Fishing near Duluth

[EricD]

My son lives in Duluth and I'm going up to do some fishing with him this weekend. I'm not familiar with the area but I was thinking about Fish Lake or Island Lake. I have a Lund Explorer 17.5 so I suppose the big lake is an option too if the weather is nice but I don't know anything about it. It will be by only fishing trip with him this summer so I'm hoping it will be a good one. Any thoughts?

[Heartman]

Fish is easier to fish than Island is. Public landing by the dam is good - weed edges in 8' - 12' with a lindy rig and corkie & leech or crawler should get them. The island edges out front or the shorelines down to the right, back in a ways hold fish all the time - just need to find the active ones. Good sunfish as well - you'll get them trolling for walleyes sometimes.

And don't forget St Louis River walleyes - 2 oz bottom bouncers 5-6' spinners in chartruese, bright res, or copper and crawlers trolled at 1.5mph where the other boats will do it as well. Can only keep two fish on the river - must be at least 15" to keep. Put in under the Blatnik Bridge or out at the end of Park Point.

[EricD]

Thanks for the information! That's the dam by the Beaver River on my map?

[Heartman]

It's the dam on the far west end of the lake - I always thought that was the Cloquet River outflow...maybe it's called the Beaver River on the map. Anyone in the know care to clarify here?

[backcast]

The Beaver River does feed into the Cloquet River.

The Cloquet River comes into the East side of Island Lake "Reservoir" and out the West side through the d.a.m. The d.a.m. forms Island Lake "Reservoir" and is also used to regulate its water level.

From there, the Cloquet River flows in a Westerly direction passing to the North of Fish Lake "Reservoir" where the Beaver River enters it.

From there, the Cloquet River eventually flows into the St. Louis River. It enters the St. Louis river North of the Hiway 2 bridge (just out of sight from the bridge).

[matthothand]

Go to fish lake. Its name actually fits it. That will definately be your best bet to fish any variety of species in a day. Have fun with your son!

[Fishing Junky]

I'd suggest the river also. Should be picking up, if it hasn't already. Good luck where ever you go. Junky......

[EricD]

Thanks everyone! Fish lake it is. We only have two days and sometimes it takes a day to just find your way around. I'm coming from the far west of Minnesota so this will be new to me.

[nofishfisherman]

Fish lake is a fun lake.

In one day fishing we had an 11 inch Gill, 13 inch perch and a 25 inch walleye in the boat. And narrowly missed a large pike that swiped at the jig as I was reeling in.

All the fish came from the same spot. Never pulled anchor for the entire 8 hour day, never needed to since every species of fish came right to us.

[Minnesota Fisher]

EricD, how'd it go?