Well as most of us know winter just will not say good bye this year with more snow and cold temperatures in the forecast it is still going to be some time before we lose the ice pack on the Bay of Green Bay. With some areas having open water in the lower bay and some open water in the Sturgeon Bay area along with portions of the upper bay there are some open water fishing opportunities available.
I spent a couple days this week fishing for Northern Pike in the Sturgeon Bay area finding very cold water still in most areas that I fished. We have been targeting water depths of 18 to 22 feet of water using succer minnows behind bottom bouncers along with casting soft plastics on jigs and heavy hair jigs.
Action has been pretty slow but there are fish present but they have been biting very light on the succer minnows and not holding on to them long. The fish that we have been getting jigging are hitting the baits harder but we have to cover water to locate fish.
The fish that we find have been in pods so when we locate fish we concentrate in that area and keep the baits working through them to get our bites. The water temps have only been warming about 1 degree through the day but the afternoons have had the better action. With any luck we can get some warmer steady weather to help warm water temps and action for all species will pickup. I had a bonus Muskie the other day that was a surprise which pounded a jig that I was casting very exciting. While this fish was around the mid 40 inch range the Bay has a lot of fish that exceed the 50 inch range along with a real shot at the next world record fish.
Paul Delaney
www.lateeyessportfishing.com
Good looking Ski!
Thanks Paul for getting the muskie blood flowing even more! I do not think I will sleep tonight!! Thanks for sharing!!
Nice report! My partner and I were up this past Saturday and Sunday. Same this as you, if you find one fish there were at least a few more to be had. Our biggest was a 34in Pike. We did better trolling and covering more water. But we found our fish a little shallower in 12-18fow. Always look forward to your reports! Thanks.
Anyone know how the ice is in the bays around Sturgeon? Bass Tourn. In 3 weeks…Yikes!
The ice is almost all gone from Sturgeon Bay to the south should be gone in a couple days. As far as further north there is still quite a bit of ice around but it wont be long what the heck am I saying it has already been too long.
Paul Delaney
http://www.lateeyessportfishing.com
This is a great link for checking ice conditions on the bay.
Green Bay & Lake Michigan Satellite Photo’s
Thanks for the update and the link
!