Fishing Report for Little Bay De Noc

As I right this report we are on the wake of a substantial cold front that is going to over take most of the country. With the real cold weather really being tough on the boats and making the launch ramps slick and challenging and not even to mention the marinas have lots of ice we have to break through to get to open water the fishing usually is pretty rewarding.

I woke up the other day to air temps of 19 degrees no wind and bluebird skies. After getting the boat in the water and arriving to the first fishing location I grabbed my fishing pole with a # 7 Rapala Rippin Rap in the color of gold shiner I made a cast in water depths of 25 feet of water and before that bait hit bottom that awesome feel of the tick and fish on.

Spending the day fishing two different locations concentrating on water depths of 25 to 35 FOW I ended up putting 24 walleyes out of 31 fish on in the boat. Most fish were 20 to 25 inches but I had one fish just over 30 inches. The following day the wind blew very hard and I stayed off the water. Yesterday brought cloudy conditions and calm winds so we headed south to some areas we catch big fish trolling at night but I have never fished this location casting during daylight hours and I was excited to try this location this Fall using this technique. once again we were targeting water depths of 25 to 35 Fow and it was not long and we had a double on one fish being 26″ and another being 28″. The conditions were awesome and so was the fishing all though we did not catch as many fish as the day before we did manage to put 12 fish in the boat for the afternoon and losing several more fish but most fish were 28 to 31 inches and the largest fish weighing 11.5 pounds.

The way we fish this Rapala Rippin Rap is key to getting bites. James Holst and Myself have filmed before using this bait for both Walleyes and Smallmouth bass and have explaind how we use the bait but the key in cold water I have found is allowing the bait to make bottom contact and with slack in the line snapping the rod tip so that when the line comes tight the bait jumps off the bottom as apposed to being lifted off the bottom. I can not emphasize enough how important that snapping is getting fish to react to the bait. I have been casting Sufix 832 braid with a flourocarbon leader of 12 lb test line.I expect that with the temps coming we will be switching to Sufix Seige monofilament. We will be doing some night trolling this upcoming week but will also continue to do some more casting if our hands can handle the cold.As we continue to get out I will continue to post reports.

Paul Delaney

www.lateeyessportfishing.com