Shore Fishing Lake Superior

[Guest]

I am planning a camping trip to Gooseberry Falls State Park on Lake Superior, north of Duluth,MN in late August. I want to shore fish Lake Superior for Lake Trout and or Salmon or whatever else may be in the area (Walleye? Pike?). I may fish in the Gooseberry River also. I need info on tackle, lures, baits, and techniques.
I would appreciate any help.

[Sartell Angler]

Listen jrg, you might as well leave your rod/tackle at home because your chances of catching anything off the shore of Lake Superior are slim to none. If you are really hoping to catch some fish, I would recommend getting a guide who has a charter boat, or shore fishing a stream/tributary of Lake Superior. Sorry to crash your party, but I'm sure this will keep you from wasting a lot of your time while on vacation.

Sartell Angler

[LundBob]

Yea this is not the best time of year to catch anything from shore on Lake Superior. In the spring it's fantastic with MANY large fish taken but you need to get out onto the lake now. Find a guide that works out of Knife River or Grand Marais. They will put you on fish.

[frydaddy]

I tried fishing the river last year about this time.........forget about it. All the fish head out in the spring. Nothing to catch in the river. Its a nice park tho and i saw on a map a few suspended small lakes that look like a nice day hike...these might be your best best and worth finding more out about.

[ludy]

come up the shore a few miles - shovel point at tettegouche cast a cleo count it down so you don't get hung on the reef. kings could start to be coming in also at that time - there is a one - two week window when walleyes and pike come. a short walk from silver bay there are two nice trout lakes or you can rent an atv.if you want to do a charter stop at silver bay marina. stop at the sport shop in beaver bay, they can help more than i can. it has been a hot summer, 93 right now most of this info has been collected from other locals. enjoy - if fishing isn't great the scenery is.

zean ludy

[Guest]

I went to college in Duluth and do I miss the brookie fishing up there. No one could believe my stories until they came along. Nearly every river between Duluth and 2 harbors has great brookie fishing in the 8 - 13" range, an occassional 16"er too. (up farther too, the upper gooseberry was very good for 10" brookies - i always caught fish under all of the waterfalls there too, I caught a 18" brookie out of the cascade river too). The key is to fish the upper streams where you never see another soul while your walking the river. I picked up a map in 97 from the fishery at French River which shows all the rivers/tributaries between duluth and where their cutoffs are between the upper and lower boundaries.

I would just grab a river where it crosses a road and walk it up stream tossing a #10 hook with a third of a crawler anywhere there was a bend/hole/overhang/rapids and I would pull 2 - 5 fish out (browns - largest was 19" on the upper knife).

I would get out in the A.M. and have to give myself about an hour to make it back to my car before being stranded without any sun light. The upper Lester (maybe a 15 minute drive from UMD) is amazing, this is where I caught the 16" ers.

The upper french has a great beaver **** (a good 5 hour fish up the river once you jump on it after walking the pipe line) as well as 3 or 4 man made cascades/pools that always produced nice brookies.

All the upper streams were very thick at times which would have been a waste of time trying to fly-it.

The list of rivers go on-and-on. The superior hiking trail has great fishing as well. A 4 foot wide stream with 3 inches of water must seem like a waste of time when you can possibly catch an 8# looper but there is nothing like catching a 16" brookie on a nine foot fly rod.

Missing every minute of it and trying to get out of the cornhole of the USA - IOWA.

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[chief]

JRG,

For future reference, get a copy of "Fishing Lake Superior" by Shawn Perich. Perich is a frequent, regular contributor to a variety of local periodicals, and also a life long North Shore resident. The book has lots of general, and seasonal info that will make your Superior shore experiences as productive as possible.