Loopers

[tacklejunkie]

Has anyone every trolled for them?

[hound32]

yeah i got my biggest looper ever on a big spoon behind a planer....cant say i was exactly targeting them but i got one lol. Last year i took a boat out and trolled in front of the french in april, no loopers but got a few salmon.

[traveler]

For me it's always been hit or miss on the trolling...personally I prefer drifting and casting, but that might be cause I like to cast so I do more of that.

But Over the years I've done a good bit of trolling out there in late fall/winter/early spring, both at the french and sucker bay/bluebird, mostly with mixed results. I do have a 19 lb laker on my wall I got trolling out of my canoe in mid-Janruary one year, right in front of bluebird landing. Quite a few cohos in front of shorecrest...And we used to do pretty well out of 2 harbors years ago for cohos, but thats been awhile. There have been some good bites out of sucker bay for steelies and loopers in the late fall. It's all better'n sitting on the couch I guess:)

[JoshM]

whenever I hear about trolling for loopers it reminds me of a time when I was fishing bluebird and I saw a small 14 ft boat fighting the waves to get back to the landing.It was very hard to watch. when he finally made it in I couldnt believe my eyes. There was about a 10 year old boy laying on the bottom of the boat scared to death! Why would you take that young of a boy out on such a unpredictable lake that early in the year !I believe it was in March about 6 years ago. Every one be careful !

[JoshM]

traveler were you out in a little paddle raft on monday in front of the french? If so did you do any good ? I ended up with 3 .

[Mnfisher]

Can you catch loopers or anything off the Two Harbors breakwall this time of year? I know it can be a decent place to fish in May or June but how about now? Thanks!

[Steve Foss]

From now through the spawn (April), it's hard to find loopers off the T.H. breakwall. That's because almost all of them are staging at the river mouths right now, and the Stewart (the closest river that might have staging fish) is a few miles away from the breakwall. The majority of loopers stage/spawn at the French, quite some distance from T.H.

[traveler]

Joshm, yup, that was me. I think I got 1 coho monday if I remember. Where were you? What did you get your fish on....haven't seen many the last couple days.

[JoshM]

first one on a crawler and the others on flies. I will be there tomorrow and fri. how is the ice ? Is there any?

[traveler]

It's open as of this afternoon...spent a couple fishless hours (didn't see any caught actually). I'll likely be down tomorrow as well....

[jigginjim]

Has anyone aught any coasters / brookies from this area? I am thinking of mounting a small trout for a habitat I'm working on. I got the form for a 14-16 in. trout when purchaesed some equipment from another fish taxidermist, so good way to use the form.

[shogun]

It would be a pretty rare occurrence to catch a coaster this far down the shore - and by regulation you can only keep 1 with a minimum size of 20" from mid April to the first week in September.

A 14-16" Brookie would also be hard to come by. That is a BIG brook trout for any stream in MN - although I'm not sure what the norm is for the guys who ice fish them in the designated trout lakes. You might want to consider a splake?

[Steve Foss]

Brookies that size are not uncommon in some of the designated trout lakes.

[JBMasterAngler]

Obviously the harder the lake is to get to, the better chance you have at a big brookie.

[jigginjim]

I saw a fishing show, talking about coasters on the big pond. Just wondering? I may just like getting a good looper.

[shogun]

Splake get big and if you get a male in the fall - the colors are beautiful and they look just like a huge brook trout.

[gritsnham]

Can you cast the entire shore for loopers right now? Between the lester and the harbor?

Getting my casting rod this week and was gonna try for a bit when time allows.

[hound32]

u can cast where ever u want but most fish are around the rivers.

[PikePatroller]

Hows it been boys? Been real busy for almost 2 weeks now. Gonna head out tomorrow. Any Advice? Huckin spoons and maybe a crawler... Any advice or locations. Thanks in advance for anything.

[JoshM]

that lake really has to be rockin . Any body swing by to take a look. Is there anybody braving these waves?

[lovethegitch]

I WONDER IF THE ICE IS GONE FROM MCQUADE? ANY BODY SEE THE LAKE TODAY? HOW BAD IS IT?

[hound32]

there were 6 to 8 footers out there. I would not be surprised at all if all the ice was gone.

[lovethegitch]

pretty slow on the shore today lots of muddy water all along the shore. some of the rivers are wide open and some getting there. mcquade is pretty much open to land a boat. one lane anyway. hope it calms down tommorow.

[218RIDERZ]

SAFE HARBOR IS OPEN ! LOTS OF BOATS OUT TODAY. CAN ANYONE GIVE ME SOME TIPS ON HOW TO CATCH THESE BUGGERS ? I KNOW HOW TO CATCH THEM OVER ICE BUT I'VE BEEN TRYING FOR A FEW YEARS NOW AND ONLY GOT A FEW CASTING A SPOON

[218RIDERZ]

Accually, a few weeks back i got one on the ice at the safe harbor. It was 14-16inches. I talked with a few people and they said that was rare and very lucky. I tossed him back to get big but he was very beautiful.

I saw a fishing show, talking about coasters on the big pond. Just wondering? I may just like getting a good looper.

[lovethegitch]

got 3 lakers today lake was calm awesome day lost 4 more spring is early

[Sportsmen58]

Friday 19th I want to try Lester any help well be appreciated. Bait, Hook I have the gear, I just never tried the shore line never got the hang of in river.

[Scott M]

The Kamloops bite is on

by Sam Cook, Duluth News Tribune

Mar. 15, 2010

Bill Wuollet of Cloquet was calling it a morning. After four hours of fishing for Kamloops rainbow trout on Lake Superior, Wuollet had had enough.

“It’s getting hard to see my bobber in the glare,” he said.

It had been a good morning for Wuollet, who had arrived at the lake near the mouth of the French River about 5:30 a.m. He began catching fish almost immediately. An 8-pound Kamloops rainbow trout lay on the rocks behind him along with two sleek coho salmon. He had taken them on a small white jig, which he fished under a bobber.

“I always use a white jig in the morning, first light,” Wuollet said.

Down the shore, his friend Jim Behn of Cloquet had caught a 4-pound Kamloops rainbow, and a few other anglers had harvested fish as well.

“The last couple weeks, it’s been pretty good,” Wuollet said. “You gotta wait for ’em.”

At least 30 anglers had secured spots along the shore of the big lake near French River early Tuesday, and the same number had fished there until sunset in Monday evening’s drizzle. A few fish were taken each day.

Last Sunday afternoon, the fished turned on for a two-hour stretch, said Cliff Carey of Duluth. He estimated that 18 to 20 fish were caught in that time and that perhaps 40 had been hooked — all in a 30 yard stretch of shoreline. Another angler estimated 25 fish were caught that day, and one angler even ventured 50.

“It was fun,” Carey said. “It was typical combat fishing. But 98 percent of us have fished for many, many years together. We know what to do.”

“COMBAT” FISHING

Which means that when one angler casts his bobber over another, nobody gets worked up about it. If someone gets a fish on, the other guy makes way, reeling up or lifting his line so the angler with the fish hooked can play it. Someone else goes for a nearby long-handled net. It doesn’t really matter whose net it is. The important thing is to land the fish.

Many of these Kamloops anglers have been fishing for these big stocked rainbows for 20 or 30 years. They call the shoreline rocks by name. They know precisely where large boulders lurk beneath the lake surface. Above all, they know that Wuollet is right when he says that an angler must “wait for ’em.”

“I fished three days in a row, 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.,” Carey said.

Which is why he was there when the frenzy happened Sunday afternoon. You put in your time, you’ll eventually be there when the fish decide to feed. And you’ll have spawn bags, marshmallows in mesh, custom-tied ’looper bugs, white jigs, black jigs, night crawlers, wax worms and other offerings too classified to share with a newspaper reporter.

You will have casting bobbers, the weighted bobbers that let you get your bait out to where the fish are. You will have a long-handled net for every four or five anglers. You’ll have your two 10- or 12-foot rods, your 4- or 6-pound-test line and your homemade rod holders.

If you are a young, single father such as Justin Melin of Duluth, who was at the French on Monday, you’ll also have your daughter along. Five-year-old Devina Melin, dressed in snowsuit and a warm hat, was content to play with the night crawlers as Justin fished.

“The worms are so cute,” she said, lifting another one from the container.

STOCKING CHANGES

All of these Kamloops anglers know that for years they benefited from one of Minnesota’s most successful fisheries efforts. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources has been stocking these rainbows since the mid-1970s. The fish spend three or four or five years in Lake Superior, then gather off their home river mouths this time of year in preparation for spawning.

By April in most years, they’ll begin entering the rivers to spawn, but their spawning alone would not be sufficient to sustain the population. Thus, the annual stocking of about 92,500 hatchery-reared yearlings from the Lester River to the French.

Word came from the DNR in January that, to save money, about two-thirds of the annual supply of Kamloops rainbows will be reared in a hatchery near Remer rather than the French River Hatchery just up the hill from Lake Superior.

That has many anglers concerned about whether the fish will imprint on and return to rivers like the French or the Lester, as they do now.

“They’re not going to be zoned in to come back to these rivers,” Kamloops angler Fred Schneider of Two Harbors said Monday evening. “That will be a waste of money. They’ll scatter. It’s the one successful fishery they have, and they’re going to mess with it. I can’t understand their reasoning.”

Kamloops will be stocked earlier than they have been in some years, and will be stocked directly into the Lester and French Rivers so they will imprint to the streams, said Don Schreiner, DNR Lake Superior area fisheries supervisor.

“We’ll just have wait and see what the survival is,” Schreiner said.

He cautioned anglers about looking for trends too soon.

“We really won’t know until 2015 or 2016,” he said.

HOPING FOR BETTER TIMES

These hatchery changes come after three years of diminished Kamloops returns to these same North Shore streams. Anglers are hoping this spring will bring better returns. Last year saw some improvement.

The catch rate for Kamloops rainbows last year was up 50 percent from 2008, Schreiner said, although it was still half of the 1992-2008 average.

“I’m kind of optimistic that we’ve hit a low and that we’re going to gradually work our way up,” Schreiner said. “But it’s going to be a gradual increase. I don’t think there will be any spikes to the sky.”

No matter what happens, many anglers will be on the shore as long as they have a decent chance of catching a rainbow. The fish are excellent to eat, grilled or smoked. They fight with tenacity. And, frankly, not a lot of other angling opportunities present themselves this time of year.

Looking out over the blue of Lake Superior, listening to small waves caress the cobblestones and watching a bobber is not the worst duty in the world.

“It’s a nice way to wind down after a day of work,” Fred Schneider said Monday evening.

Or, if you’re Bill Wuollet, a nice way to start your morning.

[JBMasterAngler]

I'd love to drive up there for some shore casting, but that's a loooooong drive to find that the waves are crashing into the shoreline

[bronzeback]

was out yesterday, didn't seem like there was much action going on. I was one of the four guys acting like tourists down by that old dry-dock or whatever that burnt out building was. I threw a spoon for about two hours just to try my luck. Probably headed back out there again in a few minutes actually to drown some crawlers, any reports from today if any of you were out would be appreciated. It's spring break so I've got all week to try and get into one.