Chequamegon Bay For Great Fishing
By Mike Yurk
The sky seemed to touch the water of Chequamegon Bay while a steady light rain dimpled the surface. Doug Hurd of Eagan, Minn., and I were drifting along a swampy shoreline flipping jerk baits into the shallow water.
Doug’s boat was sitting in about four feet of water but we were casting to less than a foot.
We caught our first fish on jerk baits.
We had been fishing for about an hour and were still looking to find fish. I was retrieving my bait and it was only about a rod length from the boat when a felt a weight and pulled back.
My rod was doubled over for a moment and I saw a large brown swirl in the water and that was all. The fish was gone. It was a nice sized smallmouth bass. You always hate to lose the first fish of the day but that might mean we finally found where the fish were.
A dozen casts later Doug yelled, “Here’s a fish.” I saw a fish splash on the surface and Doug’s casting rod was bent in half as he was furiously cranking on his reel. Doug’s fish made several short runs but Doug turned the fish each time and soon it was thrashing next to the boat.
A good tactic is to start in deeper water and work into shallower water until you find fish.
Smallies never give up and Doug’s fish was no exception. Each time Doug was about to land the fish it shot away. Finally Doug reached overboard, grabbed the fish and pulled it on the boat. It was a sixteen inch smallmouth bass.
We admired the fish and took a quick photo of it before releasing it. I picked up my casting rod, throwing out my jerk bait. On about the fourth of fifth rotation of the casting reel I felt a fish slam into my bait. This was nothing tentative about this one and the tip of my casting rod began to plunge as the fish tore off.
It was a hectic battle by the time I got the fish alongside the boat. Like all smallies this fish never gave up either and it took a couple of moments before I finally was able to haul it into the boat. It was about the same size as the one Doug caught.
“I think we found the fish,” I told Doug. We originally started fishing in deeper water but slowly worked our way into the shallows where we now were catching fish.
Doug Hurd shows off a typical Chequamegon Bay smallie.
Twenty minutes later Doug caught another smallmouth bass on a jerk bait as I switched to a plastic worm. I was using a green sinking worm rigged Texas style. A few minutes later my line began to move. I worked the worm through a patch of grass sticking up through the water when it looked like my bait was moving rapidly towards me. I quickly reeled up the slack and feeling pressure set the hook.
For a moment there was nothing. I was solidly onto something but it wasn’t moving and then the fish exploded and my spinning rod was jumping as the fish raced away. Again it was another no-holds-barred battle by the time I got the fish close to the boat to where I could land it. Finally I got the fish into the boat. It was a seventeen inch smallmouth bass with a lot of muscle and a lot of fight still in it. When I lowered the fish into the water it spurt off.
Doug and I left my home in Hudson, Wisc., driving through a pounding rain storm to Ashland, Wisc. By the time we launched his boat early afternoon at Second Landing just east of Ashland the rain had settled down to a light drizzle. Winds were light and the water was calmer then we normally have seen in the past but the water along the shore was a chocolate brown color from several days of rain which brought flood warnings to local rivers.
This bass, caught by the author, was taken with plastic worms.
On our first day of fishing we found our fish in shallow waters and anytime we found weeds or submerged logs we found smallmouth bass. By late afternoon when fog began to roll across the water and another rain storm was building up power we decided to head for the landing.
We caught and released fifteen smallmouth bass ranging in size from fourteen inches to a nineteen and three quarters inch fish Doug caught. It made us wonder how all these large fish could be found in such shallow water.
If there is any place to find consistently large smallmouth bass it is Chequamegon Bay off Lake Superior. There may be no better smallmouth bass fishing in the country then what you will find in Chequamegon Bay.
Right now the fishing is hot and smallmouth bass are in shallow water. This should continue for another couple of weeks due to the late spring. As the fish finish spawning and both water and air temperatures start to warm the fish will begin to move into deeper water. As the fish move into different water fishing will continue to remain good.
Doug and I tried several different baits. We caught smallmouth on jerk baits and plastic worms. We tried several different colors from green to blue and they all worked. One morning Doug caught three nice bass on surface baits. As the fish begin to move to deeper water just start using deeper diving crankbaits or tube jigs.
Although Chequamegon Bay is known for its trophy smallmouth bass fishing it has a diverse fishery. Trophy northern pike fishing is also found in the bay as well as walleyes and trout coming in from Lake Superior.
At the restaurant where we ate breakfast we talked to a couple who lived on the lake. They told us they caught two trout and two splake from shore in front of their house the day before.
On our last day we met a gentleman who was leaving the landing the same time we were. Three hours later he was returning to the landing as we pulled out our boat and when we asked how he had done he showed us a cooler with a limit of walleyes.
“I didn’t do anything special,” he told us. “I was just back trolling with a quarter ounce white jig and grub tail in about ten feet of water.” He related to us the day before he caught a pair of thirty eight inch northern pike in the bay as well.
Ashland is located at the south eastern shore of Chequamegon Bay and is the ideal spot to start fishing the bay. The town has numerous motels and restaurants to make your stay comfortable and enjoyable. As well any of the bait or sport shops will have the latest information on where the fish are biting and what they are hitting on.
Chequamegon is the place for good fishing and big fish. The fishing is good now and will only get better.
Editors Note: Mikes Yurk’s column is sponsored by Warner’s Dock in New Richmond, Wisconsin. Warner’s Dock is the premier marine dealer in northwestern Wisconsin. They have a complete supply of new and used boats, motors, and trailers as well as other marine supplies plus a complete maintenance staff for all your boating needs. They can be contacted through their website at www.warnersdock.com or by telephone at 1-888-222-3625