Grand Traverse Bay Smallmouth Bass Fishing

Here’s everything you need to know about Grand Traverse Bay Smallmouth Bass Fishing. Find all the information it in this article.

Pay attention when running and keep an eye on your sonar and you’ll be fine. This time we’ll stop in Au Gres, a beautiful port town that just happens to offer excellent access to Charity Island in Lake Huron’s Saginaw Bay. Now we’ll head up and over the tip of the northern Lower Peninsula. This time we’re heading to Alpena on the east side of the state. Both are part of the inland waterway, a highway of water that stretches 40 miles from Crooked Lake into Lake Huron. This waterway passes through three other lakes along the way including Burt and Mullett.

Traverse City is home to a variety of piers and docks, many of which offer up fishing opportunities. If you’ll be visiting the Boardman River, you’ll find plenty of pockets that are perfect for wade fishing. There will be a cooler on board with water, if you would like to bring snacks or a sandwich there will be a spot for them. Lake trips are casting trips for up to 3 people and are catch and release except for walleye. Erie smallies are large and it takes a five-pound average to place in local tournaments. Wind, current and water clarity are important factors influencing catch.

Top Species To Catch

According to our data, anglers at East Arm Grand Traverse Bay are mostly reeling in Smallmouth bass using the following fishing gear. Learn what hours to go fishing at East Arm Grand Traverse Bay. Create a free account on Fishbrain to know the exact BiteTime™ for any fish, explore fishing spots, and save relevant baits to prepare for your next fishing trip. According to our data, anglers at West Arm Grand Traverse Bay are mostly reeling in Smallmouth bass using the following fishing gear. Learn what hours to go fishing at West Arm Grand Traverse Bay. We moved a couple of times, usually no more than a mile, from one patch of grass to another.

Most temperatures have been from degrees, if you can find any pockets of water with degree temps, you should find browns. Noffsinger abandoned fishing “spots” and started looking for warmer water. I switched to a tube and when we started finding water in the 47- to 48-degree range again, I caught a couple of fish. Noffsinger had one hammer his grub and he called for Wyatt to grab the net. The fish, which weighed in at five pounds, four ounces on a hand-held scale, was fat-bellied. Your boat for the day is a 19’ Lund Tyee performance fisher, built in 2016 and fully equipped with state-of-the-art electronics and fishing gear.

Great Lakes Bass Fishing Forum

Traverse City is a popular destination for summer tourists. If you like catching big smallmouths, it’s somewhere you might want to consider visiting this summer. One example of a large inland lake that has a very healthy smallmouth population is Cheboygan County’s Douglas Lake.

You have contacted us immediately after booking with all the details of the other deal including a link to the offer on the website and the exact price being quoted. Smallmouth Bass fishing in Traverse City varies moderately throughout the year. His boat is a 27’ Triton with ample walkaround room for you and 5 others to fish comfortably at the same time.

Sport Fish Michigan Grand Traverse Bay

Face it — fishing on the surface is a favorite for just about anyone who fly fishes. Sometimes they sip flies, and other times they explode on top of it (so much for peacefulness!) — it’s always fun when they grab. As most of you know, the perch fishing on Lake Michigan has greatly improved in the past two years; this past fall yielded high numbers of perch with a good average size. With the bays not receiving much if any safe ice this winter, the fish have had the chance to feed and flourish with limited pressure. Noffsinger, 38, has been a professional angler almost his whole life. He started out working as a mate on charter boats as a young teen and, except for a stint in the army, has been at it non-stop.

He’s attracted his share of attention on the bass fishing scene since he switched over from salmonids about eight years ago. At 19 miles long, Torch is Michigan’s second-largest inland lake and is noted for its impossibly clear, blue water. But what really makes this lake unique is its famous sand bar. If you’re looking for bigger water, Lake Huron is renowned for its smallmouth fishing and Thunder Bay is one of the state’s more overlooked smallmouth fisheries. This is big water and you’ll need to use caution when the wind kicks up – particularly if the wind comes from the east.

Sport Fish Michigan Fishing Report

Spring and fall are great times of year to fish top water or spinnerbaits and cover water looking for the biggest fish. Traverse City Anglers specializes in fishing the inland lakes around the Traverse City, MI area. We are blessed with diverse offerings within a short drive from Traverse City including world class smallmouth bass fishing, pike, musky and walleye. In addition to the local lakes the Boardman River is a Blue Ribbon Trout stream with wild brook and brown trout. For those fishing on Grand Traverse Bays, the smallmouth fishing has been excellent at times, and spotty at times. For the most part, anglers should target deep structure in 20 feet or more.

Here is a quick look at what we have been targeting and what we will be perusing over the course of the next few weeks. Miles of weeds and riprap is home to a tremendous sport fishery close to metro Detroit. Hard charging bronzeback go nuts for tubes in an assortment of goby colors dragged along bottom. On days when fish are aggressive, popping a tube a few inches off bottom can be the ticket, although a sweeping retrieve works best. Casting short billed cranks produces savage strikes from smallies suspended above the weeds in feet of water.

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On inland lakes, early morning and dusk are prime times to target bass using topwater lures. Toppers and walking baits are the primary go-to choices for topwater action at this time of the year. As we experience the Mayfly hatch early in the month, and then tapering off as the month progresses, most bass action on the inland lakes will revolve around these insect hatches. Deeper weeds and sharp break lines will hold fish all throughout the month. Inland lake bass fishing can be incredible, and the fish on the inland lakes come up to the shallow flats to feed before heading deep for winter. Swimbaits, crankbaits, and even spinnerbaits are all great options to throw this time of year.

Trout

Trolling the shallow water on the shores of Lake Michigan out of ports like Frankfort, Manistee, Arcadia, and Onekama for brown trout has been great. Using lighter fluorocarbon and longer leads on inline planer boards has worked well. We have found that using more natural colors in clearer water, and brighter colors in dirtier water, has been producing more biters.

Burt & Mullett Lakes

An added bonus is that you’ll find a good variety of places to rent a kayak from located all around the city. One of the top techniques for catching smallies on Grand Traverse Bay is drop shotting, as well as burning spinnerbaits in the crystal clear pristine waters. When Great Lakes waves get rockin’ some anglers drag bottom while drifting downwind.

Lake Erie And The Detroit River

On calmer days, drop-shot rigs and soft plastic jerkbaits are excellent options. As the month progresses, bass will transition deeper in the water to their summer locations. A drop-shot rig is a great option for targeting deep-holding bass. Bass fishing in Northern Michigan can be wonderfully rewarding. The smallmouth bass are in a summer pattern during this time.

Northwest Michigan Report

Ten bass among three anglers in four hours is not what Noffsinger or I had expected. Wyatt, however, said he thought the fishing was pretty good. It’s easy to understand how changing winds could impact the water temperature, but I was surprised by the degree of change. I was also surprised by differences in water temperature within the bay itself—we found water temps with seven or eight degrees of variation. This fishing is only just starting to get good; the next two months will only get better for these three species. This is a great time of the year to get out on the Bays and take advantage of some awesome fishing for fish that not only fight hard but taste excellent.

A Fishing Guides Day Off In Grand Traverse Bay

We at SFM have also been having great luck targeting jumbo Lake Michigan perch in Grand Traverse Bay. Both East and West Bays have been producing large numbers of perch in ft. of water. Rocky and weed-covered bottoms seem to be holding the larger schools of fish. Utilizing your sonar in this situation to tell the difference between baitfish and perch is key, and can be difficult at times.

We have a lot of great fishing ahead of us this spring, and we are looking forward to good numbers of steelhead running our tributaries. Sport Fish Michigan and clients had a terrific August, taking advantage of multiple fishing opportunities throughout the Traverse City Region. The lake trout and salmon fishing really picked up pace leading into this month, we are very excited to capitalize on every minute of action our area has to offer. There are some excellent fisheries around Traverse City, Michigan, but the bay gets the most attention as a world-class smallmouth fishery. Each is capable of being the best on a given day and they are both full of smallmouth bass. In most parts of the country, a 5-pound smallmouth earns “fish-of-a-lifetime” status.

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“Steelhead and smallmouths — those are two of my favorite fish. I could fish for just those two fish the rest of my life.” “Well, there’s a lot of good walleye fishing around here,” I replied. If you’re looking for a trophy catch that’ll hit your line with the strength of a freight train, Chinook is the opponent for you.