Sturgeon Bay Kings and Bows

Just got back from my annual 5 day trip to Sturgeon Bay for Salmon and Trout. We had a great trip with steady predictable fishing. We averaged 6 fish per trip (morning and again in evening). We missed out on the lunkers, but didn’t have any small fish either, so the average size was up this year. The bows especially were larger than usual. Most were from 7 lbs to 12 lbs and we had one big one at 14 lbs. Our Kings were in the 8-16 Lb range. I’m pretty sure we had a few over 20 lb fish on, but those didn’t make it all the way to the boat:(…….

We had most of our luck with Spoons run on lead core or copper, and some bites on Dipsy rods with either spoons or flasher/fly. Only 2 bites on the down riggers the entire trip. Pretty much any Pro King spoon seemed to work pretty good as well as Moonshine Half a Meal and Rasberry Carbon. The only flasher fly that got bit for us was a blue Holo Spin Doctor with a Little Boy Blue fly.

If you’ve been thinking of making a trip over, now seems to be a pretty good time, so get after it!

Great report! What size spoons work best out there for kings?

biggill wrote:

Great report! What size spoons work best out there for kings?

We were having equal success on the regular sized spoons and the Mag spoons for both Kings and Rainbows. The Alewives we saw in the fish stomach’s were quite large; similar to a mag sized spoon.

Thanks. Was just curious if I needed to stock up on smaller N2 or N3 spoons if I head out that way. Got lots of N3s and mags.

I am thinking about going there next week. Are you launching Sturgeon and just driving the channel each day, or is there a better option? Did Algoma last year, also looking into Bailey’s Harbor. Thanks

With launching from Sawyer Park downtown, figure a 30 min trip out to the fishing with the two no wake zones. About a mile and a half to two miles of total no wake. Sort of pleasurable actually, except in the fall, when some troll the outer chanel section. We have a summer place there, and its a great place to visit. Little different this year, but that is to be expected. Sawyer park is an excellent launch, with plenty of parking, with its over flow side lot.

Matt L wrote:

I am thinking about going there next week. Are you launching Sturgeon and just driving the channel each day, or is there a better option? Did Algoma last year, also looking into Bailey’s Harbor. Thanks

We slip our boat at Snug Harbor which is near the furthest east bridge. That saves us the long no wake zone from the public landing to the bridge. We do still have the shipping channel, no wake, but not too bad.

If you can pull off Bailey’s I would do that instead. Good fishing MUCH closer to shore, but hard to get a room in that small town full of tourists.

Next week is going to be tough to find a room anywhere in Kewaunee and Door counties as the KD tourney will be in full swing. Good Luck fishing if you do make it over!

Snug Harbor, is a great option also, saves you about 5-7 min of no wake. Our place is only about a mile from Sawyer, so we just get a yearly pass for there. KD tourney is a big deal around there. Baileys would be fantastic for fishing, and sight seeing, but lodging and boat parking will be really tough now, especially with the KD tmt.