Steelhead!

Anyone got any updates on the rivers yet? im going to be home in 2 weeks and am hoping to get some early season steelhead fishing in over my break. think there will be fish in them yet??

I haven’t been over there, but there are fish in the rivers right now, and judging by this weather, it should hit it’s peak in about two weeks on the Lake Michigan tribs. The Superior tribs should be ok, too, although the fish may not have made their big run yet. Just keep an eye on the streamflow data on the USGS site. Good luck and let us know how you do!

what amount of streamflow should be looked for? I have a cabin near the flag, bark, and cranberry rivers and planned to fish the steelhead run when it opened end of this month.

The lester and the french have ALOT of water comin out of them. Fish are still staging outside the rivers. Next week should be hot fishing from shore. Id say week and a half to 2 the rivers will be going good with fish. The french river has given up quite alot of loopers lately….getting better every day

These two weeks wont go by fast enough!! im currently in the process of tying up some flies, i got buggers, egg sucking leeches, and eggs so far.. any help on sizes and colors would be much appreciated. also should i bring up a spinning rod and spoons to throw in the mouth of the river and into the lake?

when are your exact date of coming up? if ur coming up in a week and a half to two weeks, the fish will be in the rivers so you will not wanna fish in the lake. in the rivers, either bounce floating spawn down against the bottom or drift it with a bobber.If the river is very muddy use yarn and spawn together, this helps A TON!

im headed to florida for a week now but when i get back ill have an update for ya.

thanks for the tips grant, looking forward to hearing your report.

hey guys ive been checking out some websites and looking on google maps, but im having trouble finding acces points on the french, lester, and knife. just looking for some places to try where i wont get into trouble for fishing on private or protected water. sorry for all the questions this is my first steelhead outing.

Just look for the trucks lined up at the lester and french. Easy to see from the road.

Access for the Lester will be obvious. The French you’ll want to be on the Scenic drive to be able to fish. The Knife can be accessed on both the Express way and the Scenic drive. The Sucker you’ll need to be an the Expressway. The Stewart at Two Harbors is right on the hiway as you leave town towards Grand Marais.

Well the rivers are starting to heat up. Steelhead are being caught in the knife pretty good. hopefully the rain we are suppost to get in the next day or two will help things. The sucker is cold and clear, which makes for tough fishing. The lester is very low, which is weird.

any news on the brule, flag, cranberry, or bark rivers, or the lake in the vicinity of the river mouths?

the brule opens up this coming up saturday.

oh okay, thought the WI side was open already.

well me and a buddy of mine fished the north shore this saturday. It was our first time steelhead fishing and it showed. Started out the day at about 645 on the knife river. Fished a couple of really good looking holes and runs for a few hours with no luck. On our way to the car we stopped by the first spot we had fished and watched a guy hook and lose two very nice fish on spawn sacs. We made our way over to the french and fished in the lake at the mouth of the river and again no luck. But one guy was hammerin the loopers and he limited out with his 3 including a 28incher. couldnt tell for sure but i think he was using waxmorms maybe. went back to the knife for a while longer with no luck and watched another guy land one more steelhead from a hole we had fished earlier. Finally finished the day at the mouth of the Lester(Busy as was wverywhere else) one hookup here with a nice fish but were unable to land it. great trip but a lot more to learn about fishing up there.

yeah its a learning expirence….This year so far you definately have to put in your time to get a fish or two.

Went up to the north shore on 4/2. Hit the Lester at day break. Had one on, saw 5-7 Loopers caught up by the railroad bridge and then it got crowded around 9:00. We started up the scenic route and stopped at the French and the Tallmadge but didn’t fish till the Sucker. We caught 2 natives and saw a few more jumping the rapids. Didn’t see any Loopers caught. Got chased away by the thunder storms around 4:00.
Spawn bags and yellow or orange yarn flies were the successful baits. If you get an oppurtunity to try this, I defineatly would.