Summertime Great Lakes Smallies

[Junk Fisherman]

So after my bout with pneumonia last month and losing most of my June fishing trip, I am returning for a 4-day trip this week.  I am fishing ultra-clear Lake Michigan water and the fish should either be in post spawn or just getting into their summer patterns.  I have never done this type of fishing even though I am very familiar with the water but I have never taken a trip past the end of June.  So any suggestions as to what to look for?  I plan on hitting my shallow prespawn/postspawn waters in 4' to 12' water to see if fish are there before looking for deeper fish.  I suspect the water will in the high 60s to low 70s.  I plan on covering a lot of water with fast moving baits until I find fish hitting lots of dropoffs and weedpatches.  I spend a lot of time fishing Chicagoland for summer smallies but that is all breakwall fishing so this will be a new experience for me.  Any suggestions are appreciated.  

[gim]

6 hours ago, Junk Fisherman said:

and the fish should either be in post spawn or just getting into their summer patterns

I am not very familiar with Great Lakes fishing but its seems extremely late that any species of bass would just be finishing their spawn given how hot its been lately.  Maybe I'm wrong...

[slonezp]

How far north? The leech bite has been on in Door County the last couple weeks

1 hour ago, gimruis said:

I am not very familiar with Great Lakes fishing but its seems extremely late that any species of bass would just be finishing their spawn given how hot its been lately.  Maybe I'm wrong...

I've caught bedding bass in July in Sturgeon Bay. Depends on how late ice out is.  

[Junk Fisherman]

2 hours ago, gimruis said:

I am not very familiar with Great Lakes fishing but its seems extremely late that any species of bass would just be finishing their spawn given how hot its been lately.  Maybe I'm wrong...

A local told me he caught bedding fish last weekend in 65 degree water.  He swears it was a new batch of spawners.

1 hour ago, slonezp said:

How far north? The leech bite has been on in Door County the last couple weeks

I've caught bedding bass in July in Sturgeon Bay. Depends on how late ice out is.  

I have fished Door Co at this time of the year quite a bit but I am fishing in Michigan.  The water is much clearer in Michigan  with a lot more sand and you don’t have all the reefs and islands like you do in Wisconsin.  

[gim]

17 hours ago, Junk Fisherman said:

A local told me he caught bedding fish last weekend in 65 degree water.  He swears it was a new batch of spawners.

That is shocking to me considering how hot its been lately.  I know the Great Lakes have a large volume of water but it still seems very odd that the water wouldn't be any warmer than that by now.

[TnRiver46]

3 minutes ago, gimruis said:

That is shocking to me considering how hot its been lately.  I know the Great Lakes have a large volume of water but it still seems very odd that the water wouldn't be any warmer than that by now.

The river near my house just got above 70 for the first time all year recently, and when they are running more water it dips down below 70 still. There are a few places where the water never gets above 60 year round 

[Junk Fisherman]

5 minutes ago, gimruis said:

That is shocking to me considering how hot its been lately.  I know the Great Lakes have a large volume of water but it still seems very odd that the water wouldn't be any warmer than that by now.

The water around Chicago was in the low 70s last Wednesday.  We have not real hot weather down here.  

[gim]

Just now, TnRiver46 said:

The river near my house just got above 70 for the first time all year recently, and when they are running more water it dips down below 70 still. There are a few places where the water never gets above 60 year round 

How is that possible?

[TnRiver46]

9 minutes ago, gimruis said:

How is that possible?

I’ll never tell!!!!

 

just kidding, really tall dams is how it’s possible. The water that comes out of the dam is from like 200 feet under the surface of the lake , it’s icy cold 

[TnRiver46]

On 7/18/2021 at 3:51 PM, gimruis said:

How is that possible?

East Tennessee smallmouth  bed fishing in July 

[gim]

27 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

East Tennessee smallmouth  bed fishing in July

Ya that’s really interesting never thought a southern location in midsummer would have spawning water temperatures. Those drum are super ugly too lol

[TnRiver46]

4 minutes ago, gimruis said:

Ya that’s really interesting never thought a southern location in midsummer would have spawning water temperatures. Those drum are super ugly too lol

The water on that same river upstream of  the lakes (about 60 or more miles upriver) is probably over 80 degrees currently because it’s “freestone” (no dams) from there up to its origins

[Hawkeye21]

On 7/17/2021 at 6:28 PM, gimruis said:

I am not very familiar with Great Lakes fishing but its seems extremely late that any species of bass would just be finishing their spawn given how hot its been lately.  Maybe I'm wrong...

They were still talking about spawning bass on the St. Lawrence River and Lake Ontario during the last Elite Series event.

[Junk Fisherman]

I can go back and at least start to answer these questions.  I found fish both shallow and deep.  Water temps were around 70 and I didn't see any beds.  I only caught 1 relatively big fish (4.6) in water less than 12'.  I did catch a lot of smaller fish including many in the 2-4 lb range in shallower water.  Fun but I was looking for bigger fish.  I did have a stretch one morning of catching 15 or so smallmouth on a shallow flat just fan casting swimbaits.  Light spinning rigs with 17"-18" smallies in clear, shallow water is a helluva lot of fun.  Thought how it would be great to have my son with me since that experience would be enough to get anyone hooked on fishing.

 

Deep water between 20'-30' is where I caught more big fish but it was a grind and I had a lot of stretches with no action.  So much of the water I was fishing was just a barren, sandy bottom.  I need to plan on how to fish these areas more efficiently.  I did fish some dropoffs (10' to 30') with a lot of action with smaller fish and a couple bigger fish mixed in.  Fun but not exactly what I drove 5 hours for.  

 

Overall, it was a very good trip with a lot of fish caught.  I would have had limits of 15-18 lbs each day.  On the Great Lakes those amounts would get destroyed in larger tournaments but considering I am a newbie at this time of the year, I'll take it.  Probably 50% of my fish came on a dropshot with another 30%-40% coming on swimbaits.   Tubes, Ned rigs, crankbaits, and spybaits also caught fish.   Next year we are taking a longer family vacation in July so I think I'll get a guide to help me key in on the most productive patterns at this time of the year.  

[cyclops2]

Excellent write up of how diverse the bass can be in big waters.

 

There is a reason why electronics make catching more fish everyday easier.

 

 

[Junk Fisherman]

45 minutes ago, cyclops2 said:

Excellent write up of how diverse the bass can be in big waters.

 

There is a reason why electronics make catching more fish everyday easier.

 

 

 

I have thought a lot about forward facing sonar over the last couple days.  I'll be equipped next year.  I can definitely see how it would make finding fish on 30' deep flats the size of football fields much easier.  

[cyclops2]

I did forward & side fish finders with hand held transducers 20? years ago. Some deep water fish do move out of the path of a boat.  Planner boards are a pain. But do work very well on some fish that move away from noisy boats. Big trout & salmon come to mind.

 

Buy a vacuum sealer machine & plastic to seal up all those fresh fish.  Buy a small 12 vdc to 120 vac converter to power the sealer machine ON THE BOAT at sea.  That will increase lifespan & reduce any spoilage from starting. A baitwell with Ice in it & a heavy duty trash bag OVER THE ice helps keep fish better all day.

Way back in time We gutted at sea. Cut the skin & guts into small 1" to 2 " pieces & dumped them over the same spot at the same time. Talk about a bait ball coming to the boat ?   It was legal back then in fresh water also. Why waste the food for the fish ?

 

Enjoy next year.  ?