Still Cold

Made it up for my second trip on the Gich this past weekend. We found water temps near shore between 43-45. We mainly fished the Two Harbors area but did spend some time out by the shipping lanes near McQuade. We struck out down by McQuade and did ok up by TH. We went 6 for 8 with one laker and 5 salmon. It was a mix of kings and coho. About 1/2 the fish came on dipsys and the other 1/2 on boards. Nothing on lead core. Not even a nibble.

In my opinion the water is still too cold. The warm surface water seems to come and go by the hour. When we did find warm water, we marked lots of fish, but none would bite. I was told that the lakers were biting if you got down below 100′, but even if you did it was still really slow.

On the bright side, I got to really put the new rig to the test. A few glitches were found here and there, I am really happy with the purchase. What a great fishing machine!

Looking to wait a few more weeks for things to heat up a bit. Who knows, it could be on the verge of taking off right now with the warm temps.

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A little more info. We found a lot of fish holding at 100′-120′ in the morning and 130′-150′ later in the day.

You could see salmon on the surface feeding on bugs. When out board would pass over them, almost every time we’d hook up.

Hey biggill –

Thanks for the updates. Ben Brettingen, Joel Nelson and I fished the big lake north of you last Thursday and we found water temps to play a big role as well. Point blank… most of the lake is freezing cold and the fish don’t like that. And when we found 50+ degree water… they didn’t like that either for some odd reason. Our best results came when we found mid-40 degree temps. And even then the bite wasn’t hot and heavy by any means. We had a couple small salmon and 10 – 12 lakers with the biggest laker weighing in around 15#. The bite was really picky too. We were running a combo of leadcore rods and braid with 4Oz snap weights to get our spoons deep. Early in the day all fish came on the snap weights. After the noon hour the snap weights went dead and then everything came on 5 and 6 color leadcore.

As you said, we need some warmer water temps to get things rolling. Hopefully we’re headed in that direction with the short stretch of warmer temps we had early in the week.

Looks like I may have to pick up some larger snap weights. I’ve only got them up to 2 oz.

With this cold water, I may be holding off for at least a few weeks before I go back.

BTW… Thanks for the advice on the Traxtech. I heard one person say they didn’t like the trees for Superior, but you convinced me to get them. They worked great. It was a big purchase for rod holders but I’m glad I got them. I actually ran dipsys in them without issue. It was a little difficult getting them out of the holder, but I can live with it. I will eventually get the universal adapter for my Scotty’s with dipsys so I can run 8 lines if needed.