Chequamegon Bay Smallies with Chris Beeksma

As IDO’s 2010 open water filming draws to a close I can’t think of a better way to wrap up the season than to make the gas card sizzle and do back-to-back shoots on different bodies of water in different states. Earlier in the week we hit Chequamegon Bay with Chris Beeksma of Get Bit Guide Service for giant bay smallies. After a one day turn around back in Richfield we hitched up the Skeeter yet again and headed north for another 6 hours of wheel time to put the finishing touches on our season with Chris Granrud up on Rainy Lake. This first report will be “all smiles and smallies” with Chris Beeksma on “the bay” and I’ll follow up with a separate report on the happenings with Chris Granrud up on Rainy.

Our glorious run of warm weather has been a blessing for bass anglers as the stable conditions have kept the fish in a feeding mood. As we pointed the truck north and headed for Chequamegon the last report I received from Chris was short and to the point. His email said… “get your hinder up here… it’s gonna be good!” And let me tell you Chris didn’t oversell. Far from it. As I sit here at the keyboard and start to recall all the fish caught, the sites seen and the knowledge gained in our short time with Chris I can’t help but mention what an understatement his prediction turned out to be. If asked to do so I wouldn’t be able to come up with a number on how many big smallies we boated and we didn’t take the time to weight any of these fat, heavy fish but I can state, with absolutely no hesitation, that earlier this week I got to experience some of the best smallmouth fishing I’ve ever had!

Water temps on the bay were still in the upper 50’s to low 60’s, depending on location. These unusually warm temps allowed us to stick with an all artificial approach at a time of year when many anglers would start to incorporate suckers or other big minnows into their presentations. We fished two primary patterns: big bladed spinnerbaits, like the 1 Oz. Terminator in chartreuse and white, and we did mix in a few crankbaits like the DT4 and DT6 with Red Craw being the hands down best crankbait color on this trip. As for depths fished the vast majority of the fish caught came in 7’ of water or less with many of our biggest fish coming from shallow wood in less than 3’ of water.

Our approach was rather simple… fan cast shallow cover while mixing up the lures used. In the AM the fish seemed to prefer the spinnerbait and midday when the sun was high the bass seemed to prefer the crankbait. Later in the day, as the sun dropped lower in the sky that spinnerbait got hot again. Regardless of the bait used one lasting impression I took away from my brief stay on the bay was that the smallies here don’t just hit a spinnerbait… they try and break it into 3 pieces! Man, o’, man I have never had such hard hits from a smallie EVER and I must confess that some of the strikes and the subsequent acrobatics left me with a smile on my face that didn’t go away for days!

For anyone out there that is looking for one last bass trip for the season Chequemegon needs to be on your radar. The unseasonably warm temps will keep this bite going strong well into late october or longer as these fish were really just starting to group up near their wintering areas. Obviously since we caught almost all of our fish in very shallow water… these bass aren’t ready to push themselves away from the buffet table and hang it up for the summer quite yet.

For more info on the Chequamegon Bay smallie fishing give Chris Beeksma a holler. He’s a blast to fish with and his knowledge of the bay and the smallmouth fishery is unsurpassed. You can find him online at http://www.getbitguideservice.com or by phone at 715-292-4410. There’s still lots of time to get in on some of the most impressive smallmouth fishing you’re likely to ever experience!