kings

[Catfishunter]

whent up the shore this weekend to look for some kings and man did i find them. found some nice shelfs that were holding some nice fish. landed six in two days, the big one went 15 on the scale. those things fight so hard on the 8# fenwick. one took me under a log and i had to hand line it in. what a good weekend!!!

[upnorth]

Fun when you get a hook into those dang things eh?

[SKIPPERS KID]

How far up the shore did you go? glad you had a great trip.

[Catfishunter]

between the brule and lester. did a lot of hiking and found i have to spend more time at the d track, no fish there but looks like a fun stelie river. big alasken flies did the trick.

[SKIPPERS KID]

Well that tells allot that is a lot of water between here and there? I was going to try it but with snow on its way I will wait.

[DeathRoe]

Yeah Joel, don't be givin away those secrets!

[Catfishunter]

i would like to keep a couple holes for myself but head up north about an hour or two and start hiking around to find the pools.

[SKIPPERS KID]

Like I said be-for now it is an our or two?? that still leaves a lot of rivers? well I will do it my self and some day you would like some help well I my-self will leave it open for you as well I have fished them all I thought you would save me some time? But I will find them hope you have a great day knowing you could have helped more?? .

[Northlander]

I would tel skippers kid everything. The way he fishes we have nothing to worry about. Either do the fish.

Gotcha Tom!

[SKIPPERS KID]

Well steve those are fighter words the grand slam will be soon I will be not saying a word thanks for your help???

[Northlander]

You need to have someone run the Grand Slam and fish it. Nothing better for me than beating the man himself.

Seriously though if you need any help getting things together on the Grand Slam you know where to find me.

[SKIPPERS KID]

OK steve you know I can't catch fish??? I would love to fish it you know I would be in the top ten? I would hope you can help out on the rods again this year I thank you for your help steve. .

[Northlander]

You know Ill do whatever I can to make the Grand Slam grow to be a premier Walleye Tournament in Region.

I hope a lot of FMers will give it a try next year. Lots of fish and a 2 day tourney. Just follow Crankin21 around and you will catch fish.

[cornfed]

Hey Skippers Kid,

You ever make it out to the rivers last week? Anything?

I was thinking of checking out some rivers up the shore a ways to see if anything was doing...

Thanks for any updates you have.

[Quickstrike]

my guess would be that any salmon still in the river would be in bad shape. I was out a week ago in WI and things were coming to a close. if you do give it a try i would head out to a bigger river such as the baptism or the arrowhead brule and you might have a shot at a steelie or a late arriving coho as well as some rotten kings and pinks. if there is nothing in the rivers, shore fishing for loopers is starting to pick up.

[SKIPPERS KID]

Well it is a dieing bread the salman it is if they do not stalk them we will not see them?? One more year to see them and it will be done .

[Capt.Blaine]

We will just have to spend our fishing money in WI, being they still stock them over there. It’s a sad situation over here in MN.

[SKIPPERS KID]

Ever wonder why we buy a tout stamp? well what do we stalk for fish??? Well what will it take for them to plant fish? Well I do not know well I hope you find some good luck. .

[Northlander]

Ya that trout stamp money must go down south. What do they do with it up here? Loopers? The steelhead program aint doing anything.

I say we take all the trout stamp money and stock Lake Winnipeg/Erie/LOW walleyes in Lake Superior. That way we will get a return anyways.

[SKIPPERS KID]

If there are not some changes soon the big lake will be really slow fishing in the years to come. Don Schreiner must go he has done no good look at where we are and what they have at the french in the tanks????? NOTHING Well this is what we have to look forward to?? No fish If we do not do some thing soon we will have NO fish? I do not want to see this happen

[Northlander]

Just wait til they put a slot and 2 fish limit on your Laketrout!

[SKIPPERS KID]

THEY the DNR Don Schreiner tryed that this year and it DID not pass Thank god what will they come up with next I do not even want to know ,

[DEADhead]

OUCH!

I suppose you guys would complain that your ice cream is too cold as well?

What do you suggest that Don and the Lake Superior Area do to "improve" your fishing? Stock, stock, and more stocking?

A Fisheries manager that tries to manage species through self-sustaining natural reproduction shouldn't be lambasted like that. I don't think anybody is going to argue that Salmon are fun to catch. But in this day and age of ruffe, gobies, zebra mussels, spiny waterfleas, sea lamprey, etc., managing Superior for natural reproduction of native fish is not a bad idea. As much fun as those Pacific Salmon are, having to rely on stocking is not a sustainable practice. The effects of development, urbanization, logging and mining far outpace the work done to restore fish habitat and reproduction.

If you guys could propose a fiscally and environmentally sound management for Lake Superior Fisheries I think we'd all be ears.

[upnorth]

The Kings are fun to catch(caught a ton of them in the 80s) but they are really not a good fish for Lake Superior, not enough prey fish to support them. Look what happened to the smelt runs after they started planting them, they are almost non existant now. Lake Superior is just too cold infertile to support that kind of fish for any length of time.

I tend to think staying with the Natural base and Steelhead, which had worked for close to 100 years would be a better plan, maybe add a few Cohos just for some fall fun.

[Northlander]

I just want to know where our money goes! Not much of a return for what is put in if ya ask me. What is Wi. doing with the stamp money in the Arrowhead Region?

My walleye comment was tongue in cheek.

The Lake Trout population is healthy and now that Lamprey have decreased in numbers they seem like they will hold their own naturally. (Knock on Wood)

The intro of Kings was a good idea at 1st but they eat too much and Lake Superior as said before doesnt have a big forage base like other Great Lakes. The return just doesnt seem to be there. Are they truely good for the lake?

I would like to see some sort of a forage base be introduced. Something that would be able to live in Lake Superior and reproduce naturally. I think something with a higher nutritional level than smelt.

As far as fishing goes Lake Superior is a Lake Trout Lake. Yes, you can at times find a few Kings and maybe a stray Steelhead but its mostly Lakers. Oh and if ya work real hard to can find the walleyes.

The Loopers are great in spring and fall and I think that needs to keep being worked on for shore fisherman.

I would like to see some work done on the Coho. Great eating little fish but not many around. Also I would like to see some work done on seeing what our walleye population does after they leave the St.Louis River in the Spring. Do they run South like we thought? Why so many on the North Shore the past few years? I know, good questions right?

Im no biologist so Im not going there.

By the way I like my ice cream cold enough to be solid but not too cold so that it is rock hard.

[Jim Hudson]

Whew.. Money, the DNR, and Fish... Not a good combo when all them are combined..

For Kings and the alike, down here on the south shore, a local organization was put together (AISA), where stocking of chinooks to the area is being done through their efforts. This organization, in it's little time of being around has accomplished some great things and might be something people should look at up in the ports. With less and less money available for different projects and a lot of emphasis being put on native species, this might be the route of the future. It has worked in many other parts of the country and hopefully the king fishing will get better and better for all the being put in by the AISA.

[upnorth]

A lot of the trout stamp money goes to planting streams and small trout lakes too. I am not defending the DNR, but sometimes we get a little to focused on one thing instead of the overall picture. I am guessing if someone wanted to there must be a expenditure report somewhere.

I would really like to see the DNR focus on things like Lakers and Steelead on Lake Superior, it worked for almost a century and then they screwed around with Chinook trying to compete with Lake Michigan, Huron for the big kick fishing and yes for a while it it worked. There were about 5 or 6 years there when the average size King I landed was about 18#, big fish for Lake Superior, but then the size faded and then the numbers crashed.

[SKIPPERS KID]

Well what can we do or what should they DO??? nothing? that is what we are doing nothing. I hope we all do some thing soon I LIKE TO FISH SO I HOPE THERE ARE FISH TO FIGHT AND EAT SOON????

[fishface]

Back in the mid 80's I caught two walleyes in the St Louis that had tags from the Brule, WI. I still have one of them somewhere.

I know they aren't the most popular thing swimming but what kind of shape is the white fish population in. And... are they doing anything with the lake run Brook trout?

[Surface Tension]

Lets not beat ourselves up over the issue.

I've said it before, stock Chinooks to control the smelt numbers. I think the biggest hurdle is our DNR starting up Chinook stocking after that program is discontinued.

Lets face it, our DNR would like to see the lake return to lake trout and herring. Canada and Wi don't have a problem stocking Chinooks and getting a return.

Last spring we had a fairly good smelt run. Lets see if that was a fluke when we compare it to this Springs run.

Northlander, we'll never stock coho again because its to costly for our DNR.

Jim, thats interesting about WI fish and game letting outside organization stock Chinooks. I wish MN DNR would be open to something like that on our end.