I have been chasing smallmouth bass in the waters of Door County since 1995, with many days out in one of my fishing kayaks.  Summer can be a tough time to find the big smallies, but it is still a fun time to be on the water! In general Door County is a beautiful place to fish for smallmouth bass, even though the numbers have been on a decline over the past seven or eight years. This can be due to a variety of factors including a great deal of fishing pressure and even though it hurts the fishery, many anglers still try to catch males while they are doing their natural thing in shallower water, guarding nests in the spring!

Even with the overall numbers down there are still big smallmouth bass to be found. Summer and into early fall I would suggest fishing shallow 15 feet and under throwing small swimbaits on lighter mushroom head jigs. Also, in that deeper range fishing a tube jig or Ned Rig very slowly on the bottom can be productive. As I have found out the past few weeks there are still smaller bass, especially around permanent piers protected by boulders. Smallies love to hang around structures like this. For the presentations I mentioned I am using medium-light rods in that 6’10” to 7’3” range and a spinning reel spooled with an eight or ten-pound superline with a fluorocarbon three to four-foot leader.  For tubes and the Ned Rig where I know there are bigger fish, I will jump to medium-action rods.

As I have mentioned before I keep it very simple with my fishing kayaks, whether paddle or pedal.  I have two flush-mount rod holders, two external rod holders a box in the tank well behind my seat for gear and lures. I am usually out with four or five rods and a small net. The one item I could use but have never added to my fishing kayaks is a fish finder. This would be helpful for water temperature, water depth, and bottom structure.

If you have any general kayak or kayak fishing questions, please email me at kayakfishingwisconsin@gmail.com.