I spent May 23rd and 24th searching for giant smallmouths in the famous sturgeon bay area. Although we never got into any giants we caught a lot of fish and it was a very enjoyable trip.
We concentrated our efforts in Little Sturgeon bay, and it didn’t take us long to find a large school in about 6 FOW. After picking it apart for a few hours we caught around 25 of them, but every one was in the 2.5 to 4 pound range. I’m not sure if we were in-between waves of fish or if it was just the sunny, flat calm conditions that were scattering the big fish making it hard to concentrate our efforts in a certain area – we covered a fair amount of area in the two days and only came across one real concentration of fish, all being on the smaller side of the spectrum. Big fish for the weekend was around the 4 pound mark.
As far as presentation goes we found Trigger X tubes to be producing the most fish, with swim baits such as the Trigger X Slop Hopper producing a few fish as well. Working the tubes rather slow seemed to trigger the most strikes.
I’m sure there will be a lot of better days to come as we didn’t see any sign of fish on beds yet, which leads me to believe we might have hit it on an off day and the big fish were either scattered or just not there. I hope to make it up there again in the near future in search of the giants that Green Bay is known for!
Calm conditions with that crystal clear water has always been tough any time I’ve made the trip. Of course when you’re boating two dozen fish in a couple hours… it is hard to complain.
I’m sure you saw it already but here’s the pic of that 8.29lb smallie Mark Fisher and tournament partner Scott Bonnema caught during the Sturgeon Bay Open not long ago. Eeee-gads what a freak!
Holy Hanna, that’s the Michael Phelps of Bronzebacks !!
It’s a special place….probably some of the biggest numbers of giant smallies I have ever seen!
I had a buddy who kept sending me pictures when he was out there, and holy cow! I felt like repeatedly punching him every time my phone would buzz with another picture of donk after donk!
Here is a picture a week or so back with a couple that didn’t go 8 lbs but how about a pair for 15lbs?! I can’t wait to get out there soon!
That might be one of the “purtiest” photos I’ve seen in a long time. I hope your buddy bought a lottery ticket or two once he got off the water. What a day to remember!
Yikes, those are fish of epic proportions! Will stay tuned, interested in seeing what the return trip(s) bring!
Joel
I’ve been spending way too much time chasing walleyes up there!!! It’s time to find some titan smallies!!! Nice pictures gentlemen!!!
Just so you don’t feel bad…catching 2.5-4 lbers consistently is better than many do in a day. I fish there some… (90mins away) and lots of guys don’t do as well as you did. There is a magic window for those pre spawn MegaSmallies that was a bit ago…but yes, you may connect with one at anytime.
You guys did a great job starting to crack the “code”!
Nice job on getting on them.
Not that big fish aren’t caught in the southern regions of the bay; but heading north usually is usually less in numbers and increase in size.
Nice going Pat, that’s a good day anywhere.
Jack
While our waters are known for producing some real monster smallies you can rest assure that they do not come all that often and those small seasonal windows can be hard to hit just right. Spending the day catching good numbers of smallies in the 2.5-4lb range can be a lot of fun and they make up a large number of the fish caught. Over the past number of years we have certainly seen an increase in the size of the fish and the fishing continues to get better and better. Great report.
Paul Delaney
http://www.lateeyessportfishing.com
I always love it when I come across a school of river smallies here on pool ten…
BUT !!!
Those brutes are INCREDIBLE !!!
Never have I ever seen tanks like that down here…
Great pix you guys…
Michael Phelps in a Fat Albert Suit !!!!
A true “football” if I’ve ever seen one! Man, what a fish!