5-13-23 Detroit River Fishing Report
Day 2 of 3 was one for the books. You couldn't ask for a better day. What an awesome fishery! We got our walleye limit early and then went back out after other species later in the day. We break down both trips for day 2 below.
5/13/23 Report - Lower Detroit River - Trip 1 of Day 2
We hit the water just after sunrise. Having the boat right on the water made it easy to jump in the boat and go, which was super nice. We had lines in the water around 6:45am. We started jigging in the same area we ended the day before. We picked up a few right away but then it slowed down. We did some moving around and started picking them off. Shallower water did better for us today. 13-14ft was most productive. The same 3/4 oz purple jig with a Black n silver 4'' Split Tail Minnow did best for us again on day 2. 2.5'' Stinger Hooks paired with the plastics as always. After a few hours we were a few fish away from our limit. With the water temp being around 58 degrees, we decided to test the waters with 2 oz Bottom Bouncers and our Eye-Slammer Crawler Harnesses. Within minutes, we filled out the limit. It didn't take long to see that the river was ready for bottom bouncing! Brass Hammer was the hot harness color. Another nice average size batch of walleye today. Most fish were around 19-22'' with a few bigger ones added in. We did catch a few females that were dropping eggs! It was pretty wild to see this late in the year. After bleeding out the fish and snapping a few pictures, we headed back to the slip for some lunch.
5/13/23 Report - Lower Detroit River - Trip 2 of Day 2
After grabbing some lunch and getting the walleye cleaned, it was time to switch gears and go after some other species of fish! Shallow cuts and bays around the islands chasing Largemouth Bass and Pike were first on the hit list. It didn't take long and we were into the pike. The first shallow cut we fished was loaded with nice sized pike and a few largemouth. They were crushing the Venom Glimmer Series Spinnerbaits! We were casting up into the fallen wood and reed beds and burning the spinnerbaits back to the boat. Many pike hit right at the boat as we were watching them chase down the lure. What a fun time watching them chase it down and hammer it. That will get your blood pumping! We entered another area and started picking up all largemouth. It was one after another and everyone was catching, using the same Venom Spinnerbaits. We caught a lot of very nice size largemouth in these shallow, warm waters. Not much weed growth yet, so we were bumping the spinnerbaits off rocks and most fish were hitting within 10ft of the bank. There was a lot of bait in the area we were fishing and every time we would see a ball of bait bust, we would catch a bass right with them. That was cool! After catching a ton of pike and largemouth, we ran back out to the main river and went to some smallmouth bass waypoints that have been good for over 20 years. They were STILL good! Venom Tubes were the ticket, with 3/8 oz Venom Tube Jigs. Green pumpkin Goby was the hot color for us. We caught most of the smallmouth in 6-8 ft of water off sun warmed seawalls and rocks. Cast out into the current and let the tube walk down river with the current was working great. The fish would pick the tubes up off the bottom and run. Most times we would just feel weight and set the hook. We caught a lot of smallmouth, including multiple doubles and even a PB smallmouth that was 5# or heavier. We didn't weigh it, but it was for sure his PB. All bass and pike were released as we only target them to catch and release. After our arms were sore from catching fish, we finally headed back to the house to rest until day 3.
