Lake Superior Fishing Reports

[ski555]

Has anybody had any luck recently in the Silver Bay area?

[tacklejunkie]

Has anybody had any luck recently in the Silver Bay area?

Yes.

Dipsey and spoons

[Jim Almquist]

Went out of McQuades again at sunrise. Went to the west in about 160-190 feet of water. Caught 2 nice lakers and we missed a few before the clouds moved and the sun came out and shut things down. We trolled around for a while before we went east and found a nice temp break. Caught a few more lakers and a nice king and missed a few more. Ended up going something like 8 for 12 or 13. The spoons that worked in the morning would not produce later in the day. Seemed like they liked the melon color while going through the temp break. Caught 3 within 10 minutes and had our first double.

[TimV]

Was up in Two Harbors with the family 8/19 to 8/24 on vacation. My fishing was limited to a couple of hours in the early morning, which I was able to take full advantage of each day other than Thursday. My boat is small so conditions had to be favorable. I went out of Two Harbors each day, and remained within a couple miles of the breakwall. Since I get to the big lake seldom, I am not very experienced. My hope was to catch one fish during our stay. Set the bar low, I always say! Well, I managed to manage at least one fish every outing (6 fish over 4 mornings)! The first day produced a 24 inch lake trout, and a coho salmon of 17 inches. Both fish hit at about the same time over 120 feet of water. Lake trout was off the rigger set at 100 feet (however due to the weight of the cannonball I suspect I was running 80 to 90 feet down). The salmon came on a inline board.

Day 2 produced a King of 22 inches. He was caught on the rigger running 100 feet over 140 feet of water.

Day 3 produced a King of 22 inches, and a coho. It was a windier morning and the waves chased me off early. Fish were found further from shore over 180 feet, but were caught up high behind boards.

Day 4 produced a 22 inch laker. The lake was flat, and after the wind and waves of Thursday, surface temps had went up about 3 degrees. I could not get a salmon. The laker came from 110 feet on a rigger.

All fish came off spoons. Lakers and one salmon were caught on a watermelon pattern. The rest came on spoons with green, blue, and a little glow.

Perhaps others did even better, but I was tickled! Firing up the grill shortly to indulge in one of my lake trout.

[2thepointsetters]

Duluth report

8-25 we went 0 for 3 mainly because of excessive partying the night before. Enough of that report.

8-26 with 6 on board we went 12 for 15. We ran a slow spread at around 1.7 to 1.8 gps speed which was 1.3 at the ball 90 down headed straight west. Six spoons and six paddles were used and we had even hits between the choices. However 7 of the fish came off 2 copper rods. 4 lakers on 300' feet of 30lb copper with a shoe horn spoon and 3 lakers off 300' feet of 45lb copper with a large e-chip flasher. One laker caught on 10 colors, 1 king on a dipsey and the rest came of deep riggers with flashers( all riggers were over 80 down). We had the majority of the fish before 8:00 am.

[FishinFreak17]

2TPS - Nice report. yesterday was very good out of mcquade and we did not launch until 8am. We boated 11 lakers, most before 10am. My son's friend caught his first lake trout...34.5" fatty (scale read 15lbs, but it was much fatter than the 35 this spring that weighed in at 14lbs). We had 28.5" and the rest were around 22". Only strikes on purple, barbie and some pinks. Tied every color spoon in the box on two rods...no strikes in 6 hours. 2.0 to 2.3. According to a few boats at the landing, it was their best day of the summer. They were at 100 ft down, I stayed around 65 to 85 ft down in 170 to 200 fow.

[FishinFreak17]

Great boat ride today...not great fishing. 6 hours and 3 lakers. Missed a bunch and those we caught were barely hooked. Had a nice laker on, it stayed down, heavy with little fight. Lost it half way up from 90 ft down. Lost 5 others that were bouncing the rigger lines, too small to release. Lots of boats out, they were in shallow water. I did not see any action, but I stayed away the best I could. The surface temp dropped 6 degrees from yesterday (58 vs 64). It was colder closer to shore. I was marking fish at 80 and lower. Well, I will log this and hopefully learn a pattern. I figured sunshine and little wind/waves were the biggest factor.

[tacklejunkie]

Caught three this morning and I noticed also the lake temp dropped. All caught over 80feet of water.

I may wrap up the big lake now for the year and give my boat a chance to dry out and kill some invasives ad get ready for some inland walleye fishing and my fall Rainy River trip

[FishinFreak17]

Finally tried the north shore and launched at Silver Bay at 8am today. I almost didn't care if we caught fish, it was that beautiful of scenery. Clear water and colder temps made me guess color selection. Started with what worked in Duluth and caught an 8lb laker in 15 minutes on the Kevorkian spoon (purple). Well, it slowed down and after an hour we switched colors...a lot! Finally found orange to be the hottest with chartreuse a close second. We wanted salmon and we found it. 40 to 70 ft down, depth varied from 300 to 110 fow. Two kings and 3 cohos with lots of strikes and misses... The salmon were small 15 - 17 inches. I know the regs say 10" min, but do you guys keep them that size? Either way, I am going back soon before this vacation ends. I hope the weather and fishing conditions stay around for awhile.

[Jack Stasney]

If they are Coho's that would be right in the normal size range.

[tacklejunkie]

Also look at the mouth.

[FishinFreak17]

Two with Black mouths, 3 with gray with a hint of black in one. Very hard to tell for a novice. We caught few cohos this spring, and 6 or 7 kings recently off of McQuade. I can tell the difference with the mouth, but the tail and spots are not very distinguishable. I also wonder how hard it is to tell the difference between a brook trout (Lake Superior) and a lake trout? We don't catch many lakers under 20, but if we do I am supposed to see white on the lower front fins for brookies). There should be real pictures in the reg book.

[maxpower117]

Two with Black mouths, 3 with gray with a hint of black in one. Very hard to tell for a novice. We caught few cohos this spring, and 6 or 7 kings recently off of McQuade. I can tell the difference with the mouth, but the tail and spots are not very distinguishable. I also wonder how hard it is to tell the difference between a brook trout (Lake Superior) and a lake trout? We don't catch many lakers under 20, but if we do I am supposed to see white on the lower front fins for brookies). There should be real pictures in the reg book.

Laker and a brookie is easy. Laker has a forked tail and a brookie will have a flat tail. I believe that there are illustrations in the reg book.

[FishinFreak17]

Launched out of Mcquade the last two days and found the hot colors to be orange and yellows (57 or reverse) and a couple on the purples. Two cohos and a laker yesterday in 3 hours (8 to 11). The bite stopped at 10am. Today we launched by 7am and caught 4 lakers by 9am. no salmon... Still catching them with riggers down 60 to 80 ft. two fish caught at 90 plus. Depth did not matter, 140 fow to 210. Temp still rising...66.9 yesterday, 67.6 today. It was 63 to 64 last week. I see most boats in shallow and watched two fish come in on inline planer boards. We were in 139 fow, they must have been in 100 or a little deeper, just north of the pump house. We did not mark any fish, but they were catching them.

[jwmiller33]

Made a quick solo trip after work for a couple hrs last night, launched out of Mcquade at 4 pm. Marked lots of fish deep, hugging the bottom in 140'-170'. Also marked several fish about 60-90' down over all depths. I was running 10 colors of the 832 leadcore on planer boards.

Went out again this afternoon for a couple hrs and battled the rollers and managed to catch a 21" laker on the same spoon that I caught the bigger one on last night. 10 colors of lead again on the planer board with pinks and purples seems to be the ticket. The leadcore has been outproducing the downriggers about 3 to 1 over the past couple weeks. When I'm running 10 colors of lead and the planer board out away from the boat, I'm at about 450-525 on the linecounter which is way out away from the boat and I think it really helps on those clear days. Sure does workout the forearms reeling those fish in!

[FishinFreak17]

JWM33 - Nice report. I am going to try lead core next time out. Down riggers and Dipsey's have produced equally on my boat. I don't miss as many on the dipseys, we see the bounce or hear clicking much sooner than a slight bounce on the down rigger (small ones).

I am heading up to fish near Split Rock lighthouse. Has anybody fished it lately? I have not read any reports on it. I see there is a launch close by. If it is not worth it, I will just head back up to Silver Bay for my second time. Any suggestions?

[Poor Eddy]

Differentiating between Coho, Chinook and Pink Salmon can be tough sometimes. The female and males are different as well which can make things even more complicated.

Here is a nice salmon ID guide I keep in my boat:

http://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/trout_salmon_id.pdf

Here is good link to clarify somethings as well:

http://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/salmon/identification.html

Toss in the lake phase steelhead rainbow trout, which is noticably more silver than a kamloops, and you can sometimes be faced with quite a dillemna.

In a nut shell,

The Chinnok mouth will be very black. Males will have a more pointed snout with a lot of black in the scales. Females will have a shorter snout, with less black in the skin around the nose. Spots are larger and throughout the tail but in messy rows.

The Coho mouth will be all grey but may have a few specs of black. Almost identical to Chinook otherwise but the spots will be smaller, less noticable and mostly only in the upper half of the tail. The anal fin will have a point on it's leading edge and if you fold it flat upon itself, this leading ray will lie past the midpoint of the entire anal fin. So the anal fin is half as tall as it is long.

The pinks are much smaller but the tail spots are large and oval shape throughout the entire tail. They're usually mistaken for small kings since the mouth is black again. Their scales are finer and usually have a pink tinge to their skin but it may be very faint.

The lake phase steelhead is the tricky one. Especially the females since their nose is significantly shorter than the males. The males have a much more pointed nose and sometimes even a hooked lower jaw. The rainbow or pinkish strip along the latteral line is usually very very faint and the most prominent coloring usually seen on their cheeks. Coloring is very close to a Coho and the mouth is white or greyish white. The two key things to look for here are 1.) very small black spots throughout the squared off tail organized in very neat rows radiating from the base of the tail and 2.) Like the Coho, the anal fin has a pointed leading edge or ray. But in this case, when folded back upon itself, the leading ray lands beyond the last ray (closest to the tail). So, the anal fin is taller than it is long. Of course, if the adipose fin is missing ( this is the fin between the dorsal and the tail) then you have a Kamloops. Typcially, the loopers are much more traditional rainbow trout colored.

These days, I usually go by the anal fins in distinguishing between the species. It seems the most reliable rather than asking yourself "is this a white mouth or would you say more grey"? Or..."would you say those spots are in rows?"

When in doubt, toss it back....you'll catch more.

[maxpower117]

Quote:

When in doubt, toss it back....you'll catch more.

Considering this, I've heard that tossing back salmon in Lake Michigan is frowned upon because of the poor survival rate. It this true for Superior as well?

[midi]

Hi all! This is my first post and I'm new to fishing Lake Superior. This past weekend I went fishing and I caught my first Superior fish, an unclipped rainbow trout (it actually had quite a bit of coloring on its upper sides and steely underneath). I released it right after unhooking it but I hooked it strongly in it's upper mouth and the hook damaged one of its eyes. It swam away quickly after release but I was wondering if it has a good chance of survival? Some of its silvery scales came off in my net too. I saw "The Underwater World of Trout" documentary and it seems like brook trout can survive and feed with one eye okay. It worried me that I harmed it like that and I almost always practice catch and release. Just wondering if anybody had any feedback about releasing fish back into the big pond.

[maxpower117]

Hi all! This is my first post and I'm new to fishing Lake Superior. This past weekend I went fishing and I caught my first Superior fish, an unclipped rainbow trout (it actually had quite a bit of coloring on its upper sides and steely underneath). I released it right after unhooking it but I hooked it strongly in it's upper mouth and the hook damaged one of its eyes. It swam away quickly after release but I was wondering if it has a good chance of survival? Some of its silvery scales came off in my net too. I saw "The Underwater World of Trout" documentary and it seems like brook trout can survive and feed with one eye okay. It worried me that I harmed it like that and I almost always practice catch and release. Just wondering if anybody had any feedback about releasing fish back into the big pond.

My only thought is that you don't even have a choice. You have to release it in MN waters. I don't really believe that they are in any danger of becoming endangered, so I wouldn't worry about it.

[lumpy]

When you run leadcore off a planer board can you run any surface lines off of it also?

[Jim Almquist]

When you run leadcore off a planer board can you run any surface lines off of it also?

I am assuming you are talking about the big boards and not inlines. You can do it as long as they are closer to the boat. This way if you get a fish on you can fight it over the top of the lead core. Think of it as a V and the deepest running lines should be close to the boat and the shortest lines out. The far outside lines should run higher in the water column and be the furthest ones back.

Hope this makes sense and answers your question.

[lumpy]

Thanks, was thinking of the bigger boards, have never run inlines. Any brands you would suggest or plans to make your own? Used to live in Esko and did a little surface fishing on the big lake. I have much more experience fishing Lake Trout in Canada with 3-way wire line rigs with 1 lb sinkers and Sutton spoons. I may have a chance to visit family up there in Sept and thinking about taking my boat out and figuring out how to outfit it on the cheap if the trip plans out, and what basic lures to stock up on. I've got a lot of Sutton spoons, hammered in both silver and silver/copper combo but not much besides that. I do have a few shad raps and bombers, assuming those can work also for surface fishing.

Thanks.

[Jim Almquist]

If you do a search you will find that there are plans out there to make big boards out of ceder. I bought mine from Marine General. Mine are just a single board instead of 2 boards. I also keep a set of in-lines in my boat for those days we are running Dipsy's. The in-lines I use are the yellow Off Shore brand. They will run 5 colors of lead with no problem. Watch the weather because with the changing of the seasons Lake Superior will have more days that you will not want to be on the lake. Take this weekend for instance. More than likely we will not be able to get out at all or at least not till Sunday afternoon.

The Marine Forecast:

LSZ144-145-082100-

TWO HARBORS TO DULUTH MN-DULUTH MN TO PORT WING WI-

939 AM CDT SAT SEP 8 2012

...SMALL CRAFT SHOULD EXERCISE CAUTION THIS AFTERNOON AND

TONIGHT...

.REST OF TODAY...SW WIND 5 TO 10 KT BECOMING NW 15 TO 20 KT WITH

GUSTS TO 30 KT IN THE AFTERNOON. SCATTERED SHOWERS IN THE LATE

MORNING AND AFTERNOON. ISOLATED THUNDERSTORMS IN THE AFTERNOON.

WAVES 1 TO 3 FT BUILDING TO 2 TO 4 FT LATE IN THE AFTERNOON.

.TONIGHT...NW WIND 10 TO 15 KT. ISOLATED SHOWERS IN THE EVENING.

WAVES 2 TO 4 FT.

.SUNDAY...NW WIND 5 TO 10 KT BECOMING W LATE IN THE AFTERNOON.

MOSTLY SUNNY. WAVES 2 TO 4 FT SUBSIDING TO 2 FT OR LESS IN THE

LATE MORNING AND AFTERNOON.

.SUNDAY NIGHT...S WIND AROUND 5 KT. MOSTLY CLEAR. WAVES 2 FT OR

LESS.

[2thepointsetters]

I wouldn't take stock in a NOAA forecast. Its windy but flat out there right now. The 1 to 3 foot wave prediction should have been 1 to 3 inches. There were some 2 footers earlier today.

[Jim Almquist]

The buoy out of McQuades is registering 13.6 to 17.5 knots out of the WNW which would not be to bad. The buoy out in the shipping lanes is at 19.4 to 23.3 knots out of the NW. That might be a little bumpy. We just have 16' boats so if its 1-3 we just might be taking a wave or two over the bow. A guy hates to drive all the way down only to have to turn around and go back home.

[jwmiller33]

Went out this morning out of Mcquade. 10 colors of 832 leadcore along with planer boards again today. Was using a 4 ounce snap weight after the 10 colors on one rod, but the rod without the snap weight shined today. Some interesting shots taken of the humminbird from today including a very large pod of fish I found around 1030am that I circled for about an hr that was at least a mile wide by a mile long. Managed to get one laker out of that pod before I went in to watch football. I managed 8 hookups on the leadcore and brought 5 fish in the boat today including a couple big salmon that took my planer board under water. Couple of the fish I lost were very heavy. 57 chev and watermelon were the best colors.

[live4chrome]

Went 4 for 5 today out of two harbors.lost a flannel jacket and camo boat cushion on the drive from duluth to wharbors on the highway. If anyone sees it it would be much appreciated if there is a safe opertunity to grab it or at least shoot me a pm and let me know where its at. Im sure someone on here drives that commute in the am.

[Stoney23]

I have been spent a lot of time on the big lake this summer! Does anyone have any ideas on why the king salmon fishing has been so good this year? Are they comming from Canada? Straight out from larsmont cottages just north of knife river in 200 - 250 fow has been excellent for lakers! North of mcquade out from the blue house in 100 - 125 fow has been good for lakers and kings! My dad pulled in a beautiful 32" Redfin lake trout last week out from the French. A friend of mine pulled in a 38" laker last week out from the blue house! The best set ups have been '57 Chevy spoon and monkey puke off down riggers, and a good old flasher and fly on 10 lengths of lead core.

[live4chrome]

Nice report. Picked up four fish from mcquade this am including 2 kinds, one that was about 8-10 lbs