New Guy to Little Bay?

[ktfishmaster]

Could use some help. Planning on coming up this weekend I have a place in Hardwood. My buddy bowed out on me so I will be alone. Wanted to try the bay and was wondering where to start. Probally the upper bay as I only have a 16 deep vee with 45HP. I fish saginaw bay and it shoulds like you guys use the program. Should I try to fish out of Gladstone to start? Any ideas where to start? Again guys thanks for all the info. I have to pull the boat up, I live in Cadillac should I wait for later in Aug or is it worth the extra gas to give it a try this weekend?

ktfishmaster

[The Bait Shop Guy]

Fishing has been pretty good for numbers and quality, south of Gladstone lately. Of course, like all fishing, it depends on the day or who you talk to at the docks - hot one day, then dead the next. Most of the guys we see are fishing south of Gladstone, but I'm sure they are getting fish on the North end, too. If you can fish Saginaw in your rig, you should have no problems up here. It's more like fishing on a large, inland lake, than it is being on "Lake Michigan." Check the weather forecasts before heading out, and use a little common sense. Nice thing with the layout of LBDN is that there's almost always someplace to launch and fish that's out of the worst of the wind.

Right now most people are drifting or trolling crawler harnesses on or near the bottom, in 20 to 40 FOW, along steep breaklines, (there's miles of that type of structure here on the bay.) Crawlers are by far the bait of choice, but leeches will work, too. Copper, gold, orange, chartreuse, and purple blade and bead combos are all good choices to start with. Just throw out an assortment, and let the fish tell you what they want.

Swing by the shop if you still have any questions on where to get started. We'd be happy to point out a few spots on the map to get you headed in the right direction.

Good luck.

[raywriter]

The comments posted by Chris from Bay View are accurate and stopping by his shop will save you lots of time. Two of us fished the long drop-offs he mentioned south of Gladstone on Mon. 8-2 with acceptable results using the following easy tactic: set up a Lindy rig (1/2 ounce walking sinker with a barrel swivel as a stopper, followed by a four to six foot leader and a floating jighead tipped with half a crawler or a two to three inch minnow.) Northland "Rock Runner" weights are a good alternative.

Find the drop-offs (They are very easy to spot, and located on both the east and west sides of LBDN). Use an electric trolling motor to "zig-zag" up and down the drop-off from the base to the breaking lip (roughly from 30 feet to ten feet) while working your live bait rig almost straight down over the side of the boat. Most of our action Monday was on the deep edge.

Others prefer to very slowly troll crawler harnesses along the same drop-offs. On any given day, one tactic may outperform the other. You may find perch, walleye. sheephead, pike, smallmouth bass, channel cat, or ??? Action may be "gangbusters" or very slow, but I doubt you can do this without catching fish.

Good luck out there!

[nitecrawler128]

Fishmaster,
I'm a new guy to LBN this year myself, so I'm certainly no pro out here, but the above posts are accurate. I would say that it is definitely worth the trip up here RIGHT NOW. I too have been fishing breaklines from the Escanaba River all the way almost up to Gladstone, as well as the breaklines over by "Black Bottom". If you have a hotspots paper map, it labels some of these areas "Off the Terrace". No particular area...fish seem to be scattered anywhere and everywhere. As a pain in the butt the wind can be, it seems like the windier it is, the better the bite! I've been trolling harnesses behind bottom bouncers at 1.0-1.4 mph and catching plenty of walleyes lately...The Bait Shop Guy already listed some hot colors, let me just add Pearl and plain ol' nickel to the list. If I can catch fish out here, so can you! Tight lines!

[ktfishmaster]

Thanks for the info guys will let you know how I do. Can't tell you how much it helps to get some local info

KT

[QuackHead]

Sheeeessh, I guy can't even come to a new area and fish with out some local telling him where to, how to, when to fish .... man, takes all the fun out of the sport LOL!

Well Mr. ktfishmaster,
Welcome to our corner of heaven. Enjoy!