For me, catching steelhead on Minnesota's north shore isn't something you can expect. You can try and time it, and put in your time, but there just aren't many fish and conditions change so fast in these freestone, high gradient streams that fish are in and out in no time. But as luck would have it, I was annoyed with idiots at work and when I checked the conditions on the north shore it looked promising. Time to play hooky and skip my Friday. I decided I'd go around 10pm and it took until just after midnight to get the camper on the truck and ready to hit the road. So off I went and drove for a few hours, stopped for a quick hour long power nap, then drove the rest of the way up past Two Harbors to one of my favorite Minnesota rivers.
I listened to the royal wedding on the radio and it turns out that at the same time Osama Bin Laden was getting taken out as well. The sun was just beginning to come up as I came into Duluth and the lake looked good with no wind and clear skies.
When I arrived there were a couple of guys rigging up but, as usual, they were racing up to the terminal falls to throw spawn at stale fish. I trundled down from the highway and made my way through the swamp to the river and upstream to a great holding spot. To look at it, it doesn't seem much, but I've seen MANY fish come out of it. It doesn't fish well with an indicator so I had a chuckNduck rig and large, bright flies to combat the deeply stained water.
To my relief it looked the same and I soon got the weight ticking through just like I wanted it. Boom, ten minutes in a headshake, the fish sloshed up on the surface and slowly dropped back with the current and I felt the weight for an instant and I saw my polar bear fly in its mouth, before I watched the fish disappear back under the ripples it had made and the weight was gone. My head sank, I uttered a few choice words that don't need repeating, then checked the hook on the fly and got back to work. This is the north shore. Was that my one chance for the day? Did I screw up the only fish I was likely to see? That was looking more and more likely as the next ten minutes slipped by then............................ticking stopped and I set on the slack weight. Bam,bam, bam went the headshakes and off downsteam he tore. he slipped through the tailout of the pool I was in and into a long stretch of heavy water. There was a slick of calmer water by the bank I was on but I couldn't get below the fish, so it was a tough tussle as I fought the fish against the heavy water. Finally though, the fish tired and it's head came up and I could slip it into the slack water and up to me.
It was a looper, or Kamloops Rainbow trout and are more prized by the local fishermen than the steelhead. Steelhead are wild and can't be legally kept, but the loopers are stocked and can be taken. They can be distinguished by the clipping of their adipose fin and are often a deeper fish and certainly not as shiny. But to catch them, they are virtually indistinguishable from steelhead.
Less than half an hour later I had a brighter fish and it put on quite a show. It was heavier and leapt tow or three times upon being hooked, before tumbling back into the heavy water, and eventually coming to hand in the same slick as the earlier fish. Two drifts later, would you believe it, Fish On, and another looper came to hand. I'd pricked four fish and landed three and it wasn't even 10am!
After than the sun did get high in the sky and fishing slowed right down. Something changed and you could feel it in the air. I fished another half hour or so then headed back to the truck to check on the dog. Now there were guys pulling up and donning waders everywhere. I guess that's how long it takes to drive up from the cities if you leave at the same time as a normal work day? They were the usual crowd that you normally see parked by the Brule or Kinnickinic or Rush Rivers! It was time to leave the river to them.
I really like the Stewart River and is one of the few north shore rivers that really lends itself to indicator fishing and where the fish have a lot of river to run before they hit the terminal falls. I figured there'd be a few guys but with plenty of room I'd find some water. When I got to the pull out it was packed!!!!! It seemed every guy with a rod and reel in his possession was going to fish that river. I made myself a sandwich and took the dog out for a quick walk before heading up for an adventure.
I had just bought a pontoon boat and when I got to the Split Rock River I inflated it and put it in at the mouth of the stream and paddled around pulling a full sinking line in and out of the flume of dirty water billowing into the lake. The high sun and high temps surely had the fish sulking so I figured that was as good a chance to catch fish as any. Well the experiment failed but it was fun and for a moment I did get excited when my fly hung up on a branch being washed out to the lake about six feet under the surface. To be honest, that log fought better than some crusty kings I've caught in the rivers.
As the sun began to fade I headed to my morning spot and fished lucklessly for about an hour before being crowded out by a couple of spawn chuckers that dropped in on me. Clearly, they wanted to fish where I was and it wasn't worth the aggravation so I let them have it. I had one trick left up my sleeve.
I have, in years past, managed to get steel by swinging smelt patterns by the mouth of a certain river when the smelt are in. The hadn't been reported but the river temps I'd seen suggested tonight might be the night, so I headed up to my river. A few guys were there but heading home. We spoke a while before Belle (the dog) and I, had the river to ourselves. The sun was setting when a fish cut at the surface and the rod throbbed with a smaller fish. At first I figured it was a smolt but as I went to remove the large streamer I noticed it was a very nice (18 inch or so) coaster brook trout. The silvery sparkle washed out the glories colors and markings of the brook trout genetics and catching that native jewel made my whole trip. I had never caught a Minnesota coaster, and this one was on the swing and in the spring.
I didn't get another strike that night and with the weekend upon us I knew the number of fisheremen would get crazy so I drove over to fish Wisconsin's Bois Brule River in the morning.
Well overnight the temperature dropped and it poured rain. The river was chocolate brown and my short session was completely fruitless. I did decide to head upstream and look to see if there were any fish still spawning in the upper (closed to fishing) portion of the river. There was, and not just a few. I knew where I wanted to be in six days time when the season opened on that part of the river.
Coming into Duluth
Sunrise Over Lake Superior
Looper!
Same Fish
Wild Steelhead
The view upstream
Another Looper
Me out in the pontoon
Check it out - A coaster!
Sunset on a North Shore river
Chocolate Milk on the Brule
Mouth of the Brule
Belle fetching her stick
About Me
- AussieSteel
- I was born and raised in Cairns, Australia and went to university in Townsville at James Cook University where I first studied Marine Biology followed by Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. While Studying I met Jessica, who later became my wife. I moved back to her home state of Minnesota, America and currently work as a researcher at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester. We have three children, a dog and a cat.
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