Isle Royale 8/6-8/7

Left Thursday afternoon wondering how bad the east wind was going to be on Friday. The marine forecast was calling for 2-4′ waves only after showing 2′ or less. Typically when the wave forecasts begin to increase in size the closer it gets, it never seems to be better than expected. We woke up at 5:30 Friday to a small craft advisory and forecasted 3-5′ waves.

Knowing the worst was going to be the ride out we decided to give her a try and come back if it got too rough. I was able to maintain between 10-17 mph staying on plane the whole way. The forecasted 3-5′ waves were spot on.

Friday’s conditions: cloudy, east wind 10-20 mph, chance of rain 60%. Water temp about 50-52.

My spread consisted of 4-5-6-10 color lead and 2 dipsey rods. I ran the 10 color straight out without a board so I could quickly adjust depth.

We fished the south west side of he island for about 45 min until the waves got the best of my patience. Picked up one beautiful Redfin and missed one crazy steelhead the went airborne and broke the line by cutting it on a metal dipsey. Both fish were caught over 55-65′.

We then headed to the north side of the island for calmer water and found about 2′ waves. We picked up several small Lakers and 2 kings. Mose were caught once again in 55-65′. One other thing to note is that most fish were hitting magnum sized spoons more so than the 3-3/4 or 4-3/4 spoons. There didn’t seem to be A major color preference but I did notice that anything white would get hit. Biggest fish of the day were the kings and the one Redfin in the photo.

Saturday’s conditions: early morning fog and clouds followed by periods of sun and periods of clouds. East wind about 5 mph and 1-2′ waves.

The ride out was a relief but was hoping the clouds would stay or the wind would maintain 1-2′ waves. We got periods of both. We headed to the south side of the island this time and found fish immediately. We had doubles and triples consistently for the first 1-2 hours. All fish came from 40-60′. Then the sun came out and we struggled. Moved in shallower and out to about 90′ with no fish coming from deeper than about 70′. We got all fish on 4-3/4 spoons with nothing on magnum. Color preference early seemed to be white again and then switched to copper and orange later in the day. I partially regret not throwing down the 3-3/4 spoons.

We caught great numbers of fish but we really went there to get that 40″+. On Friday I can honestly say we didn’t miss any fish over 30″. On Saturday I know we missed 5 fish that were better than 34″. We just couldn’t get those big ones to the boat so we never got into the bigger fish.

Overall it was a great trip. No mechanical issues and everything seemed to go as planned. I put a lot of miles on the boat, tried a ton of new water and learned a lot about the boat. I am setting aside time to go in October. Hoping for a September trip too but it might be tough. Can’t wait.

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One thing I forgot to mention. I found a use for the sidescan that was apbolutely priceless. Fishing a area that showed probably only about 1% of the reefs on in the area, sidescan kept me exactly where I wanted to be. Being able to see if I was drifting off the reef I was targeting allowed us to catch so many more fish. I had to change it to a lower frequency but it gave a crystal clear picture of what I was fishing on.

At times I found myself over a softer bottom where there weren’t any fish. With a little wondering , I could get back on a rocky reef and back on the fish.

I apologize for not having any photos or screenshots. Maybe next time.

Amen brother bluegill! Using side scan to keep the boat on the edge of structure is one of the best uses for that technology.

I apologize in advance for piggie-backing on your thread…here’s some screen captures I took with the Garmins the last time we were up on Superior. Keeping the boat where it needed to be could not be easier. If the structure veers off to the left, turn the boat left. Off to the right… turn right. And if you’re really on the ball you can drop way points along the edge and really refine your route for the next pass. Awesome tip, sir!

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Thanks for the report. I could not get the reports guys have been sharing from the North Shore out of my head so I busted butt to clear some time and I currently find myself sitting in a flea bag hotel in Grand Marais. The plan is to fish tomorrow and get home before the wife even misses me! I’ll have a report to share when we get back.

Awesome! Those screen shots look eerily familiar. Exactly what I was seeing. The last 2 times up I never even considered checking it out because I thought it was too deep to have a usable image. Boy was I wrong.

Good luck.

biggill wrote:

Awesome! Those screen shots look eerily familiar. Exactly what I was seeing. The last 2 times up I never even considered checking it out because I thought it was too deep to have a usable image. Boy was I wrong.

Good luck.

By the way, nice king. What did it weigh? That north side around Little Todd can be really good for salmon. I believe the fish stocked in Thunder Bay find their way across the border and run along the north side of the island in greater numbers than what I find on the south. Last summer I did half of my trips to the north side and we always had good trips.

Outstanding Superior King Biggill, congrats! Glad you had a good trip and the lake behaved enough to get in some quality fishing time and appreciate you taking the time to share the report/pics. I felt the same way upon returning that it certainly does get you comfortable with your boat. This is the 4th season with my current boat and I built way more confidence in her in that one weekend than in the 3 other summers combined.

Thanks to both of you for the additional info on the sidescan as well. Just added the feature when I upgraded my plotter last season and still figuring out how to best apply it to fishing the big lake.

Will be spending most of next week up in Lutsen so hope to get out of Tac Harbor and GM a couple of times each, but doubt I’ll be able to squeeze in another run out to the island.

Thanks again for the report!

Sides scan works well on sunken ships too!

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The king was probably in the 10-12 lb range I would guess. We caught 2 like that. Both were up by Little Todd. I probably would’ve stuck around a little longer but I wanted to get back and refuel before they closed.

James’ first pic is a classic example of following the edge of a reef. It made it so easy to figure out exactly where the fish were located and where to keep your boat. As he said, if the reef veers away, just turn toward the reef and you’ll get right back in the zone.

Here’s a bit of advice, stay away from grand portage on the second weekend of August. There is an annual pow wow that has the area totally booked. Due to visitors begging the staff for a place to stay, the staff there was quite crabby. They were actually nice to us since we weren’t begging for a place to stay but some of the visitors were practically told to leave.

Heres a few more pics.

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biggill wrote:

Here’s a bit of advice, stay away from grand portage on the second weekend of August..

LOL, between Fisherman’s Picnic in GM then Rendezvous Days in GP I think I’d rather ride my bike down the center lane of 494 than be caught on 61 either of the first two weekends in August

Did you guys have a reservation to stay in GP and run out/back each day or did you spend the night on the Island?

Spectacular looking Redfin by the way!

M. Leslie wrote:

to stay in GP and run out/back each day or did you spend the night on the Island?

Spectacular looking Redfin by the way!

Thanks. That was our first fish of the trip. I have a pickup camper so I made a res at the campground on thurs but they were booked for fri. I convinced them to let me pay an overnight parking fee and spent fri night in the parking lot. And yes we did drive back each day.

I really wanted to understand the fuel range my boat has before I stayed on the island and confined myself to one area. I’ve got an 80 gal tank but it’s a 2 stroke gas hog. I figured I’m getting about 2.5 mpg. Well over 100 mile range. I might have to make the trip to rock harbor sometime and camp on that NE end of the isle.

Were thinking of hitting Grand Marais Monday the 17th and Tuesday, you think the crowds will have thinned down by then??

A place to stay seems to maybe be in short supply if all that is going on?
tia

Al

Thinking of a trip to IR. Made a trip about 25 years ago. Been spending my late summers out on lake Mich since “82”. Things are changing out there and looking for something different. I like exploratory trips. Are there any mapping chips for the area? I know you are running Gamin this year. I have all Humminbird. I have been looking and haven’t found anything that covers the Island area.

Mine is a Navionics great lakes Maritimes I believe. I will try to double check when I get home and look into the unit. Pretty good but it still lacks a lot of structure that is actually found while trolling.

I have Insights for lowrance and I have the same problem. Missing 95% of the actual structure.

Navionics
Fish n chip
Great lakes

Crazy I just stumbled across this thread here – been watching IDO for years. I was actually up at Isle Royale with my dad the same week you were. Fishing the south side out of Washington Harbor. Thought I would share our fish (47in 45lbs). Been going to Isle Royale every other year now for the past decade, each time is great but this past year’s fishing was phenomenal. Got lucky on a few kings out of Rock Harbor as well. Not quite as big as that king a few posts up though.

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@nikbiebighauser, I think I saw an article written on your fish. Awesome catch. That’s exactly why I go. Here’s a couple others I caught last October up there.

Looking forward to more trips this year. How early have you gone up there? I’m thinking about a June trip either there or stannard Rock.

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some nice trout right there! yeah we made the Tribune haha, pretty fun.

Earliest we have gone up is honestly July, staying out there you just never know the conditions – we usually make a week or 4 days out of it. But a guy that we have met up there a number of times actually went out I believe last weekend. So 5/13, which I think is pushing it. If you just launch out of Grand Marais or of course Grand Portage and make day trips I would think a June run would be fine if you play the conditions right.

I’ve never done the Stannard Rock bit, definitely on the radar though. I have seen some crazy fish caught out there.

Is it because of the wind direction that early isn’t good? What is the dominant factor in going later in the summer?

off the top of my head I would say water temp.

Definitely not an expert, but just to talk fishing this is our approach for lakers on IR: on the south side what we look for – no surprise here – water temp, depth and speed. Above 55 temp if you can, 100-110 depth (set rigs and dipsys on the bottom, let your lead do the 60-70ft), 1.2 – 1.5mph. Clean spoons on everything, no flashers or dodgers for us on Isle Royale. Green/purple combo. Ideal conditions for wind we would look at 1-3 footers, mostly because it allows you to keep your line and speed fairly constant. Our set up is two down riggers, two lead and dipsys. I tell you what, dipsys are probably our most reliable fish puller when we can dial them in to bounce off the bottom a bit.

**I hear a lot of people are setting shallower for suspended lakers, 50-60 feet set, we don’t but if it works it works!

By lead do you mean the downrigger weights or 1 lb. balls type stuff? Where do you run the riggers? I understand the dipsy setup.

Nope I mean lead core rigs. We expect and hope they are down 60-70 feet depending on the current and wind, a little bit of a crap shoot. But that’s how we usually get lucky on a king here and there.

We run the down riggers deep. One 5 feet off the bottom the other 15 (80ft and 100ft). Like I said above though, been hearing a lot about people setting their down riggers closer to 50 – 60 feet.