My first two trips up to the North Shore in July left a little to be desired. Only finding a few smaller salmon and one smaller lake trout left me begging for more. With our first baby on the way I knew I had to get this in soon and make it count this time.
I finally saw an opportunity to get away from work after working 28 days straight and multiple 70+ hour weeks. Only problem was the marine forecast was calling for gale warnings on my first day off. I ended taking that day to pack and make stop at the Marine General for a few more spoons and other goodies.
Planning this trip on short notice left me without a crew for much of the trip. I did however contact a fellow IDO’er, Dan, who I met on the ice on Superior this past winter. Dan and a friend joined me on Thursday launching out of Two Harbors.
Day one on the water was Thursday, the day after the gales, the waves were still 3-6′ offshore a ways but were 1-3′ near shore. I marked a ton of “stuff” on the graph. Some I knew were fish, some may have been suspended debris and maybe baitfish. There was an obvious line of debris about a 1/2 mile offshore which held tons of leaves, branches and quite a few trees. After watching this line for a while, I realized that it was a current seam. On one side of the line I could troll 1.5 gps speed and appeared to be about right according to my dipsys, on the other side 2.5 gps in the same direction was too slow! The currents in the lake were so strong that you couldn’t hold any faith in your gps speed. You had to watch the dipsy rods for any hope of consistency.
We ended the day with two small lakers both caught on a yellow/orange spoon (’57 chevy) fished about 40′ down on a dipsy. It was still a successful trip to bring out a couple guys that were looking to learn a little about fishing Superior so they can do it on their own sometime soon.
Days 2 and 3 I had my sights set on Grand Portage after confirming the weather was going to be calm enough to make a long run out on the big lake. Only problem was my kicker motor suffered a broken clamp after a bone headed idea to run a few miles offshore to the east from Two Harbors. I ran into the bait shop/repair shop in TH and the guy there helped me “Red Green” it in good enough shape so that it “shouldn’t” fall off.
I woke up in the Grand Portage Campground to an empty propane tank in the pickup camper at about 5:30 AM and was told by the gas station that no one would be there to fill it until 7 AM. This is not really starting off well and in the back of my mind I was thinking I should really take it easy today and not force anything that doesn’t seem right. Especially since I’ll be fishing alone. Life jackets and kill switch was worn whenever the boat was on plane. This is not something I usually do.
Finally things came together and I headed out on 1-3′ waves that were supposed to subside to less than 2′ in the afternoon. About 10 minutes after setting my 3 lines I had the first strike. Turned out to be a 3 lb king. Good way to start, but definitely not what I was looking for. I trolled the that area in about 80-110′ for about 45 more minutes marking a few small fish on bottom and finally left to find a reef for some Lake Trout.
It took about 30 minutes to fully scan and map this reef to figure out what it looked like so I wouldn’t get snagged every time I went over it. At about that time it was fish on and I knew before I picked up the rod this was going to be what I came for. This fish came again on the dipsy/57 chevy in about 70′ and went about 32″. A second pass in the same direction yielded another fish about 34″. This time on a dipsy with an orange and copper spoon that I picked up at the marina in Grand Portage because she said it was the hot spoon. She was right.
The next fish slammed the orange and copper on the dipsy and when I picked up the rod I felt a couple head shakes and then it felt like I had an anchor. I instantly smiled and told the dog this one is big. After a rather calm but extremely slow retrieve, I felt a couple head shakes and then nothing. She was gone with only 30′ left. I know damn well this was my 40″+ that I didn’t even get to see.
I ended this day with about 10 lakers and about 7 of them were over 12 lbs with the biggest being about 16-18. By far my best day on the lake. I also picked up another king and one steelhead. later in the day the hot depth went from 70′ to about 55′ and all but about 2 fish came on dipsys.
Day three I checked the weather reports again heard that it would start out at less than 2′ building to 2-4′ in the afternoon so I kept a close eye on the wind all day. This day started out 5 minutes after setting lines with a fish taking the planer board down like a bobber. First fish was a fat 34″ and I seemed to be on track to have another great day. The redemption came when I landed a couple of fish in the photos below. The skinny redfin in the photos below went 38″ and the other laker went a FAT 35″.
Most of the fish on day 3 came on the leadcore/planer setups. I fished 5 colors of Suffix advanced on one and 5 colors of the regular Suffix leadcore on the other. Funny how things change from day to day. I ended the day with 9 lakers and about 4 were over 10 lbs. I also picked up one steelhead. All fish came from the same spot in about 80-90′ on a reef.
The day ended at about 1 PM when the waves increased to about 1-3′. By the time I was about 3/4 of the way back, the waves were about 4-6′. I was struggling to keep the kicker from falling off the boat so with about 2 miles left back to the marina, I limped back at about 6 mph. What a frustrating, helpless feeling out there in sight of shore and feeling like I’m not making any progress. I made it back safe and sound but I learned that you really should have ALL your equipment working 100% before heading out there.
Sorry for the sub par photos, but at least I was able to get a few pics to remember this trip. With the baby due on Oct 2, it doesn’t look like I’ll be able to squeeze another trip in this year.
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