The Bay of Green Bay is a notorious multi-species destination on the western side of Lake Michigan with excellent fishing for walleye, bass, musky, various trout species, and more. Green Bay walleye fishing is extremely popular during the springtime months as the fish begin to move back out into the lake after their spring spawning run earlier in the season.

Local guide Doug Wegner spends a lot of time early in the season chasing the impressive Green Bay walleye populations throughout their seasonal movements, and he has an excellent fishing report for us this week:

“First things first, our water temperatures are anywhere from 52 degrees all the way down to maybe 44 degrees in the upper part of the bay depending on where you’re fishing. The lower part of the bay is warmer, the upper part of the bay is cooler. That being said, we’re now finally out of our post spawn transition mode.

“A lot of the smaller fish in the lower part of the bay can be caught really easily trolling. If you still want to cast Rippin’ Raps, that’s obviously an option as well.

“If you want to target those bigger fish, you can move up into the northern part of the bay. Look for those rock to sand transitions, and you can still catch fish on #7 Rippin’ Raps and big swimbaits, too.

“There’s a lot of opportunity here in the bay. We’ve had some great weather this past week. If you guys want to get over here, this is a great time to do it!”

Don’t sleep on the excellent smallmouth bass fishing opportunities available right now throughout the Green Bay area, especially up near Sturgeon Bay. Lake Michigan smallmouth are a special creature and that bite is excellent right now in late May and early June.