St. Louis River Report

Well, two of us got up there and fishing at around 10:30. Some short biters and that was it. Picked up a buddy at Boy Scout around noon, said our hello’s, and in 10 minutes he caught a 19.5″ on a jig and leech. Besides one that got off by the boat, that was it for the day . A couple perch and northerns thrown in. The other boat in our crew managed 4 nice eyes, fishing the same areas (77 and near Boy Scout). Slowest outing ever for me up there, should of changed presentations or something, but no one else was doing slaying ’em. Alot of moving around. Didn’t even try it on Sunday, too cold and we came from north of Two Harbors where snow was on the ground. . Very cold on Sat and Sunday up there. Interested to see how the tourney went

I should mention it was very nice weather on Friday, with some strong wind at times. Flow was low and couldn’t believe how low level the river was on Friday. Boy Scout was just fine to access for a bunk trailer.

Later
Chris

It seems like years when there is low flow the bite always sucks. The high fast water concentrates the fish, more importantly the baitfish. I remember our best crank trolling days we usually were snagging shiners about every ten minutes. Oh well, maybe next year.

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Interested to see how the tourney went

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It was an eye opening experience for me. My partner and I did not finish well, but the results were similar to past years. It’s always amazing how teams can put together a good day when the bite is tough.

We really only had one day to pre-fish. The pattern I put together fell apart during the week, but I did expect the fish to move. On Friday during pre-fishing I lost a real nice fish at the boat, but I was trying to horse it in to keep the eyes off the small spot I was working on Spirit Lake. That gave me a little confidence that it was holding good fish.

This tournament is different in that you could keep 2 over 20” and 2 under 20”. So you only need two nice fish a day and two under. There seems to be a strong year class the falls in the 19” to 21” range. I wasn’t worried about getting my two under.

Our most consistent presentation was the good ole St Louis standby…crawler harness. I experimented with different spinners and did markedly better with the Firetiger pattern I purchased from BFishNTackle. I knew they had an edge when my partner whom is resistant to emulating my moves asked me to lend him a couple of my spinners.

The water temps were in the low 60’s and I was very surprised to catch a milting male on Saturday.

I’m sure I took big fish honors in the rough fish category for a carp that was in the 30 pound class that engulfed a 5 inch sucker minnow. I wanted to cut my line so I could get back to the proper specie but he had me nearly spooled, so I wanted to save my line.

It’s always fun to spend time on the St Louis and the past two weeks were no exception.

Sully

Close to a month later, my camera came back to life.

I thought this fish was around 30 pounds, but I could be way off. I didn’t take the time to put it on the scale. Any thoughts?

Sully