Smallmouth

[Papawsmith]

I've been to the bay several times over the years for hard water fishing vacations but never fished the bay without ice. I've driven through during summer and thought that the bay looked like a perfect smallmouth fishery but I never read anything about it on the UP fishing boards. How is it as a bass water? A good friend of mine and I will be running around the north in a few weeks bass fishing whatever looks good and was thinking of trying LBDN. Is it a worthwhile venture? Thanks.

[jerkbait]

For my money, Id try the ogontz area and the rocky reefs in big bay... Ive enjoyed some nice days out there with lots of big fish to battle. The rocky reefs top out at just a few feet and alot of it is sight fishing while anchored... The fish seem to hit anything we through at em crawlers, cranks, senkos, they seemed super aggressive over there. Ive also heard the west gladstone bridge area of the Escanaba river has been pretty good lately withs some nice large mouth in there too...

The bass expert would be Chris Wahl at Bay View Bait Shop. He and Dianne would point you in the right direction for sure.

Good luck and let us know how you do!
Jerkbait

[jerkbait]

If your gonna try alot of different areas Cedar River near the launch and upstream from the bridge is always good too... Also the Ford River from the mouth upstream as well.

Have fun
Jerkbait

[Papawsmith]

Thank you sir, very much. I believe that if we can make the time we will take a run over there. I really don't give a cr@p if we catch a bunch of fish I just would like to get out onto the bay. You all live in an awful nice part of the world. I will certainly give Mr. Wahl a call and also patronize his store when we get there.

[YooperTroll]

What's the trick for fishing the West Gladstone bridge area? I put a boat in there last summer and I couldn't hack through the weeds. Terrible.

[The Bait Shop Guy]

Little Bay de Noc is "walleye world" as far as most people are concerned. I still get locals in the shop, who see the pictures I have on the wall with me holding some big bass, ask where I caught them at. When I tell them they came out of the bay, they usually say "Really, I didn't know there were any bass out there." The word is just getting out that we have a pretty darn good smallmouth fishery up here. Big Bay is much better known for the bass fishing than Little Bay is. The whole darn thing is perfect smallmouth habitat. In Little Bay, I mostly fish south of Gladstone. The big flat that runs along the highway between Esky and Gladstone is a good spot to start. The Escanaba and Ford Rivers are both excellent. I tend to catch bigger fish in the Escanaba, but better numbers in the Ford. The whole shoreline heading down to the Wisconsin border is really good, too. Bring a good assortment of soft plastics, (tubes, Senko's, and Super Flukes,) spinnerbaits, and topwaters, and you'll be good to go.