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[Weedsnager]

What's the best time to be there in the spring?

[djkimmel]

Depending on the spring could be end of May through 2nd week of June for bedding and prespawn action. Whenever the Sturgeon Bay open is scheduled is usually pretty close to the hot action. They pretty much always smash huge catches and huge bass now during that event.

The direction of the wind can affect parts of Sturgeon Bay if the real cold Lake Michigan water gets pushed into the East end. I once saw the temps drop overnight from around 60 to 43 in that channel, and it went from prespawn bass to trout and salmon overnight too.

[Flippin222]

The Sturgeon bay open is the weekend after Mothers Day every year. Last year we fished the NABC tournament over there (1 week before the Sturgeon Bay Open). The tournament was on Saturday and the Wednesday before the tournament there were still large chunks of ice floating around in the main lake.

There was a slight warming trend heading into the tournament and once the water temp hit 50 deg, it was like ringing a bell for the smallmouth to start moving up. Most of the top finishers were throwing a a-rigs into 2-3 feet of water focusing on the hard bottom areas of the bays. The tournament was won with a 5 fish limit that weighted 30.00 lbs.

Depending on the winter and spring weather, I would guess you could find smallmouths on beds anytime between mid-may and mid-june. But there are tons of giants swimming around those waters.

At the weigh-in for the NABC tournament, you could see several muskies cruising around the docks (water temp was 47 in Little Sturgeon at weigh in) that were over 50".

[TCook]

I really want to make a trip there this year bad. So I take it the muskies have learned that 100s of smallmouth will be around the dock for an easy meal during that time? I thought the SBO had 6 fish limits?

[Flippin222]

SBO does have a 6 fish limit. They have a tournament each spring and fall. The NABC is a tournament series sponsored by Cabela's that covers Wisconsin and Minnesota.

[jgip087]

I hope to fish the open during 2016 and maybe the NABC ($10,000 guaranteed 1st prize with 75+ boats)  this year. The last I heard, 1st at the open is a new ranger and $10,000!