Late Summer on the Great Lakes... where to start?

[07Rapala]

I'm heading up to Traverse City MI later this week. Where to start looking for fish. I'll just have a canoe and my eyeballs for finding fish. Water temp is about 71° right now. How deep are they usually this time of year? There is a moderate amount of shallow (6' or less) structure in the area I have access to, and a good amount of deep structure (10'-30').

[Dwight Hottle]

You might find some shallow early & late in the day at low light. Otherwise look for them in 25-35 fow on structure. 

[TnRiver46]

I’ve only fished small waters up there but LOVE that part of the world, just rolled thru last month 

[07Rapala]

Thanks Dwight. I've been watching some videos and looking closely at maps.

Lots of structure in the 5-10' range near where I'll be (East Bay), rocks, boulders, weed beds, maybe even a sunken ship? Then it drops quickly to the abyss. I'll take a second look for structure a bit deeper. I may have found some weed beds.

When people talk about fish up "shallow" vs "deep" what depth range are they talking about? How deep is the thermocline typically?

[Dwight Hottle]

Shallow to me on the great lakes is 10 fow or less. Thermocline is typically found around 50' deep unless a major wind event turns the lake over. I doubt it will be an issue for you in a canoe unless you really get adventurous. 

[07Rapala]

Well, that's a wrap on my Traverse City trip! I caught some big fish, but it took a lot of patience to get them.

 

The area I was in on the Old Mission Peninsula has a shallow shelf that extends 100-200' from shore and slowly descents to about 10' of depth, before dropping precipitously into over 100' of water. A lot of this shelf is just bare sand, but there are areas of rock, boulders and short vegetation. The drop-off tends to be pure sand, but in some areas has biocrust or that very short grass.

 

I was able to catch fish both in the shallow rocks and on the drop. In the shallows, I mostly caught them in the morning. The edge seemed to be any time. I never caught more than 2 fish in the same spot at the same time, though I did find a spot in the shallows where I caught 3 fish over 4 days. It looked just like everyplace else in that rock garden, not sure why they liked that spot. Along the dropoff is where I might catch 2 fish within a couple casts. The spots that held fish were either points or pockets in the dropoff, or areas where the drop was more gradual or created a little shelf of sorts, especially those with some plant life, even if it was sparse. Spot on the spot.

 

Despite trying many different baits, I caught 1 fish on a hula grub, one on a Ned TRD and one on a swimbait. The rest were all on a drop shot, and all of those were on a Berkley Flatworm.

 

Thanks for the help folks.

 

[J Francho]

I came to post some of my experience, and found that Dwight nailed what I'd have said, and then there's an awesome report back.  Congrats, looks like a good time.

[Dwight Hottle]

Sounds like you had a good trip. I'm glad you  figured them out. Sometimes your own personal research & your ability to reason the why, when & where is the best tackle you have at your disposal.