Little Bay de Noc Fishing trip Report

[wicklundrh]

The trip started early Thursday morning June 18th with a full tank of gas, the boat loaded with all the gear, and Abby in her pajamas. Six hours of windshield time, one potty break, and one gas stop and we arrived at Whitefish Hills RV Park a little after noon. The weather was cool and the wind was blowing. With nothing better to do, I decided to finish teaching Abby how to ride a bike (by herself). Boy that new handle was worth it. Even if I only had to use it for 20 seconds. Note to self: you can no longer run like you were in the Military! I felt another pop in my twice surgically repaired knee.



Grandma had gotten a new bike so we all got a chance to rid around with Abby throughout the week... A lot!

[wicklundrh]

Friday June 19th

You really have to watch the weather up here. One minute it can be nice and sunny, the next minute there will be a rain storm. A cell phone with radar is a best friend up here and we used it hourly. The mornings are usually nice and calm and the wind picks up around noon. Although my boat can handle it, the fishing turns off. Another thing we found is the fish do not cooperate early in the morning. It is better to get up and get a nice breakfast and take your time. Fish really started biting around 10am.
Day one saw us boat 7 Walleye. Unfortunately, only four of the seven were keepers. Little Bay has a slot limit which allows you to keep all fish between 15 and 23 inches and only one fish over 23. Originally I hoped this would mean a ton of big fish throw backs. Instead, I believe there are very few bigger fish in this fishery and they are trying to help by letting those bigger fish go. If I fished here a lot, I would recommend NOT keeping ANY fish over 22 inches. We did catch 3 fish over 21 inches today however.
Grandma netting a fish:


Today we tried an area that had been hot for my parents. Key words “had been”. Following my electronics, I found a shelf and fished just off from it. Marking way points on every fish I began to see a pattern. I would repeat this same pattern over and over throughout the week. Today we only fished bottom bouncers. My front rods ran 2oz straight down. My middle rods ran 1 ½ oz out to the side, and my back rods ran ¾ oz stretched way back.

[wicklundrh]

Saturday June 20th:
Fishing was tougher today. We did boat 5 fish this morning however we only kept one fish.
Grandma saved us today with the only keeper. A 22 inch walleye that Abby helped her reel in.

[wicklundrh]

Sunday June 21st:
The weather cooperated with us today and we were able to run my Offshore boards (you may see a second write up in the main forum going more in depth). ALL of our fish today came on boards running number 1 tadpoles. Being this was my first time running tadpoles, I ran them side by side with bottom bouncers. Bouncers caught zero fish while the Offshore boards caught 3 keepers and several throw backs. All keepers were over 21 inches.

[wicklundrh]

Monday June 22nd:
The boards strike again. It was a rather slow day only seeing us boat one keeper fish.

[wicklundrh]

Tuesday and Wednesday:
I would include some pictures here but the only thing it would be is of the sky, the water, or my boat carpet. We put quite a few fish in the boat however nothing measured long enough to take to the house.

[wicklundrh]

Thursday June 25th:
I cannot remember how many fish we caught. I doubt it wasn’t the “we caught so many my hands fell off” type of can’t remember though. I do recall catching one keeper along with a bunch more little ones:

[wicklundrh]

Friday June 26th:
Rain in the morning on the way out, little fish most of the morning, gale force winds. We packed it up and called it a trip. All in all it was nice. I got to fish with my daughter and my mom and dad. We got to catch a bunch of fish (even if they were not all keepers), and got to see some pretty neat stuff.

Will I go back? Well, not to target walleye again. In my opinion, a six hour trip to northern Michigan to catch walleye when two of the world’s best walleye fisheries are within 1.5 hours of my house doesn’t seem like a great idea. Sure, I’ll fish if I’m there, but I won’t head up there just to go fishing.

[ready2fish]

Michigan summer fishing trips with family is priceless

Great story, thanks for sharing it

[Alboy79]

Your pics of Abby learning to ride bike just gave Melody the extra push she needed. We've been working on that this last week as well, and she's been a bit turned off on the idea the last couple days.