Eagle Harbor from the Ephraim Beach in Door County
Eagle Harbor from the Ephraim Beach in Door County
Eagle Harbor from the Ephraim Beach.

DOOR COUNTY — Smallmouth bass, rock bass and a few walleye are among the most common fish being caught in Door County over the past couple of weeks.

Here’s the weekly Lake Michigan fishing report from the Wisconsin DNR.

· Northern Door County Bayside:

o Murphy Park: There was a lot of activity at that ramp throughout the week with most of the boats pleasure boating. One group of anglers were targeting walleyes with no luck. There were trolling crankbaits around the reefs. The only thing they managed to catch were gobies. Two different parties were interviewed who were fishing from shore. One group managed to catch one rock bass while throwing spoons for northern pike. The other anglers were fishing for smallmouth bass with no luck. The only fish they caught were gobies.

o Egg Harbor: There was a lot of fishing pressure this week both from shore and in boats. The anglers fishing in boats had mixed results. Fishing success was low to start the week and it increased as the week progressed. Two boats early in the week reported catching less than 5 smallmouth bass each with almost 4 hours of fishing each. One boat was targeting walleyes and had no success. As the week progressed anglers in boats reported catching upwards of 20 smallmouth bass with best success in 13 to 20 feet of water. One angler was targeting walleye and they were able to catch 6 walleyes and kept 5 of them. One of the walleyes was 31 inches. They reported that 20 feet of water was where they caught most of the fish using crawler harnesses with bottom bouncers attached to them. Shore angling early in the week was slower with rock bass dominating the catch. One angler targeting yellow perch in the marina was able to catch one perch. As the week progressed shore anglers were able to catch both smallmouth bass and a large number of rock bass. The smallmouth bass that were caught were all on plastic baits, while the rock bass were caught on worms.

o Fish Creek/Peninsula State Park: Anglers fishing out of Peninsula State Park boat ramp reported catching a mixed bag of smallmouth bass and walleyes. Two boats were targeting smallmouth bass with one boat landing 6 and the other boat landing 3. The 6 smallmouth bass were caught out by the islands near Peninsula park trolling crankbaits. While the other angler reported catching the three smallmouth on a combination of trolling crankbaits and crawler harnesses. They also reported catching northern pike, yellow perch, and rock bass all while trolling for bass. One angler targeting walleyes caught 5 while trolling on structure in 12-15 feet of water. Over 10 anglers were interviewed throughout the week fishing at Weborgs Dock in Peninsula State Park and they reported that fishing was slow. Only a couple of smallmouth bass were caught. There were no anglers fishing in fish creek along the marina while on creel this week.

o Ephraim: Fishing pressure was fairly low this week for boaters, while shore fishing was fairly steady throughout the week at Anderson’s Dock. The anglers in boats were mainly targeting smallmouth bass. One group of anglers reported catching 12 fish, however they were on the water for nearly 10 hours. They finally found the fish out in 20-32 feet of water. They did manage to catch one walleye around 6 pounds while fishing for bass. Anglers from shore were catching rock bass during the middle of the day and then early mornings they were catching a few smallmouth off the end of the pier using worms.

o Sister Bay: The boat activity was mainly dominated by pleasure boating with only a few anglers going out. Two anglers were interviewed who were targeting smallmouth bass. Both boats reported that it was fairly slow, with less than 5 fish being caught between the two boats. One boat did report that before the storms rolled in on Sun Aug 9, they were doing really well for smallmouth out by Sister Island. The best shore fishing of the week occurred in Sister Bay. Anglers targeting rock bass as the sun went down were able to land around 50 fish. Some of the rock bass ranged between 8-10 inches. The most effective method for rock bass were using just a worm and let it sink to the bottom. By the time the worm was to the bottom a rock bass would already have the hook engulfed in their mouth. Fishing was great for rock bass at both Sister Bay Marina and down by JJ’s Dock.

o Ellison Bay: Overall there wasn’t much fishing pressure here throughout the week. Two groups of shore anglers were interviewed on Aug 15 and reported catching one smallmouth bass, one rock bass and around 10 gobies. The fish they did catch all came on pink jigs.

· Northern Door County Lakeside:

o Gills Rock: This week there was very little activity at the boat launch. Only two interviews occurred and both interviews resulted in pleasure boating. One group of anglers fishing from shore reported catching a couple of gobies while fishing for smallmouth bass. They were fishing near the boat launch using worms and a bobber.

o Rowley’s Bay: There was a couple of anglers fishing from the pier throughout the week with mixed results. On Sunday Aug 9 fishing was slower compared to Thursday August 13. On Sunday one angler reported catching one smallmouth bass, one northern pike, that was 24 inches, and then roughly 10 gobies. He was using an assortment of artificial baits and then worms. While Thursday anglers reported catching upwards of 10 smallmouth bass off the end of the pier using worms. Most of the smallmouth bass that were caught on Thursday ranged between 10-12 inches with one fish being over 14 inches. There were also reports of a few rock bass being caught on Thursday. No interviews were taken from anglers in boats.

o Bues Point: No interviews were taken from anglers in boats. While at the landing on Thursday there were large schools of smallmouth bass hanging out around the dock.

o Bailey’s Harbor: The only interview that took place at Bailey’s Harbor was on Thursday as well and it resulted in two small chinook salmon being caught. The anglers did not report on any depths, baits, or speed what worked best for the chinook. While talking to the harbor master at Bailey’s Harbor he reported that boats were doing really well for rainbows ranging in depths of 250 to 330, while targeting the top 40 feet of water. Orange or green color spoons have been the most effective.

o Sawyer Harbor: Potawatomi Park was busy as usual with Kayakers. There were also a lot of boaters out. Perch were a common catch among anglers.

o Little Sturgeon Bay: Carmody Park hosted the Milwaukee Bass Anglers LTD crew on Saturday. Anglers not fishing the event were looking for perch and walleye. Perch catches were the most successful.

o Chaudoirs Dock & Sugar Creek: Both these locations had boaters out this week but nothing significant to report. Sugar Creek ramp has made improvements to their launch. It is cleared up and repaved.

By Carly Renguette - Door County Shore Report

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