Two Harbors Breakwall

[Casaloma]

Happy Happys' to the Birthday Boys! I hope Northlander gets on here at 2am rambling in reflection of another year gone by.

I'm going to be fihsing the 2 Harbors Breakwall tommorow from about 6pm to dark, Anyone else going to be there, or been there receintly? What are the hot colors, man?

I plan on having fun with the spoons I "won" at the softball gathering, thanks to all involved there. & soaking some crawlers.

Do Ciscos work well off the wall?

I'll report the conditions tommorw.

Have fun- CLoma

[Northlander]

Well Loma were arent done yet but I snuck away for a bit. Have fun with those spoons. You guys have to make it next year we have too much food left.

[Casaloma]

Northlander, you may be a FM addict if; you sneak away from your own party too " bump into the computer & read posts on F.M."

Today's Conditions = Un-fun-fishable this 5:45 at the Breakwall. We headed home.... So, I got some canoe fishing in at the Island Lk. Dam.

<<@>>>{{ Actual Size

Hope to be fishing on the BreakWall, as the Temps. break, this week.. In evenings.

[Surface Tension]

I'd skip the Ciscos, not that a Laker wouldn't gobble up a dead bait. I think Salmon would rather kill bait fish then scavenge it. Picking off bugs close to the surface is something that comes natural so use worms, waxies, shrimp or meal worms for a second rod.

[Steve Foss]

I always used a slip bobber and a crawler set about 8 feet deep for my second line. Half my fish (not counting lakers) came on that. Salmon, loopers and steelies all snarfed it down.

[CrappieJohn]

Steve is right on the money....in fact we have done quite well using the live crawler ands retrieving right past it. The salmon would drop the chase on a lure to hit the crawler. Bait has to be fairly high, but not less than the eight feet.

As for time....I catch fish at all times out there. The biggest controling factor is the color of the lure as compared to the amount of direct sun on the water.

Another thing. When you cast, you need to get the lure to the bottom. When you retrieve you will be covering the whle water column. Many of these fish will follow from deep to the surface and finally hit. Many times I have been peering down in the water while finishing a retreive only to see a white mouth come from below and inhale the offering.

The key thing to remember here is that you are not shore fishing while you are out there. You are beginning your fishing in water that is already deep and that concept really can put people in a spin.

There are days when that breakwater is far more productive than what is being done in boats and at this time of year the scenery is really easy to appreciate. Just ask STFCatfish.

[Steve Foss]

No need to leave Ely these days to get in a car accident while craning one's neck, but Tom's right about the scenery on the wall.

Also, when you're letting the lure sink to bottom, do it on a slack line and feed line to the lure. That way it drops straight down, so you start your retrieve off the bottom in deeper water farther from the wall, but if you drop on a tight line it'll swing toward you as it sinks, and when it hits the bottom it'll get hung up in the rocks. Talk about Krocodile tears!

Slack line sink, once you're all the way on the bottom, keeps from snagging. Then I tighten a bit and give it a big jerk to get it off the bottom, which can trigger a laker sitting there watching now and then, but always gets you out of the bottom rocks quick. The only rocks that I know of are the ones that they used to build up the bottom high enough to build the wall, but they slope downward and outward, and it takes a good long cast to get the lure out past where they end on the bottom.

I always had my best luck with distance casting using limp 6 or 8 lb mono like Trilene XL and the long 9 to 10 foot looper rods with oversize spinning reels spools, just like when fishing loopers from shore. That rig gets a Kroc WAY out there as long as you strip off that wiry Maxima used for loopers and put on some limp stuff.

Good luck.

[Skunked-Rookie]

Do you guys use a plain hook and worm with your slip bobber?

Do you use a sinker to get the worm down? Some times using a bare hook it seems to get stuck in the bottom of the slip sinker and sit there instead of sinking.

How far out do you cast your bobber? I ask because a few times I have had to run over and reel my line in because boats get so close to the wall sometimes.

Where do you cast your bobber and let it sit?

It seems like the wind always pushes the bobber into the wall unless you are at the very end of it.

[CrappieJohn]

When you bobber fish the wall you are at the mercy of the wind and undertows. If they do not allow for a favorable drift you seem to end up right back along the wall. But don't discount fishing that close up to the structure either though. On several occasions I have taken walleyes and lake trout after spotting them swimming along the base of the wall and simply vertical jigged them into hitting with hardware and I have seen many come to crawlers very close as well.

The crawlers are fished on slip floats and plain hooks at about 8-10 feet and are taken down with splitshot. The set-up is not fancy or complicated.

[Steve Foss]

I generally tie on a small barrel swivel on the end of the main line and add about 3 feet of 6 lb fluorocarbon leader. Split shot go above the swivel, so the worm is three feet below that. Small hook, like a No. 8. You'll end up pulling it in and casting it back out quite a bit because of that current around the wall Tom mentioned. I can generally get three or four casts with the spoon before I have to toss the bobber back out.

[ironman]

Anyone ever fish the wall at night..can you even access it after dark and are there lights? I was thinking about kings at night..yes or no?

[CrappieJohn]

Aside from the sound house at the end there are no lights. I have fished this place at basically all hours, including the black of night. My best fishing , even for salmon, has been during the hours with at least some light. The mid-day can be absolutely furious out there.

At this time of year, I have found that salmon will be easiest to find there during a prolonged stretch of southeast wind. When you are blessed with this wind, you will do the best fishing right into it off the end of the wall and all along the wall on the harbor side to the dogleg. My best salmon day ever was one with waves coming half way up the slope on the end, breaking on the outside corner. I stood on the slope just above the water line and cast a spinner into the wind and as soon as that thing hit the water salmon would nail it. It was something else....I generally like to do a twenty count and then retrieve, but these fish would hammer it and be swimming away at twenty. The fight would be on as soon as the bail was closed.

As for Catfish's use of the swivel....I forgot to mention that. You almost need to have something in there because the currents can spin a bait under a float until it looks like a hank of yarn.

[Steve Foss]

Dude, you're makin' me wish I was down there casting right now.

Haven't wet a line since May opener, if you can believe that. It's getting to the point now that I just look at my fishing tackle in the corner and shrug.

[dockehr]

Crappie Tom and stfcatfish,

If you two keep posting all this great "how-to" on the breakwall, even I will have to get up there some time. Seriously, even for someone who does not fish that area your posts are informative and entertaining. Keep it up.

dockehr

Dr. Roland E. Kehr, Jr.

Lindy Tackle Company

[CrappieJohn]

Learning the tricks of the wall is an intense study unto itself. Steve and I met on that wall quite a few years ago. Over time we fished it religiously together and started to piece together some ideas and observations that still serve us well today. In reality, a person simply has to put the time in to get anything out of the wall's hidden treasures. The only two things I can think of that are consistant about that wall is the need for a lonnnnnnng stringer and a net with a handle about twenty-one feet long.....no not for fish. You lean it against the wall behind you to keep the tourists from getting in the zone of your back cast.

Entertaining? That wall is entertaining....at times

Now I know you make it up there on occasion Doc, so you really should schedule some time for casting out there.

[Northlander]

All you need is a dark or tinted pair of sunglasses (For glare off the water of course ) and some headphones. Even if they have no music to them.

Tom and Steve I bet ya heard. " Catchin anything" or "What do ya catch here" about a zillion times.

The wall is for sure a "Study". I have spent many hours up there and never had the luck Steve and Tom have. I think my glasses worked to well.

[Steve Foss]

Yeah, tourists. One day with four footers sucking along the top of the wall and spilling along the suface of it, I actually had a couple of them try to push between me and the raised center of the wall. There's about a four-foot width there, and I was about to cast and they just barged right in there, elbowing me toward the water.

And, of course, being the somewhat husky fellow I am, there's not much room for even me. We darn near had a "gale of August" instead of November, and there almost were a couple of dudes from Chicago sinking into the 45-degree depths with no time left in their lives to ponder why the White Sox always have a better record than the Cubbies.

Northlander: No problem dude. I'm sure either Tom or I will be glad to teach you how to fish (you had to know that was coming, after your last straight line).

[CrappieJohn]

lol....Be nice now Catfish

[Steve Foss]

Shoot, I thought I was being nice!

Northlander and I go WAY back. And I never passed on the no-fail walleye hot tip he gave me for that sure-fire early ice spot within 20 minutes of Duluth/Superior.

Dude, Mrs. Catfish loved those 17-inchers, fresh offf the tip-ups. And when I say it's off the record, there's no Supreme Court in the land that can force me to give up my source, when it comes to fish. If it's off the record, it stays off the record for the rest of my life.

Well, even though your adventure from the B-side bash will live on forever.

Dude, what can Brown do for you?

[Northlander]

Ya I dont know who had it worse me, BD110 or Quickstrike. Brown was sure working Overtime that day.

I hit that Lake X last year a few times and only caught a couple. I think the water may have got high enough they split out that "creek". Plus more people know about it now after seeing the crazy guys out there. Still a zillion Perch though. I have since found a sweet little northern spot, Lake Y. Its non stop tip up action at times.

Steve and Tom you guys need to come down and maybe we can get on board End Of The Line for a day.

[CrappieJohn]

Ma and I are going to drive up on the eveing of the 6th/August for a couple days. She lured me into this one with "it'll be a nice little get away" and once I said sure she nailed me with her dreaded IBT (I've been thinking) line. Seems she just wants me to mow the yard at the cabin. Maybe it'll be raining. I can fish in that, but can't mow in it. You wanna do a little rain dance for me Nthlndr?

[Hwood]

I went out, in a boat, from there last week, got skunked, and the waves were a rather large and starting to come on the wall. My first thought was after seeing that was I bet they do not let people fish from there. Well guess again, I guess. You guys talk about letting it sink to the bottom. I thought I got a look at the graph when comming in and isn't it really deep right at the wall, 75-80'? If you guys don't mind a guy in your spot I would like to giver a try sometime. In six years this trout stamp has yet to pay for it's self. Granted I have only been out about six times.

[CrappieJohn]

Go to it, bud. If you live in Duluth and pass up the fishing there at the wall when boating doesn't fly, you are missing some great stuff. Especially if the waves are coming into the end of the wall....wind will bea bout at SE.

[dockehr]

CT,

I would like to take you up on that breakwall "invite". Just so many irons in the fire now and into next year. Perhaps sometime I'll post the "whys". I'll add it to my "must do" list. Thanks and keep the info flowing.

dockehr

Dr. Roland E. Kehr, Jr.

Lindy Tackle

[Northlander]

Tom Ill be leaving for Canada the 7th but may be able to meet ya at the wall for a few hours on the 6th. e-mail me when you will be up and a time to meet at the wall.

[CrappieJohn]

Nrtlndr....I'll e-mail you tomorrow.