Hi All!
Just checking in to see if anyone has any info on how the bite has been from Duluth to Two Harbors.
I read in another post by @James Holst that it has been on fire…. However I can’t find any info to back it. Possibly looking at a Labor Day weekend trip.
Tight Lines
Sam
By “on fire”, perhaps he meant crashing and burning ;-). From reports I’ve seen and folks I’ve talked to up there, the guys fishing out of TH and out on the state line out of DLH/McQuade have still been having a tough time finding any silver fish and usually scrape together a morning or evening with 2-3 lakers.
I haven’t personally fished that part of the shore since late June, but did spend most of last week out of Grand Marais and Taconite Harbor. Fishing was still slower than normal, but did manage to put a few in the boat each day. Chinook were biting fairly well for me up in that area. Only one Coho all week and from all accounts the larger lake trout were still sulking several miles offshore suspended in the top 50′ over 500-800 FOW. The lake trout I caught near shore were far fewer and smaller than I normally average for this time of year.
Best reports I’ve heard recently have been out of Silver Bay where supposedly guys have been doing OK in 80-100 FOW with some Coho (finally) starting to show up in greater numbers. My recommendation would be to try heading further up the shore to the Twin Points or Silver Bay area.
I’ll be headed back up GM/Tac Harbor early next week so hope to get on the water for a couple more trips if the weather cooperates and can let you know what I find further up in that area.
-ML
Thanks for the update ML!
After looking back at the post that I had read that stated the fishing was on fire, turns out that it was an old topic that got bumped up on the list… That post was from August of 2013. Woops!
Sounds like it is still slow up that way, we may end up staying closer to home if not much is happening up there.
Despite the slow reports Cal, Will and I are headed up the north shore tomorrow. We plan to fish through Sunday. With some luck we should have some good info to share once we get back next Monday.
Have fun up there, James! Looking forward to hearing how you guys do.
Went out of superior on the wi side today and the river flowing into the lake looks like coffee with creamer. Tried fishing the mud line with no luck today. Going to try the MN side I think tomorrow.
Holy wind today. Stayed on the lake until noon then fished the river until 4:30. Not a bite. Anyone find a fish today? Not sure where I’m going tomorrow. Maybe two harbors.
Yeah, we had a good trip this weekend. The weather kicked up the lake a bit on Sunday but even that didn’t put a damper on things. I’ll put up a detailed report late tonight (I’m at home with a sick kiddo today) but the gist of it goes like this…
We launched out of Grand Portage. Water temps were 54 – 57 degrees. We were targeting lakers specifically. We found the best bite in 60′ – 90′ of water trolling 2.2 – 2.5 mph running Jim’s Flashback Spoons in the largest size available – N4 blank. We ran 5 – 8 colors Sufix 832 Advanced leadcore on boards. Not one fish came on a rod fished off the boat. Our best bite was mid-day and into the afternoon each day. The size of the fish caught was all over the place from 2# “shakers” to the 42″ freakishly big laker Will is holding in the pic I’ve uploaded.
I’ll follow up with a more complete report tonight once my daughter is down for the night.
will-laker.jpg
Thanks @James for the update. I’m looking forward to your report!
Congrats Will on the monster Laker!
One question…
Do you have 10 colors of lead spooled up and clip on the board after letting out 8. Or do you only have 8 colors total spooled up and clip the board onto whatver you have for backing?
Tight Lines!
Sam
I never clip to the lead. I have rods set up with a variety of different setups in the 5 to 8 color range. I spool up my reels with 30# 832 as my backing. On the other end I run a flouro leader to the spoon. I rarely seem to need less than 5 or more than 8 colors so that works for me. In a pinch I’ll add a snap weight if I need to run baits deeper but that is pretty rare.
@SSperch
I’ll follow up with a more complete report tonight once my daughter is down for the night.
Ooohhh, I can’t wait!!! I’ll be on line after work tonight!!! CYA then James!!! Depending on this school thing I am in works out for me and before I have to start the in-school thing for the kiddos, I might try to convice my trolling partner to sneak up to Saxon Friday or Sat.!!!
Mark
Here you go, guys! Sorry it took so long. I had one sick kiddo on my hands for the last 36 hours.
http://www.in-depthoutdoors.com/fishing/reports/lake-superiior-lake-trout-august-22-24-2014/
Wow, looked like a great trip! Had hoped to make it to Grand Portage and/or Isle Royale this summer, but didn’t pan out. Glad to hear that that 42″-er is back swimming around for me to catch next summer though!
For the benefit of anyone else headed North up the shore for the holiday weekend, I was just back up in Lutsen Mon-Tues to take my father and his friend out for a couple of days on the big lake. Fished out of GM the first morning and Tac Harbor the 2nd. Both days were very good for Lakers in 85-120 FOW. Fish ranged from 4# – 12# for the most part (no monsters like James and co. found) and from largely the bottom half of the water column. Mostly a downrigger bite for us. I always run a couple of LC rods too, but they were eerily silent this trip – until I finally got around to putting a couple of mag sized spoons on the LC rods and then they started picking up lakers also.
Hot spoons for us were Jim’s Flashback Watermelon (reg), Jim’s Monkey Puke (reg), Moonshine Atomic Melon (Mag), Moonshine Agent Orange (Mag), Moonshine green Flounder Pounder (mag) and a Silver Protroll 8″ Flasher with Lt Blue/White Howie fly. Some of my usual producers: 57’Chevy spoons/stickbaits, Firetiger stickbaits , Gold Dr Spoons, Wonderbread spoons, Kevorkian spoons were completely dead. Down speeds of 1.8 to 2.5 took fish. Tried a bit faster at times thinking maybe any salmon in the area were looking for more action, but still no Chinook and also reduced our laker bite in the process.
A few very small Coho on small dodger + squid or peanut fly but they were few and far between this week with none of the nice football Chinook that I was catching in the same water just 10 days earlier.
Hope to make it up there again for at least one more trip sometime in mid-Sept, but good luck to anyone headed out on the Gitch for the holiday weekend!
Hot spoons for us were Jim’s Flashback Watermelon (reg), Jim’s Monkey Puke (reg), Moonshine Atomic Melon (Mag), Moonshine Agent Orange (Mag), Moonshine green Flounder Pounder (mag) and a Silver Protroll 8″ Flasher with Lt Blue/White Howie fly. Some of my usual producers: 57′Chevy spoons/stickbaits, Firetiger stickbaits , Gold Dr Spoons, Wonderbread spoons, Kevorkian spoons were completely dead. Down speeds of 1.8 to 2.5 took fish.
M. Leslie –
I really dig your reports. As a fairly inexperienced Great Lakes angler detailed info like what you’re sharing is such an invaluable learning tool as it really helps to be able to compare approaches. I look to be able to make a return trip at the end of the month. I’ll be sure to post up a detailed report upon my return.
Regarding spoons, I’m a Jim’s Flashback fan myself. I run a mix of Shoehorns, Michigan Stingers and Flashbacks but those Flashbacks are often found on 5 of 6 lead core rods. I don’t think there’s anything magical about the spoon blank itself but his paint schemes are fantastic. I wish he offered more colors to be honest! Particularly in his magnum series.
For us it was Teddy Bear when the clouds rolled in and Aneurism when the sun broke the cloud cover with the fish switching back and forth as the conditions changed.
I really dig your reports. As a fairly inexperienced Great Lakes angler detailed info like what you’re sharing is such an invaluable learning tool as it really helps to be able to compare approaches.
I appreciate the compliment, but I’d gladly trade most of my detail for the ability to insert a few more photos of 30# lakers in my reports 
Seriously though, it’s definitely a two-way street as I rarely ran leadcore past mid-summer until seeing some of those videos that James and Grant posted the past couple of years. Those converted me real quick to always having at least one or two LC rods in my spread whenever possible.
To be honest, I’ve found most Lake Superior anglers tend to be very free with the information that they choose to share. Maybe it is the smaller community/volume of anglers on Superior combined with the vastness of the lake and greater distance between ports that attracting a crowd isn’t really an issue- short of perhaps a holiday weekend out of the Twin Ports. As such, I’m always more than willing to pass on as much detail I can because I’ve had the same favor returned to me countless numbers of times through other posters’ reports both here and some other places, like GLA.
James, I just reread your Grand Portage report and hadn’t noticed the first time that you had said nearly the same thing about the fish wanting the mag sized spoons! My initial tendency when something still isn’t firing after multiple lure and color changes is to go smaller, not larger; so it took me a day and a half to get around to trying Mag spoons on my leadcore rods, which then immediately started picking up fish. Am going to have to file that one away for future reference!
The regular size Jim’s FB spoons are also my usual spoons of choice, but as you mentioned, there are comparatively few Jim’s mag sized colors available, so most of my mag spoons end up being Moonshine or Pro-King.
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