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North Shore Fishing Report


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The North Shore fishing report is now up and running on the Minnesota DNR web page.

It said Kamloops fishing has been good in the Lester, Stewart, and Sucker. Fishing pressure was pretty high at the rivers. Spawn sacs and waxworms where turning fish.

No fishing taking place near Grand Marais area.

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Hi protrapper. The wife and I were up in the Grand Marais area over the weekend. Drove in to Gunflint Lodge as well as up to the Brule. Saw`anglers at the Brule and the Devils Track. Don't know if they were having any luck but they were at it Saturday and Sunday.

dockehr

Dr. Roland E. Kehr, Jr.

Lindy Tackle

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Finally! I caught my first looper today on my custom made 5 weight 8'6" fly rod and custom tied fly. It was 28.5" 7 lbs. Now I feel a little better about this looper fishing.

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way to go shogun! that's a nice looper, i think i need to quit being lazy and get out a few times this week. must of been a pretty good fight on a 5 wt.

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Sounds like a blast on a 5 weight, he must have had his way with you for a while smirk.gif

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I have a couple questions that I could not find anything about under the search. Do loopers spawn until they die of natural causes besides stress from the spawn, or do they die after they spawn once, twice, or a few times? I was also wondering what everyone feels is the best way to prepare a looper. I grilled it on the grill with the skin on, in aluminum foil, with butter and lemon pepper ontop of the fillets. When it was done, it still had a real fishy smell to it and a pretty strong taste. It was still good and I enjoyed it. I was just wondering if there are better ways of cooking these guys? Or maybe they taste different when you catch them during the spawn?

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loopers will attempt to spawn multiple times if they do not get yanked out of the water and survive the run in good health. as for cooking them, i like to take the skin off if i grill or bake them but i leave it on to smoke them. taking the skin off seems to get rid of the fishy smell and a little of the strong taste.

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I wonder how many loopers actually make it back out into the lake. If given the opportunity to, they will return over and over again. That is the appeal with CPR with the wild fish. Fortunately, most people know the difference and those that don't are very quickly informed of the difference once they try to stick one. Let the steelies go...the loopers are for the grill.

When the fish are in the rivers there is a pretty strong flavor that is related to the greyline between the "pink" flesh and the skin and runs down the lateral line. If you are going to bake the fish you should skin it and try to remove it prior to cooking. It is kind of a bummer to remove but is worth it. I usually throw it on the grill. In this case you can flip it over after it is done, peel the skin off, and the grey stuff pulls off very easily. Take a whiff of it and you'll know just what I am talking about. It has a VERY strong smell and the taste is just the same. You'll be amazed how much better it tastes with that section pulled out. Incidentally, it is the same deal for fall run salmon. They'll taste like crap if you don't pull that part out.

Lota Lota...

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  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Creators

Absolutely, get that skin off along with the brown layer of meat before you cook the fish.

Smoked looper is good. Grilled like you did in tinfoil is another easy way to prepare any trout or salmon. I always start out with butter. Then give the fillets a coating of sauce and wrap them up in the tinfoil and let them cook in there own steam. Experiment with different sauces. A Honey mustard sauce is one of my favorite. Fresh dill with a little lemon pepper is also good and of coarse with plenty if butter. You don't want to get the fish hot enough to burn the butter.

Unlike all Pacific salmon, Loopers don't die after spawning and return to the lake.

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Italian Vinaigrette and sundried tomatoes in foil on the grill. Best for Salmon, but great for trout too.

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Nice fish shogun! Even with a little fishy taste, I'm guessing it was a little better than your smelt blush.gif

Sorry, just givin ya a hard time. I guess I'm just bitter cause I'm in the school while everyone else is out fishing frown.gif

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Got out early this morning at the sucker(Didn't feel like getting shot at the French) and managed a couple hours of fishing before the wind blew us off the lake. I missed a "weapon's grade looper", and then my friend and I each caught a little coho trolling. Anybody else make it out?

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So how long until the Lester will be fishable again?

I heard a lot of diesel fuel was dumped.

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got out today and fished one of my favorite new rivers and hooked about 10 fish. landed 5 steelhead and one looper with the biggest steelhead topping 30 inches by far the biggest one i've gotten this year. chatruse and orange yarn was the ticket. porter also hooked about 10 fish but needs to sharpen his hooks or something. grin.gif great day to be out on the water, hey lota, i saw you at the lester on my way up the shore this morning, how'd you do?

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Saw where that truck hit the bridge on the Lester and some fuel leaked into the river..how bad is it? and is it going to screw up things for the weekend?

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How are you doing Mr. V. It's amazing how many people you find out are on this site. Take care, and maybe I will see you at one of the get togethers.

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I am doing well, and you. I seen your nephews a couple weeks ago, fun kids smile.gif

How is your brother? Ain't seen him in a while.

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I am doing great, and my brother is too. Heather is pregnant again(not sure if you knew) so I am very excited about that. You should try and make it down to the Coho Clean-up, if you do, I will see you there.

Take care, Andy.

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I'm going up next weekend and I would like to know any fishing reports from over the weekend. Are there many fish in the rivers??

d

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There are fish in the rivers. Fish are coming in at night. Early morning is the best bet. Good luck.

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There's a lot of fish in the rivers, but there's a ton of people fishing in them as well. You gotta get up pretty early to find a good spot, especially on the weekends. It would help if we got some rain to raise the water levels some, that would make for more fishable water on a lot of rivers.

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I heard the the rivers close to Duluth were a circus this am. Talked to one guy who didn't even stop, just drove by. He said that there were cars parked about 1/2 mile either side of the sucker and the Lester and others were just packed. I don't mind fishing in kind of a crowd but when it is that crowded it can be a real pain.

I fished up further. I got there around 8 am and there was hardly a soul on the river. There weren't too many fish either, but there were a few grin.gif

Man we need some rain to bring the water up crazy.gif

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Thanks for the information guys!!!!!!!!!!

I actually decided to bust up there with a friend this morning early. The weather was fantastic and yes the rivers are getting a little low.

We fished the Knife for 4 hours. The fishing was slow, I only saw 1 fish caught. We did see a pair of fish on a red, about the 10th drift one picked it up, unfortunetely after a good battle he got off. Next time I'll get him.

Good luck.

d

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No! Water is still a bit cool. Besides the Lester isnt really worth smelting anymore in my opinion.

Some guys are getting a few on Wi. Point but nothing resembling any sort of a run yet. Last I heard the lake was about 44 degrees. A nice warm rain and some west wind to get the ice off Park Point would be great!

Im sure wed-Fri when Im out of town they will start. grin.gif

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  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • Brianf.
      I'm not there, so I can't tell exactly what's going on but it looks like a large area of open water developed in the last day with all of the heavy snow on the east side of wake em up Narrows. These two photos are from my Ring Camera facing north towards Niles Point.  You can see what happened with all of snow that fell in the last three days, though the open water could have been wind driven. Hard to say. .  
    • SkunkedAgain
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    • LakeofthewoodsMN
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    • CigarGuy
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    • PSU
      How much snow did you get on Vermilion? 
    • Mike89
      lake here refroze too...  started opening again yesterday with the wet snow and wind...  very little ice left today...
    • Hookmaster
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    • SkunkedAgain
      I don't think that there has been any ice melt in the past few weeks on Vermilion. Things looked like a record and then Mother Nature swept in again.   I'll give my revised guess of April 21st
    • leech~~
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    • jim curlee
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