Lake Superior Fishing Reports

[Tom Linderholm]

Made a run this morning after we found our easter baskets, came out of the Superior side into the sunrise and fished until 9am. Running north-south in and out of the mud fingers we managed to get into some browns and coho. Good baits to be had, if you can find them around are the old spring stand-bys of 57 chevy and anyting in a hot tiger pattern. All hits on boards running 2.8-3.5. with nothing on shallow riggers or dipseys.

[lovethegitch]

Went to corny for fri and sat fished 7 hrs each day got 20 ho,s and a 4 lb brown, WATER TEMP WAS 43.6

[Jim Almquist]

We went 9 for 13 on Cohos. Battled the wind all day and it stunk. Would have done better with a little less breeze. The plugs that worked have not changed much. 57 and reverse, Smelt pattern, Hot Tiger. Water temp was right around 41 degrees. Fish were in and around the muddy water. Speed was anyone's guess with the way the wind was kicking up. All on the Wisconsin side of the entry.

[2thepointsetters]

Started past the Superior entry today and spent the first six hours today looking for a way out the dark mud water. Had a couple hits/release in the mud but didn't get anything hooked up. The satelite image of the lake was not updated so I had no idea how far down the south shore to head before the water would clear up.Now that satelite is updated I see that I was less than a mile from clear water. Anyway after six hours we pulled lines and headed west until we found clear water. Once in the clear water we picked up 7 coho in a couple hours. All fish came off board lines on the edge of the mud. All the normal lures worked at speeds from 2.0 to 3.3 in every direction. Not a bad start to the season.

[ThndrDkl]

i went out of the superior entry three times so far this year. first trip out we worked in and out of the mudline and picked up three coho and a laker. the second and third time we went out, we got skunked. any suggestions? we had a few sideplaners out and a few long lines off the back. tried spoons and stick baits. i haven't worked the big lake much so some tips would be helpful. thanks.

[dfeste]

I personally would ditch the long lines out the back. We put everything out to the side. I always like to run one dipsey with a flasher or dodger on it with 50' or less line out this time of year. We put either a spoon or a fly behind it. The rest of the lines are out on boards. We have been running brightly colored shallow running stick baits. Brads, Bombers, Xraps etc.

The reason I said get rid of the flat line is that IMO it is more of a pita than anything. Not too bad if you've got 3 people, but otherwise, not worth it. I'd much rather have a rigger 5 to 15 feet down that if needed can just be dropped a little further to get it out of the way for netting fish or even pulling lines in for switching.

[2thepointsetters]

i went out of the superior entry three times so far this year. first trip out we worked in and out of the mudline and picked up three coho and a laker. the second and third time we went out, we got skunked. any suggestions? we had a few sideplaners out and a few long lines off the back. tried spoons and stick baits. i haven't worked the big lake much so some tips would be helpful. thanks.

[ThndrDkl]

Sounds great thanks. We fished the mud line because the surface temp jumped by a degree or two and the lowrance totally lit up like I had never seen in the mud. It was really difficult to believe, but the echoes definitely looked like fish... Maybe smelt or other bait fish but I figured that the big fish would at least be near them, but like I said, what I thought would have happened didn't. ie we didn't see much fish in the boat action. Thanks again.

[AnglinAficionado]

I went out the Superior entrance this morning and caught few fish in 5 hours of trolling. Marked a ton of fish in mud around 40 fow and decided to drop lines. Most marked above 20 ft line. Caught one small 16" Coho on an xrap (pearl). Went outside the edge of the line and got another Coho on a ripstick wonderbread in 52 fow. marked most fish on the bottom, but nothing hit on the down riggers. No hits on planerboard lines either (a little rough out for the boards today). I have stayed out of the mud the past 2 times out and caught a couple of lakers (11 and 14 lbs), oddly on the same two lures as today. On the way back in, got a 6 lb eel pout on the wonderbread just before the entrance. First time catching one of those, but I am pretty new to the big lake. Hoping to get better at this trout and salmon hunting experiment. Any suggestions?

[live4chrome]

Eelpout? Thats awesome. Never heard of someone getting one trolling. It would be fun to go out there some night and jig for them.

[live4chrome]

Eelpout? Thats awesome. Never heard of someone getting one trolling. It would be fun to go out there some night and jig for them. How far off bottom was the fis

[AnglinAficionado]

The lure was running 30 ft off the bottom. As I said, most fish near the entrance (mud) were in the top half of the water column. I have only seen eelpout caught while jigging. We were in 40 fow and had the line 150ft back, 2.5 to 2.7 mph. Thought we had a laker on until we watched it roll on the surface most of the way in. We had no idea until we were about to net it. Still, a great day on the water!

[live4chrome]

Anyone getting any fish putting in out of knife river or mcquade landing areas?

[Northlander]

Not with the weather we have been having.

[Mozer]

I assume NL you are talking about the wind, however there have been some opportunities to fish within this last week to ten days...haven't been out on the MN side but a couple kings and coho still active on the WI side out a little deeper than previously now that the smelties are moving out. No steelies yet tho Live4 on the WI side,got a couple nice ones last year....all released

[photo]

Got bounced around pretty good yesterday (windy). We fished the mudline in and out and made it as far as the Lester before turning back.

Big fat goose egg. Could have been worse I guess...at least the motor didn't fall off again.

[lovethegitch]

Got out in the big waves yesturday took a beating I don't know how but we managed to get 3 ho,s and a laker with 22 smelt in its stomach we were in a hughescraft which handled the waves but very uncomfortable can't wait till it lays down water temp is looking good

[lovethegitch]

Got out from 4 to 7:30 PM last night. got a 29 inch king and 2 lakers. also had a big fish pull my inline under could hardly move the fish he finnaly let go bent hooks good night the storms scared me off at around 7:30

[live4chrome]

Are people picking up fish on riggers yet? Went out from mcquade yesterday. Warmest water we found was 42. No fish, tried shallow and deep. How deep are people getting fish from infron of the entry ways?

[lovethegitch]

They have been Getting most on top but some action down. I have been getting a few on lead core havent tried riggers yet but shallow rigger set ups will work this time of the year

[Mozer]

25 to 55 fow on WI side surface baits and shallow running dipseies...10-20 ft down...don't use riggers here

[lovethegitch]

got out last night from sup entry got 2 big lakers and 1 coho. lost a screamer fought him for a while could not stop him nice night to be out

[Xplorer]

Spent 3 hours out of the WI entry on saturday from 10-1, Junior put 2 coho's in the box, and lost another. Also had a nice sized laker spit the hook about 5' from the net, bummer. There was a nice transition that went from brown, to tea colored, to clear just a short ways out from the entry which we just worked in and out of. Gorgeous out on the lake!! Who needs walleye's when you can have fresh coho on the grill

Back out again on thursday for some more silver. Water was 50-52.

[2thepointsetters]

Fished out of Duluth on 5-13-12 and found decent numbers of lakers and a few coho. Speed was key at 2.6 mph any faster or slower they wouldn't hit. Most fish came of the boards but we got a few off shallow riggers also. X-raps were by far the lure of choice. Pink is sure not as good as it used to be and the 57 chev was slow also. Put number 6 hooks on the x-raps and found out they are way to small. Lost 10 fish just off the small hooked lures. Surface temp was 46 to 47.7

[lovethegitch]

We got out yesturday got 16 lakers &5 coho got the lakers everywhere, between the entry's, out on the line and down the south shore salmon were a little harder to get, most on top some down just about every color worked and near the end of the trip I sped up (3 to 3.5 ) &we still kept catching fish ( we usually run 2.6) 2 guys in the boat very nice day on the gitch

[Deep_Sinker]

Got out Wednesday evening with little success. Landed one nice redfin. Covered a lot of ground between the entries and switched colors regularly, but the fish just didn't want to bite.

[Jim Almquist]

Got out today with my BIL and fished out of Knife River. We went to the outside of the mud out from McQuades and the pump house. We were out about for miles. We went 2 for 3 with both fish caught being Lake Trout. All bites coming from the top of the water column. 57 chev plug and a green spotted spoon. From the talk on the radio it seemed a little slow for most.

[Jim Almquist]

Today Randy(Loonasea) and I hit the Wisconsin side. The best bite seemed to be deeper rather then on top. We ended up going 5 for 7 with 4 Lakers and 1 Walleye. 40 to 60 feet down over 100' of water. Tried all sorts of water but the tea colored seemed to work best. Trying a new spoon that might just be a winner. We will see after tomorrow

[Jim Almquist]

Got out today with another HSO member for his first time on Lake Superior. His first fish was a nice eater King Salmon. The next four were Lake Trout and the last for me was a nice King that was 36" long and weighed in at 17 1/2 pounds. We ended up going 6 for 9. Most of the fish were caught in the tea colored water on the line in Minnesota. The depths that we fished were from 100' to 120' and we had our lures down 40' to 80'.

Donnies first King

My King

[Northlander]

Thats a dandy LS King Jimbo. What did it hit?