Travel Bays de Noc

We were given permission from Midwest Outdoors to share this article on fishing Little Bay de Noc by Ray Hansen. Enjoy!

“TRAPPING” FOR GREAT LAKES SMALLMOUTH
Wind, Waves, and Weedbeds Combine for Fast Action
By: Ray Hansen

The morning started slow. The massive waters of Little Bay de Noc on northern Lake Michigan lay as flat as the felt top of my pool table. Fish swirled on the surface as if to taunt us, but they would not respond to the lures we tried. An occasional pike came aboard and kept us casting, but clearly we had to do something different.

Life-long angling friend Duane Deno of Gladstone, Michigan and I stopped casting, sat down on the swivel seats of my boat, and started discussing options. Looking for a clue, I scanned the horizon using binoculars, and spotted a long line of seagulls southwest of our position.

CLUE TO THE FORAGE

“Maybe the ‘gulls know something we don’t” I speculated. “Let’s head over there to see what they’re up to.”

Motoring toward the spot – a mile or so distant – we found that the flock of seagulls was much larger than we first realized. They extended in a line hundreds of yards long, from the breaking edge of a shallow bay well out into deep water. They were not there just to bask in the warm sun.

As I approached the deep end of the line, birds started flying away. I cut the motor and began to drift while I watched my locator. At the same time, Duane glassed the ‘gulls closer to shore and tried to see what attracted them.

The answer was not long in coming. “Hey, Ray,” he said, “look at this,” pointing down toward the lake’s surface. A couple small, dead baitfish floated on the surface. We thought they were shad, but maybe they were small whitefish or alewife. What exact species they were did not matter. The birds were feeding on them, and that meant larger fish would do the same.

WHERE TO START

We had a limited choice of starting points once we got the clue from the dead baitfish. We could troll this deeper water. Another option was to motor around to try to find a school of shad then cast lures around the edges. The final choice was to motor over to the line where the shoreline shallows dropped off into deeper water to see if bass, pike, or walleyes were pushing the smaller fish shallower to try to catch them.

WIND AND WEEDS HOLD POSSIBILITY

I ran the boat toward shore, and received a boost of confidence when I saw the drop-off. It went from about five feet deep on top, falling fast into twenty-eight feet at the base. Better yet, a line of good, green weed growth extended along the breaking lip of the structure, and it grew to depths of fifteen feet. While I analyzed the situation a breeze came up from the southeast, blowing into the face of the weedline.

CAN WE MATCH THE FOOD SOURCE WITH LURES?

We used long, narrow minnow-imitating lures earlier in the morning, but the bait we needed to imitate in this situation was a shorter wide-bodied shape. Rummaging through my tackle bag, I pulled out a flat box filled with shad-shaped lures. The Lewis “Rat-L-Trap” baits I selected looked perfect for the job.

INSIDE OR OUTSIDE?

A controlled drift using the electric trolling motor for course corrections allowed Duane and I to move along on a path just less than one cast length from the weed edge. Starting with a standard sinking model Rat-L-Trap, we targeted the outside edge of the weeds and by varying the retrieve speed we could “follow” the weed tops down into deeper water. Almost immediately, we found active bass, landing and releasing several within ten minutes.

By chance, I happened to spot a bass swirl on the surface along the inside weed edge in much shallower water. I set up a second rod with a floating style Rat-L-Trap to work this part of the structure. Because the floating model dives to about four feet on a medium speed retrieve, I found that I could cast across the submerged weed tops and bring the lure back in on a path that would barely skim across the tops of the visible vegetation without fouling in the weeds. We quickly found that bass would respond to both the casts directed to the inside of the weed edge and to the outside as well.

One difference we noticed is that we caught more “bonus” pike on the outside weed edge. Maybe there were simply more pike on the deep side, or maybe they just responded best to the faster retrieves used with the sinking model lures.

THE BOTTOM LINE

The Great Lakes offer tremendous opportunities for smallmouth bass action with plenty of surprises in a typical day’s angling. The 2009 BassMasters fishing tournament held on Little Bay de Noc at Escanaba, Michigan conclusively proved that. In addition, since these lakes are so vast, many places receive little or no fishing pressure. The summer pattern I’ve detailed here will provide plenty of great angling thrills. During the day I based this article on we landed and released over a dozen bass. The six best weighed from three pounds to four pounds, eight ounces apiece. This kind of action can be found along hundreds of miles of Great Lakes coastline, and will add some fishing excitement to your summer trips.

State Representative Judy Nerat expressed her outrage this week at the US Supreme Court’s recent refusal to stop the invasion of Asian carp into Lake Michigan.

 ”Thousands of UP residents rely on jobs in the tourism and boating industries for their livelihoods, and as this invasive species moves closer and closer to our Great Lakes, these jobs are being put on the line,” Nerat said.  “There has been far too much talk by federal officials and not enough action when it comes to Asian carp.”

Nerat encourages everyone who cares about our state and the waters to visit www.noasiancarp.com and demand that the US Army Corps of Engineers immediately close the two Chicago-area shipping locks to keep Asian carp out of our waters.

The group named Walleye Restoration aims to begin planting walleye in the Bays de Noc this summer and fall of this year.  In light of startling revelations that walleye numbers have been significantly reduced in recent years, concerned local organizations have determined to address the problem. Paul L. Strom, attorney for Bay de Noc Great Lakes Sports Fishermen, Inc.,  said, “The opportunity to turn around this negative story into something very positive is at hand, and our group has the determination and expertise to do the job, and do it well.’ 

The group was organized by the Legislative, Economic and Community Development Council of the Delta County Chamber of Commerce.  Vickie Micheau, from the Delta County Chamber of Commerce, expressed her pleasure that the effort is being supported by Michigan Representatives Judy Nerat of the 108^th District, Steve Lindberg of the 109^th District and Mike Lahti of the 110^th District, all of whom were in attendance at the meeting.

Jerry Peterson, retired fish biologist with the DNRE, spoke to the group about biological considerations and historical perspectives on the Bay’s walleye population.  He explained that the restocking effort has a high chance of success.   While the walleye population in the bay has declined nearly two-thirds in population since 1994, the fish in the area are some of the healthiest in the lake.  Bays de Noc host about 15 percent of the entire State’s recreational fishing annually and is both a significant recreational resource for our residents and a powerful economic force for our area. 

 Doing the job right is paramount according to Peterson. “Using local brood stock and ensuring that it is disease free takes top priority. We will use the same source of spawn that originates from the Bays de Noc fishery as the DNR,” Peterson states. There has never been a positive VHS disease found in the Bays de Noc, and walleye from here have been used as brood stock for rearing and stocking for decades.

 The Walleye Restoration  group focus is to plant walleye in the Little Bay de Noc to help offset the declining numbers that the Little Bay de Noc has been experiencing since 1994.  They aim to do this using only funds raised from private sources or grants, taking no resources from an already-strapped state budget.  The group will coordinate with the DNRE, using established state procedures for replenishing the fish.  

The manpower needed for the project will come from an all-volunteer network to accomplish the goal of bringing the walleye population back to the historical level. Stocking is not a new concept in the area.  The walleye currently found in the Bay are a combination of hatchery and wild fish.  The goal of conservationists in the area has been to make the fishery in the Bays self-sustaining.  However, because of the size of the area and the amount of fishing, natural fish spawning cannot sustain the population.  The hatchery products released are from a Bay de Noc source and are necessary. 

This is an important economic issue for the Bays.  The area was once known as the Walleye Capital of the World, and has historically hosted up to four national Walleye tournaments a year.  Currently, fewer walleye tournaments are being held in the area, and the negative publicity from illegal fishing has affected tourism.  Vigorous law enforcement with state and tribal prosecution of fish poachers has been helping.

The group hopes to do a release of two-inch fingerlings this spring in conjunction with the Bay de Noc Great Lakes Sports Fishermen, Inc., and a large release of seven-to-ten inch advance fingerling walleyes in October of this year.  They are working with the DNRE and local Indian Tribes - to accomplish Walleye Restoration.  Through this effort, anglers would see a marked increase in mature walleye population in three summers.  

The group is seeking enthusiastic partners and donors to join in the project.  This will be an ongoing initiative, with the group’s intent to evolve and meet more sophisticated challenges in the future to promote the fishery’s long-term health.  For more information, please contact Paul L. Strom at (906)789-3160.  Interested parties may also contact the Delta County Chamber of Commerce at (906) 786-2192 or by email at info@deltami.org. 

Fishing has an important econonomic impact on our economy and quality of life.  

In December 2009, DNA testing found evidence that Asian carp were within a few miles of Lake Michigan, yet the locks which provide the carp with a direct path into Lake Michigan remain open. As a result, on behalf of the citizens of Michigan Attorney Mike Cox sued the State of Illinois and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to force the immediate closure of these locks. Almost immediately, other Great Lakes states supported him in court, including New York, Wisconsin, Ohio and Minnesota. The Province of Ontario joined us as well. However, the Obama administration and the State of Illinois are opposing the suit and refuse to close the locks.You can help us convince federal and local authorities to close the locks and protect the jobs and ecology that depend on the health of the Great Lakes by signing this e-petition. The petition will be presented to President Obama with the hope that he changes his position.

UPPER PENINSULA DEER HUNTING OUTLOOK