Bois Brule Gives up some of her treasure

A week before I drove past the Bois Brule River on my way home from Minnesota's north shore. It was cold and heavy rain had turned the river to chocolate milk downstream from highway 2. Above the highway was still closed to fishing but with the unseasonable cold spring I wondered if there might be steelhead still spawning up in the gravel. Within moments of walking in by the ranger station I saw heavy steelhead porpoising and sparring on the gravel right in front of me. I watched for a half hour or so before heading back to the truck and heading for home. Still, the entire river was due to open for trout opener just a week later.

So at 5am (legal opening) on Saturday morning I found myself lying soundly in my sleeping bag awaiting first light. Suprisingly, there were no other fishermen where I went in and I immediately began probing around where the fish had been splashing around six days earlier. After ten minutes or so I slipped my indicator and flies under submerged branch and there came the headshake and weight of a decent fish. It rushed into a deep slow pool with little timber to worry about and so I could relax and enjoy subduing this first fish.

A nice start to the day

I worked downstream towards the campground and as the sun rose it was easy to see there weren't many fish on the beds. I struck another male about twenty minutes later but the trout were also hitting well. I had a good brown slash at my fly twice before hooking up but he shook off. It was probably fifteen inches. I did get a nice rainbow that had the same coloring I've seen on some of the fish in the Muskegon River in Michigan.

Check out the cheeks and under the gill plates

This is a beautiful river to fish, and more enjoyable to wade above highway 2 than the downstream stretch available to the angler for most of the time steelhead are in the river. That is, it's beautiful to fish if you're not fixated on catching fish. I already had a couple under my belt so I could relax and enjoy the stream.

Typical scene on the river

I hit a good brown just beside that rock

I fished upstream and down and as the morning wore on I began seeing more and more anglers. When I got back to the truck there were Minnesota Licence plates everywhere with TU stickers all over their fancy, big city vehicles. The Simms/Sage crowd was out in force. Time for me to beat a retreat. I stopped by the gas station and picked up some bacon and milk and cooked up a good feast, walked and fed the dog and just relaxed in the spring sunshine for a few minutes.

The sun was high on a cloudless, warm day. The last week had been very warm and I now knew the fish that were on beds six days before had left. My thinking was not all of them would have made it the 25 river miles back to the big lake and all the city losers wouldn't be fishing the "old" water that had been open for weeks. I drove way down river to a deserted river. There was nobody around at all. It was fantastic. Admittedly, the water was fairly stained from the snowmelt and red clay, so I figured my best chance was to cover water with a big, gordy streamer - a chance to give the new 6/7 Winston two-hander a spin.

I wasn't feeling confident in the conditions and was telling myself it was at least a good thing to practice a couple of different spey casts. I'd been fishing about forty-five minutes when a heavy throb shook half way through the swing. Fish on! I was so excited but this wasn't the electric, spicy dropback you read about. It thrashed and rolled but didn't run with much conviction. Still it was great to get one when everyone I'd spoken to told me there were no steelhead to be caught. I fished another hour or so but didn't get another strike. My casts were getting tighter and improved greatly in the time I was on the water.


I was feeling pretty satisfied and just wanted to relax and enjoy the stream. I headed up to fish an unfamiliar stretch of river by Pine Tree Landing, this time with a 5 weight, and small wet flies for trout. I came across a few kayakers and a few guys out and everyone was complaining there were no steelhead around. The trout were biting though and most people had at least got a couple. I only got one or two smolt wading this stretch of river but listening silently to everyone tell me how there were no steelhead left in the river left me feeling quite satisfied.

Looking down on the stream during a short break

I fell asleep early that night (had driven up to Duluth the night before to drop Jessica at her friends' wedding shower weekend and then headed over to Brule and arrived after midnight the night before) and it was a sound sleep. The morning I was not quick to don waders and hit the stream. I had a hearty breakfast and threw a stick for the dog before again trying my luck at swinging. I fished a couple of hours and had one big swirl right under the fly (I swore I saw the fly in it's mouth!!) but never felt the weight of a fish. Again there was nobody around and was a warm, sunny day. I was scheduled to pick up Jessica by noon so I headed back over to Duluth, picked her up and I drove south as Jessica read and slept on the drive home. Hopefully they won't be the last steelhead of the season, but when it's winding down on the southern Superior rivers there isn't too many rivers in the Great Lakes region holding fish.