Hello out there!

Does anyone use this site anymore,where did they all go?

Testing…. one, two, three…. testing?

Good question. We’ll just have to shake the tree and get this forum rolling before opener. Too good a fishery to not have some chatter going on about it, even if it is iced up.

Hey wormburner where abouts on that big hill do you live?? Have you been up there long?

Is there any open water on the river? Have you been out to any of the lakes

up there ice fishing. There are some really nice perch in Rice lake and it’s only about

7 or miles out of town. There are some great bluegill lakes up the highway but

withen and easy hour drive. If you have been out some please let us here of your luck.

Steve

I live up over the hill in Lakewood,about 10 miles from downtown just about perfect. As for the hardwater,I’ve been out about 6 times so far,want to try again this weekend if I get a chance,mostly been to fish lake (imagine that) and comstock and whiteface. Haven’t knocked ’em dead though, but enough action to keep the intrest going! Not sure where I’ll go this weekend but the way the weather sound,it should be a great time.

P.S. the water is all froze in the bay and in the river as far as I know. Never ice fished down on the river, must be that moving water-thin ice syndrome?!

There’s a spot in West Duluth that there’s a power plant of some type with a
warm water discharge. The water goes into kind of a square holding pond before heading
out into the river.You used to be able to drive up to the berm and slide a cartopper or flat bottom
boat over it. It held relly nice fish and didn’t freeze up if I remember right.
The only hard part was trolling that square pattern.LOL I used to live in Duluth Heights,
attended Kenwood Elementary,Washington JR,Old Central with the clock tower,
and the New Central on the Hill. Lots of good fishing and memories from those parts.If
you need some new spots let me know and I’ll send you to some old haunts.Steve

I’m scheduled to do an interview with the Duluth News Tribune outdoors editor this coming Wednesday with the focus of discussion being on the websites and how anglers are utilizing them. We should be able to pick up some area anglers and get this forum cooking a bit. Not sure when the article will be printed but I certainly will let everyone know in advance.

I think these web sites are a interesting beast,meaning that it is a great place for fellow anglers to exchange advice on lakes they have fished and pass the info onto other anglers if they want to,if you read some of the posts on these sites there are some guys thant don’t agree with handing out info to just anyone but the neat part is that the members have their E-mail addresses posted so you can pass along or exchange info without it ever having to hit the main board.The way I look at it is the info giver is in total control and can let out as little or as much as they desire,I guess were all out there for the same reason and if a guy can get some ideas that might boost his day it’s all a bonus! Hello Leinieman,did you ever do any Bass fishing when you were up in these parts? Ever run across any Smallmouth in the river? I know it’s a heck of of a good spot for Walleyes if you find your own little nitch in there,I know their all over out there but I belive some spots hold a better consentration of fish than others,at least that is what I have found out (use the graph) when i caught my biggest walleye to date out there 31.5″,and it’s still swimming,what a blast!(cpr) “CATCH YA LATER”

I stay off the river in the winter ever since i fell in about 10 years ago.Dont like moving water under the ice.I spend this weedend on lake of the woods.We caught about 200 walleyes each day a lot of small ones but many fish in the 17-24 inch range.Just like the hot days on pool 4.I let everybody know when we read about james in the duluth paper im sure hes talking about Sam Cook.
Jigmaster

Wormburner,

I sure miss fishing the area up there. Its been a few years now, but my brother and I used to fish the river in the typical spring and fall patterns. Later in the summer my brother knocked into a pattern for the smallies down river from the railroad bridge and into Spirit Lake. He was targeting small river weed patches that were sometimes as small as the boat and they were positioned well off the main channel route through the lake. It was only about 4 feet throughout the whole area, but the smallies would stack up in these areas in August and September. He finally convinced me to come up there with him in August and we pounded smallies for most of the day. We had several fish that went 19 inches with one 20 incher that day. What a ball We had!

Have any of you fished for suspended walleyes in the mouth of sprirt lake from the big lake in the fall? This is something that does not get all that much attention and can produce some awfully large walleyes. Alot of trout trollers hit some big walleyes by accident in the fall, but if you go after them with cranks and planer boards, it can pay some great dividends. Every fall comes ands goes for me when I say that I would like to take a week and target them again, but sooo many places and not enough time is usually where I end up with my brain twisting and turning.

Sure is pretty and peaceful country when you are on the water there!

DeeZee, Are you talking about the Oliver bridge,and then back in towards some of those still bays? Ihad another guy tell me that inthe river,that time of year you fish where you wouldn’t think they’d be meaning that usually smallies are in the rock and sand. I’m just kind of guessing here though, as last year was my first year I really fished for them, sure can be a blast. But it seems out in the river you have to hunt a little harder for them. Let me know if I’m heading in the right direction here, thanks for the info Wormburner!

wormburner,

The bridge I am thinking of is down river from the Boy Scout landing. Maybe thats the Oliver bridge, not sure. Anyway you know what one I am talking about anyway. You are on the right track, below this bridge, the river starts to open up into Spirit Lake and as you head down stream, we veered off to the left quite aways and you will find small weed clumps around in these areas. These type of spots held some nice smallies even though it looked rather un appealing. We did catch fish on the main channel thorought the lake but also keyed on “dead water” for some good smallie action. Keep an eye for an occasional muskie lurking these areas as well. I have tangled with two mid-40″ fish out here fishing for smallies. Boated one and lost one.

Look back at some previous posts right here in this forum and look at some of the posts that were put up regarding spring and fall walleyes too!

Good Luck and keep us all informed on your results and feel free to throw any questions my way. Who knows, maybe I will have to sneak up there this next summer in the “dog days”

DeeZee, I was just reading your prior post about walleyes in the fall, and that area you are talking about is where I hooked my heffty one. Also one last currious question about those smallies,what were you throwing at ’em,i only fished for them a little last year and used cranks mostly,did you show them any plastic? I know the area your talking about (Just what I heard,fish where ya would’nt) I fished mostly hard structure, pilings, rocks, ETC that will change! Thanks for the info so far good luck in the coming months. Wormburner.

Good question here…..
Some of the weed growth areas that we fished were pretty thick but shallow water (3-4ft)
Our best pattern was around the edges in the lowlight conditions with topwaters and small spinnerbaits and stickbaits when they were active and aggressive. As the sun drew high in the sky, some of fish dove into the weed area and were reluctant to chase these lures outside of the weed edges. So, we went in with plastics either texas rigged tubes or weedless jigs head styles with various plastic bodies. Tubes always got the most mileage from us, but a simple 3-4 inch grubs rigged on a weedless jig did the job as well. These fish inside the weeds became a little picky compared to the morning and evening nature that we experienced.
We found a certain inside turn or area in the weed bed to be the most consistent and we could pull up on a spot and put 3-4 smallies in the boat right away and go to the next spot and come back to this spot later to pick off the active ones!
Some spots were pretty good sized while others were very small, (half the size of the boat but held a couple fish.

Good Luck up there and keep us all informed of your results.

Hey DeeZee, I was looking in St. Louis Cty. lake map book and I’m just wondering if the area you were fishing was called Mud Lake, its a bay in that area with shallow water about that depth with a deep spot that goes down to about 6-7 ft. Can you see railroad tracks on the shore? I was at a fish fry at a good friend of mine this past weekend, and was talking with his neighbor who was there and he fishes the river alot and knows the areas we’ve been mentioning sounds pretty close. He also said they catch walleyes back up in there also, there is a small bridge with some good current under it. I appreciate the info up to this point, the only way to find out is to explore, but aat least now I’ve got some good starting points. Good luck in the coming season!

wormburner,
A “newbie” to the site and with the nicer weather my thoughts turn towards the river and softwater.
I have fished it about 20/times per year for the last 5 and usually target eye’s, although i have picked up smallies, channel cats,lots of pike and the occasional ski by accident.
I have picked up some nice smallies up to 19″ in the area of spirit lake also, trolling #5 shad raps for eye’s.
Last year was very good for numbers of fish in that area, tho I am still in quest of my “hog”. 3 years ago i caught a 7.4# and that is my largest to date, but i figure she is getting close to that 10# mark by now!!
Dee Zee, I would be interested in learning more about fall patterns you’ve tried, or if anyone heads out to the south shore to troll in summer for eye’s on the “biggest pond”.
Most times in fall there might be only a few boats on the river, quite a change from early season, and it is my favorite time of year to be out there .
I am a little unorthodox in my river fishing as i rarely use bouncer/spinners (seems at least half the folks out there are), I’m more of a rigger and plug puller.
I am going to really try and practice alot more this year bouncing to get more comfortable with the presentation.
Any pointers for the river regarding bouncer size, blade color/size/type or bead choice would be appreciated. I plan on tying up a bunch of spinner rigs between now and opener.
Now we just need mother nature to continue the warm weather so we can all get out on the water up here!!

Xplorer,I did pretty well last year finding walleyes out there but this year I would like to target the smallies, I’ve talked with guys who have done very well out there and others that say there can’t be a lot of them out there, but I’m starting to belive a guy needs to do a little more exploring and fish some of the out of the way areas?! I know guys who pull some real decent sized one out (cpr) but I also belive that there just is’nt a ton of people who target them out there, could be wrong? GOOD LUCK!