PRACTICE REPORT: Saginaw Bay smallmouth offer significant challenges, rewards

Mercury pros Bertrand, Roumbanis, Becker expect brown fish to be difference-makers this week

BAY CITY, Mich. – As the Bass Pro Tour field took to Saginaw Bay for its first day of practice Sunday in advance of Minn Kota Stage Seven presented by Suzuki, the anglers were exploring uncharted waters – literally. 

Much has been made about the fact that this will mark the first time anyone in the 80-angler field has competed in a tour-level event on the Lake Huron fishery. However, after one day of exploring Saginaw Bay and the Saginaw River, Mercury pros Matt Becker, Josh Bertrand and Fred Roumbanis are all on the same page about what it’s going to take to win the final event of the regular season: finding and catching a few 4- and 5-pound fish, which will almost certainly be smallmouth. 

“They’re still the big-time difference-makers,” Bertrand said of Saginaw Bay’s smallmouth. “If you can catch a couple of them, they’re 4- or 5-pounders, and to catch a 5-pound largemouth, I mean, that’s a unicorn on this place.” 

More so than most Great Lakes fisheries, Saginaw Bay features expansive grass flats and other shallow habitat, which houses a robust largemouth population. While the three pros all said that they expect largemouth to be caught in plentiful numbers, the average size simply can’t compare to that of the brown fish. 

“The numbers of largemouth are really good, but to get a big fish is something,” Becker said. “So getting a 4- or 5-pound fish is going to separate you big time. And if you can get a couple of those, or a couple of 4-pound smallmouth to even that out, that’s going to go a long way. So getting a couple of those 4- to 5-pound bites is going to be the difference-maker.” 

That said, contending for the win won’t be as simple as finding a school of smallmouth and sitting on it for four days. Due to the size of Saginaw Bay, the fact that its brown bass can be nomadic and finicky and the ever-present threat of weather roiling the big water, anglers will have their work cut out for them to solve the smallmouth puzzle. 

Needles in a haystack

Becker, Bertrand and Roumbanis utilized their Mercury outboards to cover as much water as they possibly could on Sunday. Still, all three came away feeling like they have more exploring to do on the massive fishery. 

Becker, who dedicated his first day of practice entirely to scouting for smallmouth, didn’t find Saginaw Bay to fish similarly to other Great Lakes like Erie or Ontario. There, fish can be found almost anywhere; the trick is locating the right size class. Saginaw Bay features quite a bit more unproductive water. The smallmouth guru believes anglers who find success this week will be those who locate a productive zone during practice but also continue to run new water throughout the tournament. 

“That place is huge,” Becker said. “There’s no way you could cover everything you want in practice. It’s kind of slimming it down to an area.” 

Echoing the fact that this isn’t a fishery with schools of 4-pounders all over the place, Roumbanis believes anglers who do find a fruitful smallmouth area might be tempted to try and save some of their fish for the Knockout and Championship rounds. That’s a risky proposition, though, as they could get caught by other competitors or roam elsewhere in the massive bay. 

Bertrand thinks the key to smallmouth success will be finding a school or spot that an angler has to himself, as what little obvious areas there are will likely be crowded. 

“This is hilarious as big as this place is, but I think it’s going to fish smaller than a lot of people might expect,” he said. “Someone that can find something to themselves and a guy that is able to figure out how to catch at least a few smallmouth every day, I think that would be the biggest deal.” 

Trailering pros and cons

The Bass Pro Tour format, which doesn’t require anglers to return to weigh-in by a certain time, should make life easier on those hunting smallmouth in open water. Another aspect unique to this derby will help even more. MLF has enacted a trailered-launch policy that will allow anglers to launch their boats from any public ramp within the tournament boundaries rather than a centralized takeoff point. They can also put their boats back on the trailer and drive them to a different ramp during a day of competition. 

Not only will those headed to smallmouth waters be spared a long idle through the river and a 40-plus mile run from Bay City in what could be rough conditions, it will make it more feasible to target groups of fish in two different areas of the lake. That mean we should see some mixed bags of largemouth and smallmouth, something Roumbanis could envision himself pursuing. 

“As of what I’ve found so far today, I’m going to definitely be trailering,” he said. “So it could be a key factor. And to get the smallmouth, there’s no way I’m going to launch where I’m launching and get out there.” 

While trailering will make anglers more mobile, it comes with a unique set of challenges. Anglers aren’t allowed to operate their vehicles during a period break, just like they aren’t allowed to move on the water, so there will be some strategy to timing a re-launch. Plus, there’s risk inherent in using a public boat ramp in the middle of the day. 

“We’ve seen all kinds of things happen during these trailering tournaments,” Bertrand said. “Guys get speeding tickets, traffic jam at the ramp. You drive to a ramp and you’re still on the clock, you gotta get on the water, and there’s a local whose got his boat sideways on the ramp. So anything like that can happen.” 

Keep an eye on the weather

The other variable that will impact anyone trying to chase smallmouth is the weather. That’s no surprise when it comes to the Great Lakes. Roumbanis noted that, especially if the wind is out of the northeast, it doesn’t take much to turn Saginaw Bay into a wave pool. 

“It’s going to be a major X-factor,” he said of the weather. “And you can’t really go off of what the weather forecast says. It may say it’s going to be calm, but it doesn’t take but a 5-mile-an-hour (wind) from the north to turn this whole thing up. Especially from the northeast. Northeast is the worst because it blows straight down into here.” 

Bertrand said it’s not just waves anglers have to worry about if the wind gets up. A change in wind direction can stir up the water and alter its visibility to the point that a once-productive area becomes lifeless. 

“You have to be preparing for what’s coming in the days ahead wind-wise,” he said, “because you could have a wind (that blows one direction) for a week, then one that blows one day the wrong way, and that section’s toast for days.” 

Becker enters the final event of the season with more incentive to figure out Saginaw Bay’s smallmouth than most. He’s one of three anglers within 10 points of leader Alton Jones Jr. in the Bally Bet Angler of the Year race.

While he believes smallmouth are the way to win the tournament (and potentially the AOY trophy, too), the prospect of finding them, getting to them and managing them will challenge even a proven smallmouth expert like himself. 

“From what I’ve seen today, I don’t think you could fish for just smallmouth,” Becker said. “But it’s gotta be out there somewhere. We’ve still got another day of practice to find it.”