First Timers

[warrior2090]

Coming up the second week in October for the first time. Staying in Gladstone. Any suggestions or advice for locating and catching walleye's would be appreciated.

[The Bait Shop Guy]

George sent me an email a couple days ago. I was finally able to respond today. Here's my reply, (might be some help for any other "newbies" out there.)


Hi,

Got your email address from the Outdoors911 forum.

We have a group of three coming up for the first time to Little Bay De Noc. We are staying in Gladstone, so I am sure we will be stopping by your shop. We are coming up Sat October 6th.

Do you have any specific tackle recomindations? We have a 20' Warrior 2090 Backtroller with a mast for planner boards. We have fished a lot in Canada and a fair amount on Lake Erie. We are going after walleye for the most part but would also like to try for some smallmouth and perch. Any tips you could share would be appreciated.

Thanks,

George

Hi George. Sorry for the late reply, I haven't been on the computer much the last couple days.

Anyway, first let me say "Nice Rig!" I love those big tiller boats.

Now back to the fishing info. Early October is a bit of a transition time, so fishing in the bay can be "so-so." Mostly what you will find in the bay will be resident fish that are under the 23 inch slot limit, (good eaters.) The bigger fish that live out in northern Green Bay are just starting to migrate back into Little Bay de Noc at that time. Usually late October until ice up in December is the better time to troll in Little Bay. If you're looking for bigger fish in early October, you'll do better working the stretch of shoreline between the Ford and Cedar Rivers. Typically, those fish are more in the 20 to 27 inch range, with a good shot at one up to 30 inches. It's a minimum of 11 miles to run if you launch from Escanaba, but can be a very short run if you lunch from the Cedar River. They get some fish on cranks and harnesses during the day, but the better fishing is after dark with crankbaits.

If you decide to stay in the bay, they mostly drift or troll with crawler harnesses and floating jigs along the reefs and steep breaklines throughout the bay. After dark you can troll the tops of the reefs, and along the weedlines to catch walleyes.

The water is still fairly warm the first part of October, so the smallmouth are still fairly spread out. I guess I mostly find them along the tops of the steep breaklines that run along both sides of the bay, south of Gladstone. By mid to late month, they start to school up and move to the base of the breaklines. That can be some fantastic bass fishing, lindy rigging with chubs or suckers, at that time.

There can be some good pike fishing. Find weeds and you'll find pike. Casting or trolling with spinnerbaits, big crankbaits, and spoons, as well as suckers under a slip bobber, are all good choices.

The perch fishing can be good, too. They start moving deeper and school up as the water cools. They are a good option for the middle of the day when the walleye fishing is typically slow. Most guys just anchor up and fish perch rigs right over the side of the boat with minnows or worms.

If we get some rain and they start generating power at the dam on the Escanaba River, you can fish for salmon. I mostly drift spawn for them, but you can also cast crankbaits like J-13 Rapalas.

Hope this helps a little. If you have any other questions, feel free to write back.

CHRIS WAHL - BAY VIEW BAIT