West Grand Traverse Bay - 7/8 and 7/10

We hit it right for a calm week and were able to get a couple Grand Traverse Bay trips in. These are always multi species adventures for me. I like to get there early and start on trout then go smallmouth fishing. I had a long solo trip this year which meant I could really explore some stuff. First stop would be my old reliable trout area.

I caught 2 in the first 5 minutes on the trusty 2 ounce P-Line laser minnow and then they absolutely shut down on it. I could watch these fish on MEGA Live 2 just ignore or avoid my spoon. A very short bite window and very different than what I had experienced before. I was fishing 80-100 feet on West Bay and that makes anything but a 2 ounce spoon painful for me. I did notice that there wasn’t much current and I think that may have contributed to the off bite. I started experimenting and got on them with a Rapala Freeloader and ¾ ounce jighead from Duke Creek Tackle. I did not expect to catch them this way but I ended up getting some really nice fish and good numbers of them. It also helped to move around and find fresh fish even though it was a slow painful drop down to them. Big learning experience for me today! The nice thing about these trout is that they are able to burp up air and release really well with jigging. The fight is also so much fun while jigging vs trolling. Eventually it was time to bass fish and I knew the slick calm conditions were going to make that a challenge.

I really am not a big fan of this time of year up there. I never devote the time to find anything good deep and usually end up catching them shallow on rock lines. It’s simple and can be really productive when winding a swimmer or throwing a drop shot. But that ultra clear water and slick calm conditions can be brutal. Fish just kind of roam around, don’t set up, and aren’t very aggressive. I was very surprised on this day to find a lot of fish still up on beds. It wasn’t what I wanted to do but I knew if I was going to have a good day this was my opportunity. So I made the most of it and caught a bunch with some good ones thrown in. Nothing over 5 but some heavy 4’s. I also just got to scope a lot of things out for the future. One thing that surprised me this year is the number of freshwater drum I could see. I bet I saw 10 of them in one area! I hit the trout spot again on the way in and popped one for dinner then put it on the trailer.

Things just didn’t work out this year to get all the kids out there. I’m not about driving through Traverse City ever when I’m up there so I need particular wind directions to launch. But we would be making a quick trip on Friday Morning with my father in law and 2 of the kids. June had never caught a lake trout so we had high hopes. We ran the same program as the previous trip except they were much more receptive to the jigging spoon. They were also really short striking. We had a lot of bites compared to hook ups, both with the spoon and the plastic. The spoon shines early and then transitions to plastic at least this week in July. It is so fun to watch the kids battling these trout up from 90 feet of water! The kids each got to keep one to bring home to show off and share for lunch. It was a few miles to where the bass fishing had been good and we were limited on time. Early to the lake and early home on this trip so we explored some new water for a little bit. It wasn’t something I had a lot of confidence in but we did end up catching a few. We made it home and the kids piled in the truck to go catch some crawdads to add to the lunch pile. They grabbed up enough to supplement our trout lunch and they made a lime crema sauce for the trout without any instruction. It was a great end to a great week up north, GTB is a special place and I can’t wait to go back!