St. Louis River Fishing Reports

[Jarrid Houston]

Hit her again today during the dog hours of the afternoon 12-3:30. Fished the harbor and nemadji. Not even a bite. It's funny how some days there on and some they just shut off, but again it was mid afternoon and sunny and hot. Steves right, we need this water to settle and things should get better all around.

[musky hunter]

Launched last night and fished between the bridges after a fruitless 40 minutes dragging a minnow and a crawler on Arrowhead Flats. The water temp was way up since Saturday, I found a lot of 60 deg. water. It wasn't until sunset that I finally got a hit. I found wind driven 65 deg. water piling up over 12' of water and marked fish from the bottom to about 6'. Coulnd't get em to go on bottom bouncers, so I switched to a jig and a minnow and vertically covered the water column. I picked up a perch, a 21" eye, and a very nice pike and then it got dark. I could see the water temp slip as the sun got lower and lower. I can attest for the slow start this weekend. Maybe there was a day with more boats on the river, but I can't remember when.

[Northlander]

Ya low water on Island and Boulder plus good weather brought everyone and their brothers out Sat. Sunday wasnt as bad.

Loonsfoot Landing was a ZOO with all the Coho being caught lately.

[matthothand]

Well atleast the weather was nice. Fishing was so great that we gave up around 2ish and went crappie fishing. It wound up being a mixed bag sorta day with 2 cats, 2 sturgeon, 3 perch, roughly a dozen rock bass, the crappies, and 17 walleyes. We got the walleyes from the 23 bridge on down to spirit. We got a few fish early on redtails, big rainbows, and fatheads on a jig. After that quit working we got the rest on various crawler rigs/jigs. The fish we found weren't too stacked up in any one spot. It was one here two there. Didn't hear anything real positive downstream so we just threw our hands up and switched species. Sunday was spent bass fishing in Wisconsin.

[SKIPPERS KID]

Hey Matt,

Glad you got to mix it up a little on the fish. I should have called and we could have hooked up. well i hope all is well with you,

I must say the fishing has never been this great for years. Both size and numbers wow i can not wait to get back out soon. maybe a short trip tonight again. well Matt call me if you are around we will hit the river if you can.

[st.louis.eyes]

No fish last night. Fished from 5 to 9 at 61 and then up at boyscout. Had a few bites but most of them were rock bass or perch i think. only saw one small one caught, looked smaller than 15. Thinking about trying the bay today, does anyone have any ideas about that? I don't want to trailer all the way into town for nothing. my trailer is a P.O.S. but its all i have for now. Fished on sunday from 3 to 8 also same places and caught nothing, didn't see more than two caught on sunday night.

[Northlander]

The bay has been just as bad if not worse. I wouldnt waist your time down there yet.

[blt]

My new humminbird should be here today, I can't remember which lake card is the best for the st. louis river, for some reason i think it was the lakemaster. Can anyone refresh my memory?

[hawgeye]

lakemaster has the river and bay in hi def.

[jwmiller33]

lakemaster has the river and bay in hi def.

what is meant by "high def" for the chips? i have heard of this before, but havent noticed a difference in any of the lakes or rivers i fish that are on the chip; as they are all in 1 foot contours.. i dont know how it could get anymore high def then that?

[hawgeye]

hi def means one foot contours. the new lakemaster chip has island, fish, and the river in 1 foot contours.

[jwmiller33]

i guess ive never been on a lake that didnt have the 1 ft contours on my lakemaster.. which is strange, cuz ive been to a ton of lakes around teh state... i guess i will call that lucky

[Jarrid Houston]

Fished the harbor and nemadji w good company. Sherpa caught a wlleye (14 7/8) and a rock bass. AJ caught a perch. Real slow and cold/windy.

[musky hunter]

I was wondering how the Nemadji was since I could only pick up one fish above 23 the other night, and apparently there aren't all that many fish stacked up in there either. I've been able to catch something everytime I have gone out, but it's been work to do so and I still haven't brought home a fillet, either the fish were over 20", which I return for seed stock, or I had only one, and I hate cleaning just one fish. The seagulls had a mini feeding frenzy going on up close to the dam. They were scooping up some kind of minnow. I pitched right into the middle of it and worked it until the birds left. Nothing, not even a rock bass. Didn't seem like they had much competition for the food source.

[Sherpa]

We didn't have any luck on the Nemadji the other day when we tried it. The fish seem to be everywhere though. I caught a couple up by the dam and one by the airport on Thursday. I sure covered some water that day. They were all pretty small. Went out and today my friend caught a 23" walleye that was pretty fat, much bigger than the 22.5" fish I got earlier this week. I didn't get any wallys myself today but I did bring in a catfish.

[Northlander]

It surely has been a lot like work lately on the old St. Louis.

1st day of the Grand Slam Tourney today showed just how hard it is now. A few 1 and 2 fish bags brought in but 1st place right now is 17 plus pounds for 4 fish so there are some nice fish out there. 12 plus is second and third and then theres us at 11.11#. Pay out is top 3 so we need to do just a bit better tomorrow and hope some others ahead of us fall off a tad.

My advise is cover ground and try some areas that you normally wouldnt. Oh and be patient wich isnt always my strong point.

Also stay away from all those killer rockbass. Man them things love crank baits.

[tacklejunkie]

I had high anticipation for the St. Louis River this year and I'd have to say that this opener is worse than last year.

Were are the walleyes?

Oh well. I'll be heading up to LOTW this week and several other days throughout the summer. Hopefully, my luck will be better up there

[Jack Stasney]

I had high anticipation for the St. Louis River this year and I'd have to say that this opener is worse than last year.

Were are the walleyes?

Oh well. I'll be heading up to LOTW this week and several other days throughout the summer. Hopefully, my luck will be better up there

Early spawn and late opener, thats what happened.

[tacklejunkie]

Early spawn and late opener, thats what happened.

So are they in a July type pattern??

[musky hunter]

This weekend brought lots of yardwork for me, but I did sneak away Sunday afternoon for a short outing which only brought rock bass and catfish. But I did have a large, in the 26"-28" class eye breach the surface just 15' off my boat. My jig tipped with a Gulp minnow was in perfect position (yes, Gulp, didn't have time to run to the bait shop) and nothing. When that failed I grabbed the other rod which had a crank bait and that failed to interest the big girl as well. My conclusions: there are a few nice fish around, but it's going to take a lot of work to score, they seem to be a little sparse compared to other years. I was working the vicinity of the railroad bridge.

[Northlander]

Well now that the two tourneys are done I can tel everyone that most fish came on shallow flats and you had to play with speed. Weeds were also key for us. It seemd if we werent always cleaning weeds off our spinners than we werent getting bit.

From what I hear everyone that placed well in both tourneys ran spinners and crawlers slow Saturday and faster on Sunday. We caught a walleye on Sunday in the weeds at 2.5 mph just motoring to another spot quickly with the bowmount. Like my partner Grant says "might be something to that".

Early mornings were best both days. We really had to work all weekend. 1 here 1 there with long times of just cleaning weeds.

So put in your time and you will get fish. Im guessing a lot of fish are in the lake but the Barkers/Airport area flats have been dead for me all season.

[Jack Stasney]

The DNR guys I talked to over the weekend said the walleye spawned about 3 weeks early. That would put it in mid April. Apply that 3 weeks from today's date and it seems to me that is right about where we are at, being mid to late June. I agree with Northlander that there are still fish around, but you have to work a little to find them, and try different tactics.

[biff]

The river sure aint what it used to be...at least as far as the big numbers of walleyes go.

[Northlander]

Biff the river is fine. Still plenty of fish around but fishing in the usual packs and community holes aint going to cut it.

Jack hit the nail on the head. Really early spawn and late opener made for tuffer fishing. They had a normal year as far as test samples up above the 23 bridge from what I was told.

Im sure lots of fish are out in the lake but the buoy 61 on down to the High Bridge is holding some better fish still. Catching them may take some experimenting though. We found out that speed was key. Too bad we found it out too late on Sunday.

[brad coin]

does anybody have another recent watertemp?

also are the mosquito's bad at dusk???

thanks

[SKIPPERS KID]

Just to add to what most have said. From opener this year it would be the same as most years it would be June 8Th to the 14Th. With the early spawn and warm temps. The shiners where spawning in the weeds on opener till now this is why most fisherman have had a hard time finding fish. I found them on Sunday on opening weekend and could not be leave the fish in a foot of water and all the shiners that where there wow. But the pattern will go back to norm this week with the shiner getting done in the next few days. The river has a great population of good walleye and with that much food in one spot the fish where not in the mood to chase some thing when the main course in right in front of them. This week the fish will be going great again on cranks and worms in 4 to 8 feet of water. This will hold true for inland lakes as well till crayfish start molting and they will be in shallow eating them just like the shiners. Just remember to try shallow and work out to deeper water and change colors often on your spinners and and the length of your spinner leaders this will make a different too. Try different size blades, Well keep at it and have fun and enjoy the great fishing the river has to offer.

[biff]

Ya, the river is still a good fishery but no way you can tell me its like it was back in the day. 20-30 walleye a day per person was a very average catch all the way through july back then now your lucky if you do much better than that opening week. Lake superior is a complex system and im sure the numbers will just fluctuate and hopefully well get a few years of unreal fishing again sometime in the future.

[MidCoast]

Walleye bite yesterday seemed okay. I caught 2 walleyes on a jig and minnow and then i left. It only took about 30 minutes.

[brad coin]

recent water temps????

[Northlander]

Hit the big lake and river last night. The lake was slow for me with the flat water. Wouldnt ya know once I get in the river the winds picked up. Well the eyes seemed to like that because I had no problems catching fish. Shallow flats with spinners and crawlers. Gold was hot. The last hour was real good with a 27" and 29"er coming aboard and of course quickly released for someone else to enjoy.