Saginaw Bay in Mid Summer advice needed

[LennyB]

Anyone have any experience fishing in July and August on the Bay. The family is planning a week long trip in Port Austin this summer and I was wondering what the fish may be doing that time of year, smallies and largies???

[FrickerDude]

Incredibly clear water at that time more than likely.  Sometimes you can see the rocks in 20-25 foot of water.  Lots of rocks and should be lots of smallies at least if you find the right spots.  The water is always cooler up there than in the bay.  Get at me when it gets closer and I should now how things are going up there. 

[LennyB]

Thanks, Will do.

[djkimmel]

It can be hit and miss there that time of year depending on weather and weather patterns. That's basically Lake Huron instead of Saginaw Bay. Some amazing and 'famous' reefs out there but more so for the spawn time than mid-summer.

If you have some awesome weather, you can still make the run to the Charities too. Those rows of reefs just north of Big Charity ALWAYS have some pods of dumb, big smallies hanging around them. They are the dumbest smallies I have ever found anywhere. Kind of a long run for the family of course.

A backup plan might be to launch at Bayport and fish Wild Fowl Bay, the reef (some say its an old road bed - you can see it easy on the satellite images - if you go there MAKE SURE YOU ONLY cross it through the one opening if you're not way out... we didn't know about the one opening in the old days... well we did after we missed it with two boats following each other... ) going out from there - goes waaaaayyy out into deeper water and bisects another spine that goes to North Island - hence the idea that it once was an actual road out to there..., fish around North Island, worse comes to worse there will probably be some resident largemouth bass in some of the big, deep canals such as the ones in Sand Point and the big, dredged channel to Bayshore Marina. The fishing won't be anywhere near as good as it is in May-1st half of June, or again in mid-September on, but there will be bass around still. I've also often whacked some nice walleye around North Island while looking for bass. Probably needs to be a roiled up, gray day for that to happen more often though.

I used to practically live behind the islands west of Bayport in the old days. Flipping cattails and fishing troughs, channels, creeks, hidden lakes... in the spring/early summer and things like Dynamite Cut (43.818241, -83.432506) going into the atoll-like islands (Middle Grounds and Maisou), and around Heisterman Island.

There's some really neat stuff back in there around and in those islands, but there's lots of dead water too, especially in mid-summer. I haven't been there in quite a while either. I imagine with the explosion of phragmites and other changes that some of it has been ruined, especially for anything after the spawn. Plus, you can't just run around back there - lots of treacherous stuff, though with the high water and the clearing up it has done it's probably somewhat easier to run around now than it was when you couldn't see anything until you hit it...

Might be an adventure for the family though...?? There's some blind airboat cuts even leading to, like I say, 'hidden' lakes (Boxcar Cut). Some people are in to that 'what's around the next corner' adventure and some aren't... I always have been - burned a lot of time looking. ...but once in a while, it was worth it. I'm thinking, from looking at satellite images, that some of these places have been ruined by phragmites though, as I mentioned above. There's actually an MDNR ramp there at the end of Geiger Road though it is aimed at small boats and duck hunters, we used to launch our bass boats and carefully run around a little out there, or at least in May/June we would just go fishing. Probably be mostly dead water in mid-summer.

Had some great memories though back there - catching the bejeezus out of schooling bass when the wind was pushing water hard through Dynamite Cut (had an amazing day once at the mouth of the cut at the tip of Sand Point too after a multiple day strong blow - AFTER the wind stopped, when all the piled up water was now 'pouring' back the other way creating a strong current through the canal - bass, after bass, after bass every cast for a long, long time - it was amazing - I caught something like 50+ bass in that many casts!!)

My first 'state' tournament ever was when I drew a 'veteran' and he ran me back inside Maisou - Middle Grounds Islands through Dynamite Cut, and I had an unbelievable day just tossing spinnerbaits where I could do no wrong. I landed 25 keepers before he ever hooked his 1st bass... by the end of the day, I thought he was going to do away with me and hide my body out there (probably not hard to do) he was so mad that I was a green rookie and whacking them while he ended up with 2 keepers... just one of those days, but one I'll never forget.

I envy you getting to spend a week out there though I have very little direct experience way out by Port Austin. It was just rarely a good run to make back in the old days with muddy water and the usual 'tournament' winds that made you hate fishing anywhere on The Bay. The outer part like where you'll be, basically Lake Huron, like I said, was much more clear even then but as FrickerDude says, it can be amazingly clear now like so much of the Northern Great Lakes. You'll have to check out Turnip Rock (big reefs there) and the famous Eagle Bay. It had a reputation kind of like Waugoshance Point (but much less known) in the very old days of bass fishing - 50s and 60s - before my time. I keep saying I'm going to go there but never seem to make it. Just so many great bass fishing places in this state of ours!