Steelheadin' UP style

[youp50]

Come with me if you will to a couple or three of my favorite rivers. They flow into the Big Lake as we call Lake Superior here. It probably qualifies as a Big Lake most anywhere you go.



Henry Wadsworth Longfellow called it the 'Shining Big Sea Waters'

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This is 'Lake of the Clouds'. Arguably the most photographed lake in the state. It for sure makes more calendars than any other.

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This is a neat little falls up too far for fish this early in the year. In 1837 this was a mining site.

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Yes that is still knee deep snow and most of the mortar is gone from this foundation. The Italians were the stone masons and they knew their job.

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The State got control of this some time ago and felt we needed signs. The shaft is filled in anyway. They did cut down my favorite yellow birch growing from the top of the bricks, you can see the stump.

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Another nice run on the same river.

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Day 2 found me looking for fish in another river.



These are why finesse is not an option. 10# everything for me, an 8 wt rod and an antique Martin 72 multiplier. You can tell the old guys on the rivers, they still fish with American made gear. I bumped into some fellows fishing down river and listened to the bemoaning of nice water and no fish, especially not like the 'old days'. Its true and I headed for the bigger river.

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That is my rod with a little bend compliments of fish #1 of the year.



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Here is my buddy "Mike" looking for some more fish for the Boss. He still has not figured out the difference between on the stringer and free. He ain't much to hunt with, but I do like fishing with him.




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I quit with 2, missed one. They are both males 20 maybe 22 inches. The lighter fish is a wild fish. The darker one is from some hatchery. Going to try to find out whose. It is missing a fin and the dorsal has been mutilated. It fought like it was missing a tail, glad to have it removed from the gene pool.

[petev]

What a nice report, and spectacular country youp! Thanks for sharing.

[kevin k]

awesome youp gotta love them steelhead they are just starting down here also in the rifle and ausable river just waiting for the suckers to push them up farther thanks for the great picts of gods country. kak

[KerryB]

Great story and photos! I absolutely love the country up around Gitchee Gumee or as most people know it, Lake Superior! I have driven the circle tour route around the lake and have spent many a night up in Bayfield, Wisconsin in sight of the Apostle Islands. Have made the ferry trip out to Madeline many times. I also love the Porcupine Mountains area and the Bessemer area where i love to fish the Black River just below Rainbow Falls for fall run salmon. It is just gorgeous country in the autumn and the drive down to Black River is so brilliant with yellow maples that it is nearly blinding on a sunny day. I generally stay down near Eagle River or Boulder Junction, Wisconsin and then make a trip up to Superior to fish or hunt agates or just enjoy the view. Man, you have really made me miss that part of the country and i am sitting here wondering how and when i can get the family up there to see it again. Thanks for the wonderful post! I can't remember when i have enjoyed one more in a long time. Please don't wait too long to show us more? Thanks, Kerry

[youp50]

How about this kind of picture?



I practice the 'fillet and release' method of fishing.

Kerry,

If you ever hit the fall Laker run in the Black you will have a great time and will have learned that you need to have a firm hold on your rod and reel. They come in when the water is high and head for the Lake when hooked. They are not bashful about biting either.

[KerryB]

I know a lot of people (particularly out west) hate Lakers aka(Mackinaws), and some people won't even consider them trout. They feel that they compete with the "real" trout for food and other resources and otherwise ruin a good fishery. I, on the other hand, feel that they are a great fighting and eating fish and love catching them. I usually catch them out in Wyoming in the Snake River below Jackson Lake dam and absolutely love everything about it. How big do your Lakers run on average and when do they make their run up the rivers there? I gotta think about a trip up north!

[youp50]

Lakers run about 6 or 8 pounds. Cannot really count on them to show, really high water in the later part of October, maybe.

Lakers are a 'plastic' fish. They are char and not trout. Apparently they can readily change to differing environments. Red Fins are good eating, the Siscowets are inedible after 12 inch length or so. Years ago there were a strain of inshore lakers (in Superior) Occasionally one still shows up ice fishing. Siscos are the monsters, living in deep water and getting fat. There is a 61 pounder mounted in a Cafe in L'anse. Different agencies are planting different strains of fish. Some plants get confused and run the rivers to spawn. The Keeweenaw Band of Chippewas have a good strain now and plant heavily.

[DBinNY]

Youp50 is correct, LT are char but then again so are brook trout and nobody holds that against them. Lake trout cause problems when they are overpopulated because they eat the young of all trout and salmon (including themselves). Such was the case in Lake Ontario in the late 80s and early 90s and over-population by LT has also caused problems in the Finger Lakes of NY.

Sport fishermen often find them the least desirable of the trout and salmon species (at least in NY) because they fight the least and are not particularly good eating when alewife are the forage base.

[youp50]

It is hard to tell a good eating laker until you butcher it. The eaters have a pinkish orange flesh with no fat marbled in. In Superior a major portion of their diet is lake herring. I have been amazed at the size of the herring they can swallow, and still eat more.

DB, I think it has more to do with the strain of Lakers than the diet. Although diet is important, just compare the Alaskan Silver Salmon to the Great Lakes Coho. Same species and the Silver is excellent table fare, while the coho is merely good. The wild Lakers around Isle Royal know how to fight. I have also drug a 6 or 7 pound Laker for unknown distances because they could not find the energy to trip a release.

[KerryB]

Strange how the same fish in various waters and parts of the country can be so different in fighting styles and taste. The Lakers out of the waters in Wyoming where i fish in the fall are hard fighting and have firm pink flesh which reminds me of Salmon. Most of the waters i fish out there are very swift and the fish are strong!

[orion]

Nice pics. Reminds me of the east end where I tramp each spring and fall.

I hit the Sucker last week, I only got to fish and hour then the 3-day blow and snow moved in and that was that. Some of the locals were surf fishing in the huge waves in the lake, they say the north wind really brings them in.

Your lucky to live in Gods Country. My wife is from Marquette so we spend a lot of time there, and Grand Marais area.

I hope to head up again in a few weeks.

A good fish dog is invaluable. A well trained fish dog will walk ahead on a river and wait and watch at the holes because he/she knows you will be fishing there. If you have ever seen dogs that know this drill, it is really a treat watching them, much like a good bird dog. My retriever is not so well trained yet and tends to try to fish herself and retrieve every piece of wood in the river that happens to float by. She is still fun to have along although I do a lot of yelling at times. Its really something when you get a fish on, she thinks that its retrieve time.

Good luck the run should be peaking soon.