Door County Freedom Trip 2020

[FishinMatt]

To celebrate our nations independence, and fully take advantage of a few days vacation, I headed to northern DC to do some smallmouth bass fishing. The first few days were okay, but not near up to my expectations of a smallie beat down.

With that said I had been trading some Facebook messages with Captain Jimmy Doering of Cast N Catch guide service. My cousin and I did a half day trip on Washington Island with Captain Jimmy in 2018 and it was amazing. We were hooking into 4 lb fish within literally seconds from the launch and pounded on big fish all morning. EASILY, the best guide I have ever booked and I have been out with guys like Erik Hatadja, Brett Jolly, and Dale Strochein. Don't get me wrong, those guys are the best in the business and are fish catching machines. Jimmy however has a different gear that I really liked. He is young, motivated, and 100% locked into the best bite. With the knowledge we gained we were able to go out in my boat and find similar spots over the next few days. Jimmy even hooked us up with a bunch of the baits we caught fish on during our trip.

Anyways, I vent my struggles to Captain Jimmy who says, hey Matt, come back to the mainland, we caught 50 today. I later get another message from Captain Jimmy who relays his clients caught over 100 fish today. He lost count....lol. This is were it get crazy. Captain Jimmy gives me the specific area where he is catching fish. Trust me, I previously wanted to ask him for some more details, but I understand guiding is a business. I was floored and humbled he gave me that information, which quite frankly saved my trip. The next day I go out to the area he recommended with the confidence of knowing there are fish around. It took me all morning to really dial in the bite, but once I got it figured out it was 16-20 inch fish until my wrists and forearms could not take it anymore. As Captain Jimmy would say.....BOOM!!!

I was actually going to see if Captain Jimmy could get me out this trip, but he is booked through August. Many repeat clients obviously. If you really want a fantastic trip i could not recommend a guide any more. I am on his 2021 waiting list already. He also guides for whitefish through the ice. Check out his website or follow him on social media. I follow his Facebook page and it is just ridiculous with the size and numbers caught on most trips.

Anyways here is the pic dump. Fish were caught anywhere from the top of rock piles in 2 feet of water out to about 20 feet. Best baits were jerkbaits, dingers, and tubes. Enjoy......and seriously check out Cast N Catch guide service. I am picky as hell and would not recommend a dude unless he was lights out.

[joetrain]

Dang hog heaven! If I had a boat I would be heading that way. Is that water fishable by yak?
Matt are you posting from your phone because your pictures are always sideways? If you are you could remedy that by simply editing your photos on your phone. Give them a 1 degree rotation and they will post right side up.
~JOE~

[FishinMatt]

Thanks for the tip Joe. That always bugged me since I stopped using photobucket and started uploading directly from phone. Skifish hits it with his Yak, so definitely fishable spots. My opinion would be to do it earlier in season when more fish are up shallow, but on any given day, there are always some fish near shore. Your biggest obstacle in the Yak is going to be the wind, but you can always jump from bay side to lake side and/or use launches in different bays for wind protection.

[Aux Pleins]

Smallmouth brutes.

That huge sewer cap size drum

[FishinMatt]

Smallmouth brutes.

That huge sewer cap size drum

I caught a bunch of those. I would be thinking 5lb+ smallie and the ole garbage can lid would finally surface. I played the biggest smallie of the trip fairly nonchalantly as I thought it was a sheep. It was ripping drag and staying down and when it finally showed at the boat it was a beast brownie. The attitude for landing the fish quickly changed after that!

[DPMike]

WOW! What a nice haul

[ganz1960]

Wow!! Great fish and report.

[Skifish1]

Oh my frickin god. Thats all i have to say...
I was up there early June. Im up there 1st week in August with family again. Any suggestions send me a PM. I fish out of Yak in June i fished Egg Harbor, Fish Creek, Moonlight Bay, North Bay, Mud Lake, and Kangaroo Lake. August I will hit Rowleys and Washington also. Thanks for motivation.

[choupiquer]

Nice!

[FishinMatt]

Nice!

Holy Hell! Good to hear from you Choup!

[coyote]

Wow what a Trip ! Pretty cool to get outside the Box around here and do well......but you always do.

[urbanHog312]

holy crap! some bruisers bro!

[FishinMatt]

Tubes are such a stupid looking bait but they really smash up there. I order online from Howies Tackle in Sturgeon Bay and by far do the best on his tubes then anything else I have. They are short and fat and perfectly imitate the gobies. On so many casts they would suck it in on the initial fall or take it in when I crawled it on the bottom then dead sticked the bait. Most of the bites were literally a tick on the line. When in doubt, set the hook. I was surprised so many times with nice smallies when I thought it was gobies pecking the tube.

I have a few more days of vacation and hope to get on the Delavan deep water pike bite with the kid tomorrow. Time to rig some rods....

[ohoffm]

I love the smallies and these are some great looking specimens. Totally cool that the guide hooked you up.

[Brandon]

Tubes are such a stupid looking bait but they really smash up there. I order online from Howies Tackle in Sturgeon Bay and by far do the best on his tubes then anything else I have. They are short and fat and perfectly imitate the gobies. On so many casts they would suck it in on the initial fall or take it in when I crawled it on the bottom then dead sticked the bait. Most of the bites were literally a tick on the line. When in doubt, set the hook. I was surprised so many times with nice smallies when I thought it was gobies pecking the tube.

I have a few more days of vacation and hope to get on the Delavan deep water pike bite with the kid tomorrow. Time to rig some rods....

Awesome insights on the tube bite. My biggest fish so far this year came on the smallest detectable tick of the rod. Like you said when in doubt go ahead and set that hook. I used tubes almost exclusively in years past, have got away from them but still use some similar baits for largemouth. Those pics are great man, some true brutes. Looks like an amazing time.

[badger75]

AWE-some!
They look like they have been eating cheese curds.

[mike son]

Hell yeah! Awesome fish and pics!

[RonG]

They are short and fat and perfectly imitate the gobies.

...and crayfish.

Nice haul. I don't get jealous of other folk's catches but this time I am. If this was my report, I'd be dang proud of myself.

[Busse Jim]

Oh my frickin god. Thats all i have to say...

always the best fish porn!!! Bronzeback heaven!

When in doubt, set the hook.

[FishinMatt]

Thanks guys. Ron, that is a nice compliment. I often look at your river posts the same! Same with JM's Dupage River posts, Aux's DPR posts, Heddons lake posts, Urbans pond posts, Jims and Jason's Busse posts, Skifish and Joe's yak posts,, etc. Never a shortage of great fish porn on this site where guys are just killing it somewhere.

[RonG]

Is HEDDON alright? Can some one check up on him? He hasn't logged on in over 5 weeks. Unusual for him.

[FishinMatt]

Is HEDDON alright? Can some one check up on him? He hasn't logged on in over 5 weeks. Unusual for him.

Yeah, that is weird. I do not normally converse with him, but hopefully someone else can shed some light.

[joetrain]

I’ll send him a text.
~JOE~

[joetrain]

He’s still around. His mom has some health issues so between that and the corona crap he has been overwhelmed.
~JOE~

[FishinMatt]

[quote="joetrain"]He’s still around. His mom has some health issues so between that and the corona crap he has been overwhelmed.

Thanks for checking Joe.

[Lip_Yanker]

Wow! Nice ones for sure, thanks Capt. Jimmy.


I got a crick in my neck now though.

[Gamava]

Great fish buddy!