Door County June Madness

My friend Rich and I spent 4 days up in Northern Door County chasing the famed smallmouth of the region. The great thing about this area at this time of year, is you can find the bass in all 3 stages of the spawn. Depending on the winds, there is also the option of fishing Bayside and lakeside. We found temps all the way from 63 on the bay down to 43 on the lakeside. As I have grown to learn in Door County, move until fish are found, and don't leave them when you do. We were faced with multiple mid day wind changes which forced us off good bites, but drew fire to areas completely devoid of active fish previously. We were lucky enough to make some really good decisions by laying off notoriously good areas with slow bites, and returning later in the day after weather changes fired them up. This lead to some epic late afternoon bites that we had all to ourselves. I can't count the amount of doubles and also the times we hooked up 4 or 5 casts in a row. Basically, lots of scouting, dozens of miles on boat, followed by periodic windows of insane action. Many trip highlights, but my favorite is Rich landing the biggest pike ever on my boat. A 43 incher on 8 lb line on a finesse bait. Hooked perfectly in the tip of the snout. An epic long fight that he managed skillfully. The unstable weather and Rich not feeling well at times kept us off the water a little bit, but we still managed almost 300 smallies in 4 days with the bigger fish all being in the 4.75-5 lb range. It was a great trip running into some old friends at the bar and making a few new friends on the water.

Too many pics to post, but one day we threw some fish in the well during some fast action to take some quad and double pictures. Also can't forget Rich's pike!












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