The protected end of the bay and the one most people learn on. Eight to seventeen feet of water from Bay City up past Linwood to Pinconning, with the shipping channel running through it and the river mouth at the bottom. This is the zone a smaller boat can actually fish.
Bay City, Linwood, Pinconning. Typical depths 8 to 17 feet. Launches at Bay City State Park, Linwood, Pinconning. Named water: the shipping channel edge, the river mouth, the Smith Park shoreline, and the Bay City State Park flats. In the lee when the wind is out of the west and southwest.
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The inner bay is shallow enough that it warms first in spring and stirs first in wind. The shipping channel edge is the one piece of real structure, and it holds fish because there is very little else for them to relate to. The river mouth adds current, warmer water in spring, and the rip rap around the Dredge Island.
Because it sits at the southwest end, this zone is in the lee when the wind is out of the west or southwest, which is the common case. That is why it is the default choice. It is also the zone that takes the worst of a north or northeast blow, because all the water the wind pushes down the bay has nowhere to go but the shallow corner these towns sit on.
Eight to seventeen feet of water and the shortest run from the ramp. If you are unsure about the day, this is the zone to be in.
In a bay this featureless the shipping channel edge does most of the work. Troll it rather than the open flats.
Early season fish show up here before anywhere else, and a modest wind stains it before it stains the rest of the bay.
Conditions in one zone only make sense next to the others, because the wind that calms one end of this bay roughs up the other.
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The lee zone is comfortable, the windward zone is where the water and bait stack. Picking between them is the actual decision.