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It has been a busy but successful week with our hotspots ranging from 8 feet to 44 feet.  I have never seen so many fish in so many different depths.

Within a week or so we should see the shallow fish disappear and the deep hotspots load up.

Simply stated, with weather being our biggest obstacle, we are forced to occasionally adjust schedules.

It would be bad for someone to drive many hours in anticipation of this great smallmouth fishing, to lose a day’s fishing.

Therefore, I will set aside three days for two days of fishing.  We pick the best two days of the trip to fish.

The positives outweigh the negatives.

It has been a busy couple of weeks and I have been slow getting these photos to you.  Enjoy!

This is our goal.  Catch-and-Release is a nice catchy (no pun intended) phrase but Catch-and-Healthy Release is the ultimate.

Clients have asked “what do we do if I get a trophy smallmouth?”

Lots of photos is the quick answer.  But we can quickly weigh, measure length, measure girth in order for a legitimate taxidermist to create a reproduction mount.

The slow-growing trophy can make a healthy return to the system.

We respectfully ask others to minimize keeping smallies in a livewell for extended times and extended bumpy rides.  HEALTHY RELEASE!  The featured photo is an example.

Case Plastics makes very effective soft plastics.  Pictured you will find the real thing and the “unreal” thing.

Our new friends from Ohio had lots of action chasing smallies on inland waters.

A fun “father-and-sons” outing netted some good smallies and much fun.  Great people and very good fishing.

Day one was barely safe enough and comfortable enough for a productive outing due to the wind.

VERY PRODUCTIVE as we caught between 80 and 100 smallmouth.  We seemed to have equal success in depths from nine feet to 28 feet.  The wind seemed to lessen around 3 pm for a few hours of perfect conditions.

Day two was too windy for good boat control.  We fished two lakes for a total of 35 fish.  Big was about 4.75.

Very good fishermen with very good fish.

And we can get to Northwest Michigan’s most fun smallmouth fishing of the year.

Pattern fishing becomes the approach when all fish are concerned with nothing but eating.

Today we still had a few on beds but many have moved into the deep.  Many crayfish and minnows “spit up” on the deck.

Here is the old coach with a nice smallie.  Guess what bait?

Although there are new beds on the medium-depth flats, the majority of the smallies caught today were post spawn fish.  The deepest came from 33 feet and the shallowest was in 7 feet.

Big fish today was 5.65 lbs. but most were 12 inches to 17 inches.  The noteworthy part about today’s fishing was that deeper fish and shallower fish seemed to be equally cooperative.

AND THE BEST IS AHEAD OF US!