Saginaw Bay Lessons Learned

Fished Saginaw Bay this past weekend and was really disappointed with how things ended up. After processing the time and how things went, here’s what I would do differently:

Get there early and be set up early. Best bite was early in the day. I’d be on the water set up before sun up and be ready to pop fish right away. Don’t think you’ll have an all day bite, because that’s not a guarantee.

Fish away from the crowds. Without exaggerating, there were thousands of people on the bay last Saturday. And without a doubt, all that pressure affects the bite.

Even with a tough bite, aggressive and loud can be helpful. The fish my partner caught came on a very aggressive and loud bait. However, he did down size the bait.

Be mobile. Modern ice fishing has preached this, but we didn’t do it as much as we should have. Move, move, and move. If you don’t contact fish within 20 minutes, move. Pick up and move a half mile or so. Don’t get overly situated until you contact fish. We didn’t move enough.

Last lesson that we learned: the camera didn’t help us on Saturday. If anything, it seemed to push fish away instead of drawing them in. In one situation, as soon as we pulled the camera, we got bit. Can’t say this will always be the case, but try fishing with and without it and see if there’s any difference.

Use your time on the water as a learning experience. Some of the best learning happens during the unsuccessful times on the water. Next time you’re out, be flexible and keep experimenting and moving! Good luck out there!