by Dave Nichols

Fall fishing opportunities are plentiful but one of the Midwest’s most iconic bites is on the upper Green Bay looking for smallmouth bass. I had a chance to take a couple days with friends Terry and Sam to join one of our favorite fishing guides, Capt. Jimmy Doering for some October smallmouth fishing in Door County.
One of the 1st things about any upper Midwest fishing trip in October is whether the weather will be kind to you. Our first day of fishing was brilliant with sun, temps in the 60’s and manageable winds at 10-20 mph. We pitched tubes, A-rigs and ran suckers in water from 15’ to 40’ finding most of our fish in the 20-25’ area. We managed 30-40 fish with several in the upper 4lb range. Suckers seemed to catch the most fish but the bigger fish came on tubes. We were using the famous Howie’s Tubes in the Amber color (they look like a goby!) with 3/8 oz heads. A slight hop or just a slow drag seemed to be the retrieves for success. Capt. Jimmy noted that the fish were in transition from their shallower late summer/early fall haunts to the deeper late fall/winter locations. This is the time of year the fish really put on the feed bag and can gain a pound of weight in a short period of time. Many of our bigger fish were 20+ inches long but did not have the large girth that will come with some time in the deeper water.
Day Two dawned with overcast skies, sustained winds in the 20+mph range and the promise of rain and possibly severe weather during the day as a major cold front rolled through the region. We got started just after sun up and worked a bay on the west side of the Door County peninsula catching several nice smallmouth up to 4lbs. We added a swimbait on a 1⁄4 oz jig to our arsenal and as we moved deeper (30’) we hit an 8lb 13oz walleye. After releasing the walleye the promised weather issues took over and we fought high winds and driving rain for the balance of day before calling it early due to increasingly difficult conditions.
We knew day 3 would be tough due to the cold front and high winds…it lived up to expectations. We changed locations in an attempt to get out to the fish but the weather made for challenging conditions and we pulled the plug after only one 4lb 10oz smallmouth and some northern pike. Sometimes the weather wins…
Capt. Jimmy is one of Green Bays most successful guides and he specializes in smallmouth…that’s all he guides for! We were lucky enough to be the first group in his new 2023 Ranger 620. The new boat proved to be a great craft in the high winds and difficult conditions. If you want to try your hand at Green Bay smallmouth any time of the open water year you can reach Cast’n’Catch Charters
( http://castncatchcharters.com/) for information on booking a trip or joining one of Capt. Jimmy’s winter ice fishing excursions for whitefish.