Grant and I were able to sneak out for a half day fishing on
Superior prior to the weekend. I was going to be up in Cloquet with the family and just happened to leave the Skeeter hooked to the truck making it very difficult for the wife to try and keep me off the water. 
The plan was to launch out of Two Harbors and mess around with the coho and lakers. Both of us had been hearing good reports of warmer water in close to shore and a good coho bite with some nice lakers mixed in as a bonus.
Recent satellite maps showed water temps running in the 52′ – 58′ range close to Two Harbors which was likely responsible for the good bite of late in that area given how cold the water has been on much of Superior.
Of course we arrived after a wind switch which had blown the warmer water off shore. We spent a couple hours fishing south of Two Harbors looking for warmer water and the coho that had been stacked up in that area but found neither. Water temps had dipped to 45′ – 47′ degrees and we never did mark a fish or locate warmer water anywhere in the 60′ – 150′ of water we were fishing close to shore.
Knowing that the off shore wind would push the warmer water out in to the lake we decided to pull all lines and head east. By the time we hit 600+ feet of water…. BINGO – the temps jumped noticeably and we found a larger pocket of warmer water that ran 54-58 degrees. Bugs were hatching everywhere and for the first time we started to mark fish suspended.
The fish were very shallow, holding in the top 30′ of the water column. We ran out two boards per side to start. We pulled shallow running plugs on long lines on the outer boards. We ran a #10 Flat Rap on one rod and a K-11 Kwikfish on the other. Both boats produced lakers in the 3 – 5 lb range in short order.
On our inside boards we ran 5 colors of segmented Sufix 832 Advanced leadcore in 18# to a 30 foot leader to our spoons. Gold with any kind of accent in a bright color seemed to be what the fish wanted, trolled at 2.2 mph. Grant had the hot spoon and also caught the biggest fish of the trip in the photo I attached. What a fish! Proves you don’t have to get all that far up the north shore to catch big lakers!
We did pull 2 of our board rods later in the day and swapped them for dipsey rods to see if that particular presentation would put fish in the boat for us but on this day the fish were so high in the water column the dipsey rods stayed quiet. We had one hit that never did hook up. Outside of that one opportunity everything came on boards.
With a little luck I’ll be able to get back up on Superior in the next week or two. I still have my heart set on finding some salmon but if that doesn’t work out and the big lakers get in the way… I’m sure I’ll make due.
but no matter what boat you have, if the waves/wind/forecast allows, be willing to move. Go out and find the water that has something different if your in an area that doesn’t have fish. Our first spot, we pulled for an hour with no signs of life. We headed out a few miles and what do ya know, we got on fish. 