can go from glass to some big waves in a very minimal amount of time. Knowing your skill sets and limits are a must for a safe trip out here. Door County offers numerous bays on both the Lake MI and Bay of Green Bay side that holds very quality smallmouth. 2# to 4# fish are very common, and a few over 5# are expected. My best of the weekend was a fatty at 21-5/8″ and weighed 6# 7oz on my scale.
The popularity of Door County is generally the spring with the abundance of bedded fish and the allure of that monster wall hanger. Mid-summer is no slouch as these toads are feeding heavily and have some pretty stuffed bellies. Adding to a quality experience, is the reduction in fishermen this time of year. With the exception of Peninsula State Park, I virtually had entire reefs all to my self!