The bay this weekend

[JJ Mac]

I haven't been able to get out on the bay open water in several years.....So enough is enough! I'm headed down to fish Sunday and Monday this holiday weekend. I'm looking to fish at least one day the stretches from the Black hole to just north of Saganing Bar. I've always launched from Gambils or Hoyles in the past, but 12 bucks (is it?) just ticks me off. But then again, I don't want any problems either. Any other options? I'm looking at the Pinconning launch on the map. Would that accommodate a 19 ft Lund? Any advice would be appreciated. Day two we'll probably head out from Augres.

This will probably be my only trip on the bay this year, so I'm gladly accepting pm's for any current info. on fishing. ;) Thanks guys and have a fun and safe holiday weekend.

[pilatusbahn]

Pay the $10 at hoyles. Head stait east. Find 20 feet of water. Crawlers on 1 1/2 oz bottom bounces. Pink, Chartreuse, Copper blades were all hot for us yesterday and this morning. Speed about .9mph. Good luck!

[theangler]

launch out of great lakes and pay $7 and then head southeast 3.5 miles and troll harnesses from about .8 to 1.2 and catch just as many fish as out of hoyles for less money.

[hawg hunter]

coming from the south your best bet is Hoyles even tho it bites.It got rough out there today but its supposed to be better the remainder of the week end.Same as above for report,almost anything dragin meat.

[tdawgcj7]

I must have missed the fog this morning. Got out around 9:30 from the river mouth. Start trolling in 15' with crawlers and bouncers/keel weights. Start picking up fish at 17' going 1.5-1.7GPS. Radio traffic said plastic, but harness were great for me. Purple, firetiger, and gold/green. 3 man limit and just as many throw backs. Most fish came working into the wind (rough in my 17' foot boat)

Hey, when did the walleyes decide to start fighting? All were good fighters, kept thinking i had sheephead on. Is it just the water temp? 59grees

JT

[MisterTwister]

If anyone is going to fish out of Au Gres on Sunday and Monday I will be there fishing all day. Just give me a call on 68. Either call my boat Fish Doctor or mistertwister. Hope to hear from a few of you!

[bucketmouthhauler]

Pay the $10 at hoyles. Head stait east. Find 20 feet of water. Crawlers on 1 1/2 oz bottom bounces. Pink, Chartreuse, Copper blades were all hot for us yesterday and this morning. Speed about .9mph. Good luck!

They raised the price to 12.00 more than 2 times the average boat launch fee!! what a wrip. Don't they realise that if they lowered their fee they would get more than twice as many boats to launch there.

[bigbob]

12 $ thats why i go to patterson rd

[hawg hunter]

I was at hoyles saturday & apparently not two many guys have a problem with the rip off price because there were so many boats there the parking was almost full & they were using a golf cart to shuttle people to there trucks from the docks. Im launching out of patterson rd, at6;00 am. memorial day ill be on 68 or 7 boat name is lake 2 lake give me a shout.

[adam bomb]

yeah, patterson is cheaper, but if you fish up north you use at least 12 dollars in gas. why not save yourself the extra 7 or 9 miles of running from the mouth. thats another perspective....but yeah, i agree its absolutely outrageous to charge 12 bucks for a ^&^%$!# boat launch!!:rant:

eyes are bitin, whacked a 4 man limit today in 2 hours, lots of throw backs too.

[JJ Mac]

Thanks to everyone for the advice. We launched Sunday out of Great Lakes, and there was no wait at the launch and close parking. Lots of bass guys fishing by the channel markers on the way out. We started off fishing the the deeper slot just NE of Saganing Bar. We picked up one 16 incher and white bass. We ran back through the slot again and nothing so we picked up lines and ran out to 24 fow. Not another boat around. The graph lit up with fish on bottom right away (bright sunshine). After a few adjustments and coming up with a pattern we couldn't keep lines in the water. We probably caught 30 undersized fish, a limit of eaters and released a six pounder in a couple of hours. The hot rig was small red and white bead harnesses with small gold blades and half a crawler. Most fish came running them behind 2 and 3 oz. bottom bouncers or xps inlines, dragging them right on or near bottom. It seemed too that we caught more fish on the shortest leads. I was griping to my buddy about the "stupid doinko spinner" he gave me to run on an xps, until I put it down. It was only about a foot off the xps, but man did it catch some fish. The best speed for us was a little faster, around 1.5-1.6. We experimented with a couple spoons off of fixed sliders, a pa's, and some tots, but they never took a fish. We also ran some snap weights 50/50 with larger harnesses and had no hits.

The only thing biting more than the walleye was all the biting flies. I was glad I wore my zip off leg shorts so I was able to zip them back on. My partners ankles were raw and bloody after the day. :lol: At one point we actually pulled lines and went for a boat ride to try to get some of the flies off the boat.

On Monday, we broke the golden rule and left fish to find fish at Augres, hoping to find some hogs. Probably needed to get out there a lot earlier. We made the run out north of big charity to start. Trolled for an hour and headed back and fished the deeper water north of Gravelly shoal and no luck there either. We ran back and fished with the pack off the launch, gave up and came home with the skunk. Listening to the radio, a few guys had fish, but it was slow for most. Apparently, they had a better bite the day before.
Can't complain though...what a beautiful day and boat ride.

Stopped by Frank's this weekend and got skunked there too. :rant: I was looking for a Beckman net and some spoon harness rigs and struck out on both.

After two days fishing in the sun, a drive there and back and only 3 hours sleep inbetween, I came home last night and slept for 11 1/2 hours! :o zzzzzz

[sfw1960]

JJ ,
You are one hadrcore Wald0 Warrior!
:coolgleam

[Westlakedrive]

Sleep when you can and fish the rest I think thats his motto:lol:
Good job on the fish. Always like things that contain red and white (or gold).
1.5-1.6 for bouncers seems fast (not to me as thats about how fast I paddle :lol: ). Obviously experimentation is best but dont people often say run bouncers arond 1 mph?

[adam bomb]

yeah, its fast, but if they bite it, what the heck. i pulled in line weights and we had to kick it up to 1.3-1.5 to get the best bite. anything faster or slower and things slowed down for us. it seemed like i was flying, im used to the 0.8-1.1 troll!