Green Bay Fishing Report July 10-12

“You know, Spike, there’s a lot more to fishing than catching!” exclaimed my Chicago friend, Tom Harrison, after three partial days of fishing out of Oconto, WI on Green Bay. Tom was ready for a Covid-19 break and I wanted to get the red Ranger 620 out of Walleye Wisdom headquarters for a road trip. Tom met me Friday morning and we fished close to Oconto on Oconto Shoal–just a few small walleye with very few marks. Back at the motel, we learned other anglers were fishing south of Oconto near what’s called “shark fin” (look at your mapping chip, you will se it). So, Saturday we headed south and joined all the weekend fisherman covering the area. Unlike Friday, we went from cranks to spinners pulling the crawlers as slow as we could with the wind. Yes we caught walleye. But, if there had been a tournament for catfish or sheepshead as big as trash can lids, we would have won! We heard reports of some bigger fish caught on the “mud” further south of us including a 29-incher! Tom needed to get home Sunday so we spent the morning fishing on the east side of the Bay, just north of Snake Island. We went out in 2-3 footers at about 7 mph wondering, “what are we doing here?!” We marked lots of fish in the deeper water but our single pass over the shallower water showed no marks and no fish. There were a couple other boats who showed up and joined us in the same area. We were able to get back to the launch at 20 mph shortly after noon as the wind laid down some. Tom left for home and I left for our Camper at Bellevue, IA. Even though we didn’t get on the walleye like we’d hoped, we were both thankful to see each other, catch up on our family lives, and take a break from the Rona craziness. The National Walleye Tour will be fishing Green Bay July 23-24. I’m not guaranteed an entry so waiting to hear if my early sign up and paying for the next three events will allow me to get paired with a pro-angler who signs up between now and then. Hopefully, I’ll get in and have a tournament report for you! Thanks to Tom for sharing some time with “Grandpa Gary” and for the trustworthy Ranger boat getting us out and back to the launch safely! Spike