North Shore September 10th-13th

Last weekend my wife and I made our second annual trip up the North Shore, this year staying in Tofte. Last year we spent a lot of time fishing around river mouths with limited success. The plan this year was to do a little scouting, study some maps, and see if we could get up river and maybe find some Brook Trout. Our strategy was sound, even though we never did find the Brookies. Instead we caught quite a few small Rainbow Trout. The best one was 14 inches long, most of them were 10 to 12 inches long.

We found most of our fish in fairly specific areas. Occasionally the current would get funneled into a narrow area creating a chute that would be 15 or 20 feet long. If there were large individual rocks next to this chute, there was a goood chance you’d find a Rainbow there. The presentation that worked the best was a bead head nymph fished under a strike indicator. It was mandatory that you threw enough slack into your cast to get a dead drift or they wouldn’t touch it. That meant somne experimenting with mending and other tricks to get the right drift. I was surprised how close I could sometimes get to the fish and hold the fly rod high to get most of the slack line out of the water to get a good drift. In fly fishing circles this is known as “high sticking”. No, I didn’t get two minutes for the infraction! We did find one tranquil pool that held a lot of fish, and they wanted dry flies. I saw a splashy rise and immediately started looking for insects in or on the water. No dice, either there weren’t many of them or they were too small for me to see. I added a couple of feet of 6X tippet and tied on a #16 Stimulator. This dry fly is a Caddis Fly imitator and it floats well. On the very first cast, it didn’t travel more that a couple of INCHES before Ka-Pow fish on! I learned a very important lesson here. I could see the bottom of this pool like I was looking through air. There were no fish to be seen…that is until they attacked your fly! I guess if they’re invisible to Eagles and Ospreys and Otters and Bears, why should I be able to see them? It’s the same old thing….you don’t catch fish if your line isn’t in the water. We did catch one fish near a river mouth. Mona was throwing a small Vibrax spinner out into the lake without any takers. Then she turned around and threw it under a dock behind her (Bass fishing genes kicking in) and caught a

nice Pink Salmon! We never did find the Brook Trout, my guess is that we never went far enough towards the headwaters. The thing I don’t get about those Rainbows was that they all had their adipose fins. That’s the fin that the DNR clips on the hatchery fish. Up on the North Shore, you can keep hatchery Rainbows but must release all the wild fish. Wild fish have that fin. The weird thing is that Rainbws don’t reproduce in the upper Cascade River, so is the DNR socking fish they want you to release? It didn’t matter as we were planning on releasing any trout we caught anyway but it still would be interesting to know. The weather was phenominal, the scenery breathtaking, and we caught some fish. I can’t wait to go back!

Rootski

This sign is at the public access in Grand Marais. I’d like to see this at every public access!

And for you deer hunters, we came upon a place in the woods where a bunch of BIG trees had rubs on them. They were all over the place. This tree was at least 4 or 5 inches in diameter. I’d sure like to get a look at the buck who did this…

Looks like a lot of fun, Steve! We were also up on the North Shore that weekend camping at Split Rock. The weather was unreal!

I fish is a fish and they are all fun I hope to make it up there sometime soon.
I have never been but it looks awesome!! to catch no matter the size!!

Great report!

My guess is those are not rainbows, rather baby steelhead. I believe they stay in the river for a couple of years before they head out to the lake. But upper Cascade? I don’t know how they could jump 20′ waterfalls to get up there.

Sounds like the pinks are already starting to stage at the mouths of the rivers. Being an odd numbered year, it should be a good year.

As for flies my understaning is the water chemistry not right for mayflies. Exception being lakes with enough silt can make for a good Hex hatch. However there are caddis and the north shore trout don’t have a lot to eat so they are opportunists.

As for the brookies, plenty up there. You have the right idea. Try the lakes too. I had tremendous shore fishing catching fat rainbows cruising for food early am (cast near the wakes). Some lakes are even stocked with splake (lake x brook trout). Locals swear splake is the best tasting MN fish. Several folks said they would eat a splake over a walleye any day of the week.

i thought steelhead was the term used for rainbow trout on the great lakes….maybe i’m wrong:)

I was at our cabin in Two Harbors during the same time. Great weather wasn’t it?

Quote:

---

This sign is at the public access in Grand Marais. I’d like to see this at every public access!

---

I agree Steve. That sign should be a boat launch standard.

That one image where you’re looking down it appears something is looking back up at you. Is that a big ole snapping turtle I see? Cool pics

Great report

Nice pics

Quote:

---

That one image where you’re looking down it appears something is looking back up at you

---

Nope, I was just being very careful about my footing. The rocks on those rivers are slippery, and my hip boots don’t have felt soles. It was very tough wading around and I didn’t want to fall and brak something important, like my fly rod

Thanks for the input Scudly! I never did see any insects on the water and it didn’t seem to matter what I threw at them: Comparaduns, Stimulators, parachutes BWO’s, etc. I suppose they can’t afford to get selective on a stream where the pickin’s are thin. It sure was fun catching Trout on flies I made last winter!

We did much better this year than last as we’re learning our way around a little better. I would like to fish a lake or two as well but it’s been so much fun fishing the streams that we haven’t done that yet. Next time!

Rootski

Just an after thought, but how’d you do with your trailer dilemma? jerr

Rootski here is what my buddy Cutthroat had to say. He lives in Two Harbors and knows his stuff:

“Yeah, those are steelhead, stocked as fry or fingerlings by the DNR above the barrier falls. When they become smolts (about the size this guy was catching) they head down to the lake to grow big. You can’t keep any steelhead/rainbow above the barrier falls on NS streams; it’s catch and release only.”

When I canoed down the Bois Brule my first time during the day I caught a bunch of what I thought were rainbows all day long just trolling behind the canoe with a spinner. Same deal. Stealhead. Hard to tell the difference at this size.

Quote:

---

“Yeah, those are steelhead, stocked as fry or fingerlings by the DNR above the barrier falls. When they become smolts (about the size this guy was catching) they head down to the lake to grow big. You can’t keep any steelhead/rainbow above the barrier falls on NS streams; it’s catch and release only.”

When I canoed down the Bois Brule my first time during the day I caught a bunch of what I thought were rainbows all day long just trolling behind the canoe with a spinner. Same deal. Stealhead. Hard to tell the difference at this size.

---

It makes sense what your buddy says and thanks for forwarding that info! Other than differences in behavior, I thought Steehead and Rainbows were the same fish. Both have the same scientific name (Oncorhynchus mykiss). Man it would be a heck of a ride, heading down river over some of those waterfalls on the way to the big lake. They don’t call that river the Cascade for nothing Steelhead are amazing fish.

I still wonder about the clipped fin deal. If teh DNR stocks them without clipping the fin, then you could never keep any of them. I’m fine with that, but they make a big deal about clipped fins in the regulations.

I had a good time up there, can’t wait to go back.

Rootski

There’s a big difference between Steelhead and Loopers. Both are rainbow trout, one is farm raised and used as put and take (loopers) the other spends its time in the big lake only to come to the rivers in the spring and fall to spawn. Loopers are stocked at the French and also milked to raise more to stock later. I may be wrong (it’s happened once or twice) but I think they stopped stocking Steelhead around 2005?????

Loopers will have clipped adipose fins, if it doesn’t have a clipped adipose it is a Steelhead and must be returned to the water. Loopers are there for us to eat, so take your limit, I think something like 92,000 yearlings are stoked annually.

Shiner,

Thanks for explaining that to me! That clears it up. Do Loopers look different than Steelhead, or is the only way to tell them apart the clipped fin?

This has turned out to be a very interesting and informative thread. Thanks guys for taking the time write some of this up!

Rootski

I was under the impression the only difference was the clipped fin.

Any rainbow stocked above the barrier falls, either fingerling or fry, is a steelhead. Without these stockings there would barely be enough steelhead for a fishery to even exist, as reproduction on these short, steep North Shore streams is not that great, and highly variable. A minimum size rule of 16 inches is in place for those folks who want to keep a fin-clipped steelhead from Lake Superior on streams below the barrier falls. Unclipped, wild fish are catch and release only. Few people keep any steelhead these days.

Any rainbow (steelhead) caught above the barrier falls must be released.

“Loopers” are Kamloops rainbows from British Columbia stock, which are stocked in Lake Superior to provide a near-shore, put-and-take fishery — very popular with locals in spring on the lower shore (Duluth to Two Harbors).