Saginaw Bay

[Dan]

Well I am going over to the bay and prefish for the BASS state championship for three days. Don't want to really stay in Bay City if it's going to be a long ride out of the river for prefishing.  I have only fished the bay out of Au Gres, so I am looking for recommendations as to where to stay to cut down boat driving time to prefish. Thinking of staying up by Tawas a night and maybe Pinconning a night. Is there a place on the east shore that we should stay and prefish from? Can you stay in Bay City and take off from another ramp that is right on the bay to eliminate that river no wake ride?

[chase5004]

Having grown up in the Tawas area, I can tell you that there are many small hotels/ motels to stay at (what rates, I'm not sure???), with a couple of big chains up there (Holiday Inn and Super . The launch areas are fairly good, with the best one right behind the East Tawas State Police Post just north of the Holiday Inn. You could spend three days just fishing Tawas Bay. The bad thing is if the weather is bad inside Tawas Bay there are no good back up areas to try. There are a couple of small marinas, but I would not hold my breath with them.   

Pat

[Bulletproof]

East shore wise you could stay in Caseville or Port Austin.  Both will lend access with good boat ramps.  They are also very close to some good fishing opportunities.  The Charities are only 10-15 minutes approx. from both areas.

[blakstr1]

There are launches out at the mouth on both sides of the river, which are both basically in Bay City.  That way if the weather doesn't cooperate you can still try out the river but don't have to deal with the no wake each day.  Both are nice launches, we are using the nortwestern side launch for our club tourney this upcoming weekend.  You could also stay in the Standish area and take the 15 minute or so drive to Great Lakes Marina which is considered on Whites Beach, good launch and good fishing here, this is north of Pinconning and like I said just south of Standish of M-13.

[MBell]

Bayshore marina one mile north of Bayport on the east shore would be the best place to launch if you want to fish the charities or anything else on the east shore.  You can hide out in wildfowl bay if it gets too rough, and it's not much of a run out there, less than 10 miles.  You save a lot of boat gas by driving up the shore. 
-Matt

[Dan]

 Hey guys thanks for the great info. Now I need to start considering where to stay Tuesday and Wednesday night.  Thursday and Friday we're are staying at the Fairfield Inn in Bay City. Sounds like we should stay near Pinnconning and Bayport. I will need to get a map out for Bayport. Pinconning I'm familiar with. Any motel hotel recommedations for these two. Are these the two spots we should stay to prefish? Thinking one day on the west side, one on the east and Thursday we will fish out of one of the ramps in Bay City.  I'm going up to Interlochen to fish Duck Lake tomorrow and Wednesday. Back to GR on Thursday and then back up north Friday. Fishing  the Tear Drop Duck Lake tournament on Sunday. Back to GR on Monday and then heading to Saginaw Bay on Tuesday early. Hope everything holds together. Just picked my Bass Cat up today. Had a VRO pump put in it. Should get a good chance to check it out in the two prefishing days on Duck.

[chase5004]

If you go up to Bay Port there is a small town just south of there you might want to check out for hotels/ motels. I just cannot remember the name of that town without looking at a map. It did seem like it was one of the bigger smaller towns in the area if that makes sense.

By the way I would not recommend going out of the public DNR ramp in Bay Port with a large rig. (If you have a small jon boat 14 feet or less maybe)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pat

[MBell]

The town your probobly talking about is sebewaing or bad axe.  Theres really not anywhere to stay in bayport, but caseville is just 10 minutes up the road as well.  I went out of the dnr ramp in bayport this spring, you can do it but it takes time and isn't worth it.  It gets down to less than two feet in the channel.  The bashore marina is a mile north and has a good channel that they maintain.  I'll be out there tomorrow, the water was clear this weekend should be good.
-Matt

[Dan]

Thanks guys. A good part of going to the east side whether it's the Bay, SC, or Erie is that it's a big adventure. I'm taking my boat to prefish, but am going as a nonboater. I have fished the S. Bay twice before and we caught a limit, but needed to find the big fish. Caught the heck out of the walleye on spinnerbaits.