Best Smallmouth Spots
The AnglingBuzz region is unquestionable the epicenter of North America’s finest brown bass fishing. On today’s highlight destination we’re gonna look at some premiere smallmouth fisheries for both numbers and size.
MISSOURI RIVER
First up, North and South Dakota’s Lake Oahe. Oahe is monstrous! It’s nearly 230 miles long, and for years, this reservoir has been known for walleyes and big pike. Recently, smallmouth bass have taken hold in big way — big enough to get the attention of Bassmater Elite who will be hosting a tournament on Oahe out of Pierre, SD in the next couple weeks.
The upper Missouri pools of Oahe, Sakakawea and Fort Peck are the most untapped smallmouth bass fishery in the country today. And as a side note, the Montana state record smallmouth was caught this last fall, a 7.51-pounder out of Fort Peck.
> Lake Oahe Maps/Spots (Fishidy)
CHEQUAMEGON BAY
The second highlight destination is Chequamegon Bay of Lake Superior in Wisconsin. This fishery is managed for big smallmouth, allowing a limit of one fish over 22”. According to local guide and AnglingBuzz reporter Luke Kavajecz. There’s big population of smallmouth in the 18’ to 20-inch range. The bay is 12 miles long and averages from 2 to 6 miles wide.
Early season fishing is focused around sloughs in the northeast corner of the bay. Throughout the summer and fall packs of smallmouth rove the large weed and rock flats and the break walls in and around Ashland, Wisconsin.
> Chequamegon Bay Maps/Spots (Fishidy)
LITTLE & BIG BAYS DE NOC
Next up, we’re going to the north side of Lake Michigan: Big and Little Bays de Noc in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. It’s big water fishing with miles of shallow bulrush beds, a maze rock piles and deep structure. All this habitat equals big numbers of big fish. A few years ago, Bassmaster had their angler of the year championship here and many of the pros caught the personal best brown bass.
This is just scratching the surface of the many great smallmouth fisheries in the AnglingBuzz region. There’s never been a better time to be a bronzeback angler, the fish are getting bigger and more plentiful, so get out there and bust some brownies!
> Little Bay de Noc Maps/Spots (Fishidy)
> Big Bay de Noc Maps/Spots (Fishidy)
