Smallmouth Bass Fishing on Lake Michigan

Two very different kinds of water

Lake Michigan smallmouth live in two distinct environments, and confusing them is the fastest way to waste a trip.

The first is the clear, cold, deep northern bays on the Michigan side: Grand Traverse, Little Traverse and the water around the Beaver Island archipelago. Visibility of 15 to 25 feet, water that stays cold into June, and fish that spend most of the summer between 25 and 40 feet.

The second is Green Bay: warm, fertile, stained at the south end, with rock and weed in shallow water on the Door County side and at the top around the Bays de Noc. Fish there behave like inland-lake smallmouth for much longer into the season.

The same species, three weeks apart in timing and twenty feet apart in depth.

Grand Traverse Bay

Two long arms of very deep, very clear water separated by Old Mission Peninsula, running down to Traverse City. Rock and gravel shelves line both arms, dropping fast into blue water.

In June, once the shallows reach the high 50s, fish are on 8 to 18 feet of rock and a tube or a jerkbait works. By mid-July they are in 28 to 40 feet and the game becomes drop-shot fishing over structure you find on sonar. Clarity here is extreme enough that line size matters — drop to 6 lb fluorocarbon when the bites thin out.

The wind is constant. Both arms funnel it, and the west arm in particular gets rough in a hurry. Use a heavier tube than you would think you need, simply to hold bottom contact.

The Beaver Islands

Thirty miles out of Charlevoix sits an archipelago — Beaver, Garden, Hog and High Islands — with boulder fields, cobble flats, protected harbors and effectively no fishing pressure. Smallmouth here behave the way smallmouth behaved before boats had side-scan: they hold shallow, they move to a bait, and they eat topwater well past sunrise.

The catch is the crossing. Thirty miles of open Lake Michigan is a real passage and it demands a capable boat and a good forecast. The islands themselves offer shelter once you are there. Plan around the weather window, not around the fishing report.

Door County and Green Bay

Sturgeon Bay is the famous one, and deservedly — rock, warm fertile water, huge fish, and a history of national tournaments won there. It is also the most fished smallmouth water on the lake.

The alternatives are close by and quieter. Little Sturgeon, Sawyer Harbor and Chaudoir’s Dock are protected pockets that warm early and hold the season’s first shallow fish. Big Bay de Noc at the top of the bay has more rock than its neighbor Little Bay and gets a fraction of Door County’s boats.

The passages between the Door Peninsula and Washington Island move real current and concentrate fish. They also carry ferry traffic on a schedule. Fish the seams, stay clear of the lane.

Timing across the lake

Green Bay’s protected pockets can be fishable in May. Grand Traverse is often not worth starting until mid-June. The Beaver Islands and the Bays de Noc run later still. If you are planning one trip, September is the safest single answer everywhere on this lake: the water has cooled back through the 60s, the fish are grouped and heavy, and the summer boat traffic is gone.

Big water, small margin

Lake Michigan is 925 feet deep and 22,404 square miles, and every one of the places above except the sheltered Green Bay pockets involves open-water running. Grand Traverse Bay is deep enough to build a serious sea. The Beaver Island crossing is a genuine passage. Door County’s passages combine current, wind and commercial traffic.

Carry a VHF. Watch the wind forecast for the afternoon, not the morning. And do not treat a bass boat as a big-water boat because the ramp was calm.

Regulations

Four states manage Lake Michigan bass and each sets its own seasons, sizes and limits, which have differed from inland waters and from each other. Read the current regulations for the state whose water you are on.