Little Bay de Noc Fishing trip Report

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.

Attachment 207050

Grandma had gotten a new bike so we all got a chance to rid around with Abby throughout the week... A lot!
Attachment 207052

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:
Attachment 207053

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.

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.
Attachment 207054

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.
Attachment 207055Attachment 207056Attachment 207057

Monday June 22nd:
The boards strike again. It was a rather slow day only seeing us boat one keeper fish.
Attachment 207058

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.

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:
Attachment 207059

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.

Michigan summer fishing trips with family is priceless

Great story, thanks for sharing it

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.

Great report...treasure every minute with your mom and dad

Great report and super pix. Got to come up yall's way at some point. Looks like a fine campground.

Very nice..after my dad walked on, my wife and I were blessed to be able to take my mom on our vacations to the UP. My mom loved to fish! I know what it means to you to have your parents along. Ahh' the memories. Good on ya'. BTW, where in the Bay did you fish?

Al,
If you don't have one of those handles (like you see on Abby's bike) get one. Best thing we did. I literally used it for no more than a couple of minutes. It was way better than trying to bend over and hold the seat or hold her shoulder. Heck, you can have mine if you want it.

Five,
Most of the fish we caught were along "Center Reef". I found a drop off line on my sonar and fished that line really hard. I would catch zero fish on my outside (drop off) boards while the inside boards would catch more fish. I would position my boat so it ran along the line and utilize my boards to get shallow or deeper. Towards the end of the week, we found a lot of fish on the Northern most edge of "Center Reef". This was primarily in large part to the hard South wind that we got pushing bait and water to the north. Problem was that they were all small fish. In tournaments, you never leave fish to find fish and we stayed on them hoping others would be in the area. Unfortunately, the bigger fish just scattered. Another issue was the Mayfly hatch. Although I don't think it happened out in the lake, my dad and I think it happened up in the whitefish river and the larvae traveled out into the bay. Also, for the first time in years, there was a heavy population of alewife inside of the bay. I was however surprised to find that almost all of the fish we caught had empty stomachs. Maybe that is why they would bite. Because they were hungry. I just have a hard time believing we would only find the hungry fish!

"D",
My parents stay there for about a month each year. They have some friends that also stay the same length. They know the owner pretty well. It was a quite place away from the water.

Great story & pictures. It's a long drive, but there's nothing like heading to the U.P. on a fishing trip, especially with your family. Good Job Rich..

thanks Rick..has been 5 or so yrs since I fished the bay, but do know Center reef. Wife and I used to go there quite a lot, until I wandered over to the St. Marys river in the EUP. Have been staying in Brimley for the last 6 yrs, from May to Oct. Due to truck issues and a long list of house and home things, must take this summer off :(. If you or anyone else want to fish there, ask away for what help I can give. If my truck gets done soon I may go up for the 4th of July. 5

Great report, love the pics! I know the area well, I lived in that area for 22 years. I have fished LBDN a lot and that is considered the best fishery, ( I guess that's why Cabelas has part of their walleye tournament there) but I always had my best luck fishing BBDN just west of Garden Corners draggin bottom bouncers and crawlers.
Thanks for sharing Rich!

Looks like it was a great time with ma and dad and Abby. Thanks for the super report and great pics.