The Perch fishing reports continue to come in on a daily basis, and for the most part, they have been nothing less than stellar. We are just seeing some really good Perch action right now even with the unseasonably warm temperatures. When the water temps finally start to dip, the already good Perch fishing may even get better. Some spots to try include Little Sturgeon, Riley’s Bay, some of that deeper water to the south down by Chaudoir’s Dock and Rite’s Cove, Sawyer Harbor has been very good along with in and around the Sturgeon Bay ship canal. Fathead minnows, crawler pieces and leaf worms the best live baits right now, but like we’ve said in the past, as soon as the water cools, the main live bait will switch primarily to minnows.
The Pike fishing is also going really well right now as it usually does this time of year for both the trollers and the folks that prefer to cast. Concentrate your efforts along deep or mid-depth weed edges along with some steeper rocky shorelines like along the Potawotami Park shore line and Henderson’s Point for example. Large crank baits like Husky Jerks and size 18 Rapalas, large spoons, larger plastics, spinner baits are always very effective and of course soaking large sucker minnows.
The Smallmouth Bass fishing reports have been pretty darn good depending on the area and the day of course. It definitely seems as though the reports up along the Northern Door County peninsula, including Washinton Island, have been significantly better than the reports to the south up until this point. Once the water cools down a bit more and those fish start to group up, we will all see some really good fishing pretty much throughout the whole Door County peninsula. The best baits are generally the same year in and year out. Howie shorty tubes, ned rigs, paddle tails, a wide variety of drop-shot plastics, spinner baits and jerk baits when you have some wind to work with along with A-rigs from now deep into the fall.
The Walleye fishing reports up in our neck of the woods from Henderson’s Pointnorth up past the Sturgeon Bay area has definitely made a change for the better even with the warmer water temps. The better bite has been late afternoons and into the night which is generally the case come fall. Don’t get us wrong, you can still get fish during the day, but the night bite always seems to take over in the fall. Once our water cools, that bite should just continue to get better as it usually does year in and year out. At night, trolling or casting suspending crank baits, regular floating crank baits along with deep diving crank baits depending on the depth you are in is generally the ticket. In the fall, you will generally find active Walleyes on or near the top of shallow or mid- depth reefs and along steeper, rocky shorelines as they put on their feed bag. The best overall depth would be in water as shallow as 3 feet and at times out to that 20 foot range.
There are still some decent opportunities for both shore and small boat fishermen for those 4 year old Kings that are taking their final swim. It is more at the tail end of the fall run, but still some decent opportunities for some action. Along with the Kings, there will be some Brown Trout that start cruising in and around some of the harbors. Areas to fish include harbors to the north of Sturgeon Bay, some of the Lake Michigan tributaries that have enough water in them, the Kewaunee and Ahnapee rivers and of course the Sturgeon Bay ship canal. Casting and trolling spoons, plugs, casting and jigging with plastics and soaking spawn all options there.
Thanks again to all the local guides, local fishermen and visiting fishermen that share information with us so we can provide the most accurate and informative report possible. Be safe, have fun and good luck fishing everybody.
*This report is updated mulitple time per month. Audio version on WDOR is updated multiple times per week. Click WDOR logo above to access audio version.