Smallmouth heaven is right D-Nort!! Dad, Steve, and I were also fishing some of the bays in Lake Michigan this weekend. Wow! There are some beautiful fish in the lake! We caught to many fish too count! Plastics were the consistent producers. Carolina rigging a tube or crawdad yeilded many fish, as well as texas style tubes. The biggest key in presenting the bait to bigger fish, was making it fall SLOW. I threw many plastics on a 1/16 ounce BFT precision jig head. The slower it would fall the harder it was hit.
The water temps in the bays jumped around, some were in the lower seventies and some were in the lower sixties. The temperatures really didn’t seem to matter that much, some bays held fish, some held more fish, while others didn’t hold any fish. We caught fish in the warmer bays, and the cooler bays. The key was, to get away from pressured fish. When we were able to get on "new" fish, we caught a lot in one little area. Most of our fish ranged in 18-20" range, with some occasional smaller fish mixed in.
The smallmouth is my favorite fish to catch by far. The attitude that these fish have in unreal. They never, never give up! We were using St. Croix Legend Elites, or Legend Tournaments spinning rods to present our baits. I put a lot of importance in this clear of water on going as light as you can with weights/line. I was using six pound test stren clear line. Of course with these bulldog fish, I had to set the drag accordingly. But they are a blast on a medium, or medium light 6’6" rod, with six pound line.
Door county is an absolutely beautiful place. It is God’s country! I really enjoyed our stay and the fishing. I have never seen such a variation in smallmouth color, and pattern on the fish. It made each one caught special and unique! I am not a huge bass fisherman, but I would guess that most of these fish have not spawned yet, and I would like to stress the importance of catch and release on these wonderful fish. They are so much fun to catch! If you haven’t been smallmouth fishing in Lake Michigan, I would strongly recommend a trip soon!
Good Luck! Stay safe, and we’ll see you on the water!
Beautiful sunset!!!
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Awesome fish Luke, Steve and Cliff!
I really hope I can make the trip next time. What’re we gonna fish for tomorrow?
I’ve heard the smallmouth fishing there is second to none Luke, looks like thats true. Nice looking fish.
Yo Andy!! It’s is going to be hard going back to those largemouth now, you hook them, and they just roll in compared to the smallies. But I am game for tomorrow afternoon/night- Yep, you should have came with!
One other thing I would like to mention on these fish, they must be handled extremely carefully. We netted the majority of the fish we caught, so we could lip them quickly, unhook and release. These fish come from extremely clean water, and I believe that makes them less resilient to handling. I counted quite a few fish that were floating, and I could tell they were handled im-properly. Some of them even hand handmarks on them, where the slime coat was worn off…..please, please, to enjoy these fish into the future, handle them with care!
Those smallies look like footballs!
This is another place that I have always wanted to try for those bronzebacks. Cool report Luke!
Great report and pics Luke! Looks like you had a blast. Love2Fish