Door County water temps

[1994RANGER482]

Anyone have some recent water temps for the Gills Rock/Washington Island area? Coming up next week hopefully they are chewing getting thier winter fat on...

Thanks!

[572 Fitter]

Following.....trying to make a second attempt to the island.

[thao25]

Might be up that way next weekend also! Do you take the ferry to the island or just take the boat ride?

[willwork4fish]

Sturgeon Bay area was anywhere from the low 50's in the canal by the Coast Gaurd station to 62 or so in Green Bay. Bouy 45002 is usually pretty accurate for the island at it says 60.

Putting your boat on the ferry is about $110 round trip, you can make the ride from peninsula under good conditions but those don't happen in October.

[smallykiller]

If you have a bass boat, good luck fishing the island in anything but ideal conditions. Winds better be under 13mph and from a protected direction, which seems rare for Oct. and Nov. I think forecast this week has 9-10' waves at times. The best chance you have is to ferry across and fish the harbor, but the fish are not always stacked up there. It may just be an expensive ride. My best days are when there are 2-5' rollers crashing the shoreline. If the waves are capping, they are building and you better watch the wind direction and speed. If your not familiar with crossing deaths door, I would use extreme caution in fall. Winds there come from both directions along with strong currents. Not trying to scare you but please play it safe, especially in a low profile bass boat.

[willwork4fish]

I've fished the island probably 10 of the last 15 years in October from a bassboat. Each trip we usually fish at least 4 days and have only been kept off the water two days because of the wind. You have the option of launching in Detroit Harbor to the south or Jackson to the north. The only direction that will keep you off either is a big West or NW wind. I've fished the north side when there's 25-30 from the SW and have done great. Also have had days when we can only fish Detroit harbor and have done well.

I personally would never go there from the Gills Rock/Northport area in the fall. smallykiller is right in that it can get dicey quick if the wind changes quick. Download the Windfinder app, it's pretty good especially for up there. If you're not planning on spending a night or two on the island then it's probably not worth the ferry ride. You can typically find a place to stay on the island with little notice if it's not Columbus day weekend. The Townliner is a nice place in town walking distance to the 3 bars and the grocery store. I've got a buddy who I used to work with that retired on the island and we'll call him to see how things have been and then pick a weekend that the weather looks fishable. You can catch them into November...the numbers drop but the size typically goes up.

The west side of the island is by far my favorite place to fish and typically where the big ones will stack up, our group has had multiple 6's and one that was just shy of 8 (right off the potato dock)...5 lbers can be pretty common. A lot of people drag suckers which work but there have been days where we have done better than those guys dragging tubes, dropshot and bladebaits.

It's probably my favorite place to fish in the world.

[smallykiller]

I've fished the island probably 10 of the last 15 years in October from a bassboat. Each trip we usually fish at least 4 days and have only been kept off the water two days because of the wind. You have the option of launching in Detroit Harbor to the south or Jackson to the north. The only direction that will keep you off either is a big West or NW wind. I've fished the north side when there's 25-30 from the SW and have done great. Also have had days when we can only fish Detroit harbor and have done well.

I personally would never go there from the Gills Rock/Northport area in the fall. smallykiller is right in that it can get dicey quick if the wind changes quick. Download the Windfinder app, it's pretty good especially for up there. If you're not planning on spending a night or two on the island then it's probably not worth the ferry ride. You can typically find a place to stay on the island with little notice if it's not Columbus day weekend. The Townliner is a nice place in town walking distance to the 3 bars and the grocery store. I've got a buddy who I used to work with that retired on the island and we'll call him to see how things have been and then pick a weekend that the weather looks fishable. You can catch them into November...the numbers drop but the size typically goes up.

The west side of the island is by far my favorite place to fish and typically where the big ones will stack up, our group has had multiple 6's and one that was just shy of 8 (right off the potato dock)...5 lbers can be pretty common. A lot of people drag suckers which work but there have been days where we have done better than those guys dragging tubes, dropshot and bladebaits.

It's probably my favorite place to fish in the world.

Yes, SW wind is fishable and my favorite wind up there. NW is the worst. I agree the biggest fish are on the west side mainland and island. Last year my biggest was around 7lb with multiple 5lb. It's also my favorite place in the world to fish. I'll retire there someday and buy a 30' center console with twins for the windy days.

[thao25]

Any recent reports up in door county? Plan on coming up this weekend before putting the boat into storage. Was thinking of heading to gills rock with the high SW winds tomorrow.

[572 Fitter]

There chomping