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Isle Royale Shore-Fishin'


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I know, this sounds kinda lame, but...

Me and my buddies are going up to the Isle for a 25yr. reunion trip (yah, gettin' older...) Anyhow...those many moons ago we caught and consumed some tasty brook trout from Grace Creek on our final night. This trip will be a tad shorter so we (I) won't be able to hit Grace Creek (it appears the season will be closed at the time of our trip anyhow). Realizing that any day fishing is better than any day not fishing, I'm wondering if there may be a remote chance that I could catch something in the big pond? We will be camping at Huginnin Cove on the N/SW side of the Isle for a couple of days, and I though I might bring along a rod perhaps. Is it worth it? Do I have a shot at anything? Bring along some spoons ya say? Thanks for your input.

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  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Creators

The water drops off fast on that side of the island and I think you stand a good chance of hooking some lakers. Heavy spoons like Krocs will cast a long ways. Use a reel with a large capacity spool.

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Thanks for the tips ST. What size Kroc's should I be looking at? 1 oz.? Gold w/orange stripe? 10-12lb mono o.k. as well? I remember reading ST's article on fishing the 2-harbors breakwall, and wonder if the information he provided in that article wouldn't apply in this case as well. Thanks again.

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  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Creators

Yep use the same gear and tackle as in the article.

What your doing is using gear appropriate to handle the size fish along with being able for long casts. Large capacity spools with the lightest line you can get by with. In this case your not sitting on a break wall with no chance of getting hung when fighting fish. For that reason I'd up the line # to 8 or 10 lb. Use heavy spoons with small profiles for long casts. The larger krocs should work. I don't know if you can find Steelies and more, they're a smaller tear shaped spoon and are heavy. What time of year are going?

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Our trip is from 9/13 to 9/18. Whoa! That's comin' up fast. I gotta start prepping the menu selection(my job). Cabela's sells some BIG Kroc's (2.5-7oz.), you weren't thinking that big, were you?

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  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Builders

dang thats big i would try kastmaster too up to 1oz 1/2-1oz is more then enough. Unless your use surfrods and heavy line. K.O. wobblers, little cleos, any spoons that are made for casting some distance are good choices. Rooster Tails spinns in the 1/2 to 1oz are good too hmmmm i would try pink. Those are baits i use most of the time from shore anyways. wink.gif

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I fished the Island about 3 weeks ago off Huginnin Cove and did pretty good using the Gold Star Copper/Watermelon and a Glow Blue spoon not sure what the name of it was. The Gold Star is not a great casting spoon but wouldn't hurt to try. I would for sure pack a couple glow spoons to try out. I am heading up there this weekend with my Uncle weather permitting

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Krocs and Kastmasters are among the all-time champs at casting long distances like a bullet, especially with lighter lines and long rods. On the wall, I spooled up 8 lb Trilene XL (no abrasion issues on the wall, since you're essentially in open water) on a 4000 series Shimano, mounted on a 8.5 foot Berkley spinning rod designed for river steelhead fishing and rated for 6-12 pound line — and the cast just seemed to go on and on forever. Krocs, if you don't know it, plane up really quickly on the retrieve and will come shallow if you reel too fast. I always let it sink on a slack line until it hit bottom, then gave it a big jerk to get it out of any rocks and reeled slow to medium all the way back if I was targeting lakers. Sometimes I'd reel a dozen cranks and drop the rod back down on the pause to let it sink, then reel again and so on in a lift/fall. That can work too. Good luck and have a lot of fun. And you're dead right — A day fishing beats a day not fishing. grin.gif

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  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • Brianf.
      I'm not there, so I can't tell exactly what's going on but it looks like a large area of open water developed in the last day with all of the heavy snow on the east side of wake em up Narrows. These two photos are from my Ring Camera facing north towards Niles Point.  You can see what happened with all of snow that fell in the last three days, though the open water could have been wind driven. Hard to say. .  
    • SkunkedAgain
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    • LakeofthewoodsMN
      On the south end...   Thanks to some cold spring weather, ice fishing continues strong for those still ice fishing.  The bite remains very good.  Most resorts have pulled their fish houses off for the year, however, some still have fish houses out and others are allowing ATV and side by sides.  Check social media or call ahead to your favorite resort for specifics. Reports this week for walleyes and saugers remain excellent.   A nice mix of jumbo perch, pike, eelpout, and an occasional crappie, tullibee or sturgeon being reported by anglers. Jigging one line and using a live minnow on the second line is the way to go.  Green, glow red, pink and gold were good colors this week.     Monster pike are on a tear!  Good number of pike, some reaching over 45 inches long, being caught using tip ups with live suckers or dead bait such as smelt and herring in 8 - 14' of water.   As always, work through a resort or outfitter for ice road conditions.  Safety first always. Fish houses are allowed on the ice through March 31st, the walleye / sauger season goes through April 14th and the pike season never ends. On the Rainy River...  The river is opened up along the Nelson Park boat ramp in Birchdale, the Frontier boat ramp and Vidas boat ramp.  This past week, much of the open water skimmed over with the single digit overnight temps.   Areas of the river have popped open again and with temps getting warmer, things are shaping up for the last stretch through the rest of the spring season, which continues through April 14th.   Very good numbers of walleyes are in the river.  Reports this week, even with fewer anglers, have been good.  When temps warm up and the sun shines, things will fire up again.   Jigs with brightly colored plastics or jigs with a frozen emerald shiner have been the desired bait on the river.  Don't overlook slow trolling crankbaits upstream as well.   Good reports of sturgeon being caught on the river as well.  Sturgeon put the feed bag on in the spring.  The bite has been very good.  Most are using a sturgeon rig with a circle hook loaded with crawlers or crawlers / frozen emerald shiners. Up at the NW Angle...  Ice fishing is winding down up at the Angle.  Walleyes, saugers, and a number of various species in the mix again this week.  The bite is still very good with good numbers of fish.  The one two punch of jigging one line and deadsticking the second line is working well.   Check with Angle resorts on transport options from Young's Bay.  Call ahead for ice road guidelines.  
    • CigarGuy
      With the drifting, kind of hard to tell for sure, but I'm guessing about a foot and still lightly snowing. Cook end!
    • PSU
      How much snow did you get on Vermilion? 
    • Mike89
      lake here refroze too...  started opening again yesterday with the wet snow and wind...  very little ice left today...
    • Hookmaster
      A friend who has a cabin between Alex and Fergus said the lake he's on refroze. He texted me a pic from March 12th when it was open and one from 23rd when it wasn't. 🤯
    • SkunkedAgain
      I don't think that there has been any ice melt in the past few weeks on Vermilion. Things looked like a record and then Mother Nature swept in again.   I'll give my revised guess of April 21st
    • leech~~
      As I get older it's really not just about sending bullets down range.  Some of it's just the workmanship of the gun and the wow factor. The other two guns I have really wanted which I'll never have now because of their price, is a 8mm Jap Nambu and 9mm German Luger.   Just thought they always looked cool!  
    • jim curlee
      I had a guy hit me with a lightly used 1969 BAR, he wanted $1650 with an older Leupold scope. More than I think they are worth, I made an offer, he declined end of story.   You know if you look at the old brochures, a grade II BAR sold for $250 in the late 60s, $1650 would be a good return on your investment.    Why would anybody want a 50 year old gun, they are heavy, have wood stocks, and blued metal.  I guess mainly to keep their gun safes glued to the floor. lol   You can probably buy a stainless rifle that you never have to clean, with a synthetic stock you never have to refinish, is as light as a feather, and for half as much money, perfect.   I'm too old for a youth gun, although I've shrunk enough that it would probably fit. lol   No Ruger 10/44s.   Jim      
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