# Little Traverse Bay 2018 Reports



## duckhunter17

Hey guys last week I went out fishing for anything on the little traverse bay where we trolled from Petoskey to Bay harbor. We had no action at first until we came across a pod of fish at which all of our rods went off and we ended up landing 4 fish in one pass with two guys. It was a great experience. I will be up this whole year fishing during parts of the week and every Saturday and Sunday. I will post reports here and updates. If anyone who fishes this amazing bay and wants to join in to help everyone out then that would be awesome. Attached is the biggest laker that we got that day.


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## North Country Squire

Nice fish, Duck. We put 6 in the boat from 7-14lbs on Friday morning trolling that same route. Marked fish everywhere from 50-135ft. 5 & 10 color cores with orange spoons and trash can/spin glo got all the hits.


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## duckhunter17

Awesome report! I'm heading out Sunday! Will post the update. I have heard of a few salmon getting caught as well.


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## garvelink5

Any pike or musky in that area?


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## HUNTorFISH

duckhunter17 said:


> Awesome report! I'm heading out Sunday! Will post the update. I have heard of a few salmon getting caught as well.


I hope the salmon show up. thinking about making a trip up early July with Salmon as the target, been about 10 years since I've fished Petoskey for Salmon.
keep the reports coming!


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## duckhunter17

garvelink5 said:


> Any pike or musky in that area?


I have seen a couple nice pike closer to shore right under the surface. About 15-20ft


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## duckhunter17

HUNTorFISH said:


> I hope the salmon show up. thinking about making a trip up early July with Salmon as the target, been about 10 years since I've fished Petoskey for Salmon.
> keep the reports coming!


I think the salmon will be strong this year. I will be targeting strictly salmon in July/August


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## duckhunter17

Today we got out late and trolled for 2 hours. We trolled from Bay Harbor to Petoskey in 120 of water. Caught a bad ass Steelhead weighing 8.8 pounds on a spoon with 2 color lead core. Put up a great fight. Even broke the rod in 3 piece lol









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## andyotto

Great picture with the broken rod behind you. Might want to loosen those drags.lol. I had one do the same thing to a wirediver a few years ago.


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## duckhunter17

Yup lol learned my lesson. It broke because he jumped out of the net but at least landed in the boat. 

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## duckhunter17

Trolled up by 9 mile, one Laker. 80 feet down in 180 ft. On a white and orange spoon

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## duckhunter17

Trolled this afternoon near harbor point. Caught some really nice lakers on the break 50 down on a white and orange spoon. The fish were spitting up gobies.









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## HUNTorFISH

Looks like I'll need to buy some white and orange spoons, don't have that color mixture. what size or type is working for you?


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## duckhunter17

I was using 4 inch silverstreaks. I had a moonshine that was similar but just didn't happen on them. 

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## Cam24

heading out of petoskey tonight will post report after...first time out of there this year any last minute tips?


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## Far Beyond Driven

Beautiful color on that fish.


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## fisheater

^ x2


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## duckhunter17

Cam24 said:


> heading out of petoskey tonight will post report after...first time out of there this year any last minute tips?


Cam how did you end up doing?

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## duckhunter17

We trolled from Bay harbor to harbor spring and caught a couple hogs! About 130 fow.
















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## North Country Squire

Whoah! Those are brutes! The average size is running pretty heavy this year. We ran Petoskey to Bay Harbor Sunday morning and found nothing then across to Harbor Springs and they were stacked in 60-80ft. Spin glos behind dodgers or cowbells have been the hot bait for us lately.


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## schmittoes

Nice work on those lakers and the salmon. Just saw this and wish I had looked earlier. Fished from 11-4 today. One laker in front of east side park. 80 down on lemon ice. Congrats on the fish.


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## schmittoes

I think you pretty much have to drag the ball on the bottom for the lakers. Sounds like duckhunter would know. I had high lines looking for chrome and nothing but a sunburn to show for it. Still love fishing out there


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## Magik

Curious, does anyone have a link to a LTB underwater topography map? I’ve searched and searched and can’t seem to find a thing.


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## John

Going to be going out Wednesday and Thursday with a bunch of young kids. Any recent reports would be appreciated. Or let me know if you're going to be out there.


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## Magik

Headed up to my Inlaws condo in Bay Harbor in a handful of days. What's the news like up there? Rivers? Breakwater? I believe we are going to be on the lake one or two days, but the rest of the time I'll be shore and river bank. I'm familiar with the area so any advice is super welcome. Can't wait to get in a LOT of fishing time.


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## Magik

Headed up tomorrow, any local reports or updates on conditions, runs, etc?


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## Magik

Pulled a few nice channel cats out of the river mouth tonigh Fishing the Petoskey Pier. Would like to try the breakwater but not sure where to cast from.


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## duckhunter17

Magik said:


> Pulled a few nice channel cats out of the river mouth tonigh Fishing the Petoskey Pier. Would like to try the breakwater but not sure where to cast from.


I am headed up to bay harbor for the weekend. Gonna try for some salmon! Gonna try meat rigs for the first time. Also I have navionics and c-map. C-map is better but is not perfect. I have been searching for awhile. Sorry for delayed response. Phone notifications were turned off

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## North Country Squire

Duck, we pulled a 15lb king 90 down over 140 on Saturday morning. Warm water is stacked top to bottom but I talked to a few other boats who were hitting fish 45-70 down over 100-110; nobody had full coolers though.


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## duckhunter17

North Country Squire said:


> Duck, we pulled a 15lb king 90 down over 140 on Saturday morning. Warm water is stacked top to bottom but I talked to a few other boats who were hitting fish 45-70 down over 100-110; nobody had full coolers though.


Meat rigs or should I try something else.... I'm still trying to figure out where to find herring

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## North Country Squire

I don't think anyone near Petoskey has meat. Traverse City, I believe, is the closest. All my salmon this year have been on spin doctors w/ flies or spin glo's. A lot of people swear by the meat rigs but I'd just as soon not have to deal with stinky herring.


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## duckhunter17

North Country Squire said:


> I don't think anyone near Petoskey has meat. Traverse City, I believe, is the closest. All my salmon this year have been on spin doctors w/ flies or spin glo's. A lot of people swear by the meat rigs but I'd just as soon not have to deal with stinky herring.


I have been trying the spin doctors and fly combo. Maybe it's the colors that I have wrong. I will try it again now that I'll be up there when there is a little more salmon in the bay 

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## Goby

I would rather not mess with meat but some of my fish hit meat rigs. Jays in Gaylord carries it.


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## duckhunter17

Goby said:


> I would rather not mess with meat but some of my fish hit meat rigs. Jays in Gaylord carries it.


Thank you! I have just been hearing that that is all they are biting on

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## Goby

Fewer fish than a few years ago. Use all the resources you have. Give them options. Let the fish tell you what they want.


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## Jimbos

It was a salmon whackfest off the Petoskey pier this morning, the best in 5 years for me at least, with constant whacks, fish on, and fish landed, all thrown back, and I was the only one out there.
It was good to see and gives me hope for the future.
I've spot locked the harbor within the last 10 days and have run side scan with many a detailed marks going by.


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## duckhunter17

Jimbos said:


> It was a salmon whackfest off the Petoskey pier this morning, the best in 5 years for me at least, with constant whacks, fish on, and fish landed, all thrown back, and I was the only one out there.
> It was good to see and gives me hope for the future.
> I've spot locked the harbor within the last 10 days and have run side scan with many a detailed marks going by.


Wow! That is great! I'm anxious to get back up there 

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## Jimbos

duckhunter17 said:


> Wow! That is great! I'm anxious to get back up there
> 
> Sent from my SM-G965U using Michigan Sportsman mobile app


No boats went out while I was there today, but on Tuesday two were trolling N.E. of the wall in what I would say in 120.


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## ausable_steelhead

Jimbos said:


> No boats went out while I was there today, but on Tuesday two were trolling N.E. of the wall in what I would say in 120.


Boats were smacking the coho around out there last couple weeks.


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## Jimbos

ausable_steelhead said:


> Boats were smacking the coho around out there last couple weeks.


Yep, I'm just talking about this week, they and I were out last week and there were quite a few boats out.
There was a pocket of cooler water off of Bay View due to the east winds that I had a couple of rips but I'm not really set up for it, basically just putzing around.


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