Welcome to our Traverse City, MI Home Page

Traverse City is located at the bottom of Grand Traverse Bay.  The bay is part of Lake Michigan and it is 32 miles long, 10 miles wide and up to 620 feet deep in some spots.  It is divided into two arms by the Old Mission Peninsula.  Traverse City is the main town on the bay and this is a very popular tourist area.  Plan on finding many restaurants, shops, accommodations and and some awesome scenery around the water.

This area offers some outstanding fishing for lake trout, salmon and smallmouth bass.  Most anglers come here for the smallmouth bass fishing because it is truly amazing.  You will find tons of bass in the 2 to 3 pound range and bass in the 4 to 5 pound range are possible with bigger fish here caught too.  There are also some inland lakes close by which gives you some options when the bay is too rough on windy days.

Primary Species of Fish

Smallmouth Bass, Salmon, Trout, Perch

The primary species of fish in this area are smallmouth bass, salmon, trout and perch.  The season will dictate the better bite, however, you can pick a bad time to come here from late spring through mid fall.  It is known as a smallmouth fish factory, but the other fish give anglers some other options while on the water.  Chinook salmon, coho salmon and steelhead can all be caught from some of the Lake Michigan ports nearby depending on the season.

Secondary Species of Fish

Northern Pike, Muskie, Largemouth Bass, Crappie & Bluegill

Northern pike are common in most of the bodies of water up here, however, don’t expect to find good numbers of big fish up here.  There are some places where you can definitely go after some trophy pike, but you may not catch too many of them while some of the lakes that put out bigger numbers will not have too many trophy fish mixed in.  If you want to target pike though, you definitely can and some big fish roam these area waters.  Muskie are here, but in low numbers.  Some trophy fish are here though.  Largemouth bass are in many of the lakes in the area, but plan on fishing the shallower, weedy lakes if you want to consistently put largemouth bass in the boat.  Bluegill and crappie round out the fishery here.