Green Bay – Next week advice?

Hoping to head up this coming Monday-Wed to get my aging father out as the wind and such looks very fishable.

This time of the year, hoping to fish west side Green Bay towards Oconto, putting in mid way if possible. Any advice on if I can expect maybe even some casting bite to exist in that area yet?

Not only is this area pretty new to me, but I was hoping to find some simple fishing options for my dad… trolling being a back up plan.

I have tons of flicker shads, and DD Husky Jerks from Erie trips. Jigs and can grab crawlers or whatever…

You will likely be able to find fish outside of Oconto in shallow water. Pulling spinners in 6-12′ of water below the oconto river will likely produce well. I wouldn’t expect many fish to be out much deeper than that. There are weed beds on the west shoreline worth casting cranks and jigs at too, but I don’t have any waypoints handy at the moment. If you pull spinners in shallow water and find fish fairly consistently in areas, I’d go back and cast cranks/jigs at them.

Never pulled harnesses before, sounds like something fun and new to try (that is what you mean by spinners, right?).

Just use light snap weights to adjust the depth, and run them slower, like 1-1.5 for a starting point?

Speed most of the time matters more than you would think. Planer boards are important to keep them away from the boat. Last year we had to be at 1mph or no bites. The year before 1.8. I like to start at a constant speed and if no bites, I will make s turns to see if I get bites on inside or outside turns to see of they want faster or slower.

Makes sense…. TY

I’ll use then words for sure at least part of the day. I’ll do some reading in my trolling book… safe to start w a 1/2 oz snap weight, obviously based on depth. Really looking forward to trying this. I think I have a number of spinners I bought years ago for bago, all still in the packages

For those depts, I usually stay around 1-1.2 mph. Just put on a split shot and let out 30-50′ of line. As a general rule, at 1mph, a 1oz snap weight will give you a depth equal to 50% of the line you have out. 20′ = 10′ depth etc… Remember to run your baits above the fish. I’ve caught fish with 30′ of line out and no weights at all.