Door Co. WI Smallmouth

By riverfan 0

This weekend I was part of a group that was invited to share Jim Johnson’s (Champman) favorite big smallmouth spot in WI. Jim asked that I not divulge the exact location, and I’ll honor the request. I can understand why! It’s a spot where a 4.5 pound smallie is ho-hum, double digit five’s can be had by knowledgeable anglers and a six or seven isn’t out of sight. The picture is part of Jim and Dan’s load from day one. The biggest went 5.95 pounds.

The group consisted of members of Jim’s bass club, the River Roads Bassmasters of Stoddard, WI, his tournament partner, Dan Thill, some friends from IL and me. I shared my boat with Randy Eddy of Holmen WI. Every boat but one had a five in their catch. It’s an awesome fishery that loads-up every fall.

Deep diving jerk baits accounted for most of the fish. As I said before a “knowledgeable angler” can load the boat. It seemed easy enough, it was just a matter of pulling jerk baits along the shoreline breaks. But the presentation has some very subtle differences that can spell the difference between success and a tough day. Randy and I were new to the fishery and struggled thru the first half of the day. With a few pointers it went from what the H is going on the best smallmouth fishing I’ve ever seen. The key was a combination of cadence, line size, line length and pauses. It was clear from the results that Jim knew all of the moves to trigger a strike.

Fishing the Great Lakes has it’s challenges but and finding a place to launch is one of them The lakes are way below normal and a strong west wind blew even more water out of the bays. Boating has it’s hazards but the scenery and experience are well worth it. If you were over a sand bottom you could see fish down 25’. You’ve got to give it a try!

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  3. Great report John…I enjoyed your company and had a great time on the water. The water clarity was amazing and so were the quality of fish. My wrist and arms were definitely feeling the pain, but when you average 4lbs per fish, it isn’t all too bad any longer.

  4. Door County used to be my fishing location on every weekend from Mother’s Day to the 4th of July every year. Still my favorite smallie spot, although I haven’t been there in years now. Glad to see she’s still going strong, even though the meat anglers were cleaning a lot of 4 and 5 lb’ers when I was up there. Signs up there by the WI DNR stated that it takes smallies in Lake Michigan waters 5 years to reach 12 inches, just imagine how old those 20+ inchers are!

    Good Fishing,

    Tom

  6. Great report and beautiful pics, John!

    Quote:

    even though the meat anglers were cleaning a lot of 4 and 5 lb’ers when I was up there.

    Makes me . What a bummer. Hopefully folks are learning about and practicing CPR more now.

  9. Tom, Wade,

    We didn’t see any harvest on this trip so catch and release is catching on. However, there are other precautions that I’d like to see. Live bait fishing is popular in the area and we did see several fish with line coming out of their gullet. It would be great to see a shift to circle hooks.
    All fisherman need to be aware that moving fish this time of year is a bad idea. We want these fish to use their extra body weight to survive winter, not burning it up getting back to a safe wintering area. So take a picture where you caught em and put em back right there.

    John

  11. Wow, those are some very nice fish and the average size is awesome!

    Might want to be careful about the background in some of those pictures. For those of us who have been fishing up there for over 20 years, a background like that is pretty distinct.

    Great report John!

    Boog

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