I had the pleasure of a two day visit from Mr. Holst and his brother Jon this past week. James called up and wanted to do a little muskie and smallmouth fishing with his brother who was in town visiting for a while. We had planned on heading to Mille Lacs, but opted to stay local here in Duluth and try and figure a few things out on the St. Louis River.
We started out with James and Jon throwing top water baits for smallies, and me with a bucktail for muskies. After about 5 minutes of fishing, I have a smallie explode on the musky sized bucktail!!! Cool…..good start, but wrong fish. Fifteen minutes later, James has an upper 40 inch muskie give us all a coronary boatside, when she decided to do a little acrobatic move while smashing the topwater chugger. “Fish on!” After a few tense moments, the line snaps and up pops the bait to the surface. STRIKE ONE. The next few hours of mid-day were slow, with a few smallies making a showing. We headed downriver and out into Lake Superior to kill some time before heading back upriver for the late afternoon/evening bite. When we got back to fishing at about 4, things started to pick up. A handful of smallies were keeping the bass duo busy, and I had a very large muskie hit my bucktail 10 feet from the boat only to have a swing and a miss…..STRIKE 2. We managed a couple small to average pike inbetween the smallies as well on topwater.
We then ventured to a point off the main channel….The bass guys still throwning the bass sized chuggers and me, a musky sized Giant Jackpot. First or second cast with the Giant Jackpot revealed a muskie follow, without a hit. The next fifteen minutes are all a blur to me. Maybe James can chime in here, but i’ll give my best recollection of the events that took place. I had the follow….moments later james has a 40inch plus muskie smash his “bass” bait again. “STRIKE THREE think that one just missed…?? Couple minutes later, James has another very large fish explode on his “bass bait”…..Fish on! This fish was a mid-forty inch Pike I guesstimated! This fish took him for a ride and after a 30 second fight, the fish went airborn about 2 feet in the air and waved his head back and forth in the air at James, as if saying “I don’t think so…”…..chugger goes flying, fish gone. 
…..Literally minutes later, james has yet another muskie do a sideswipe/torpedo hit next to the boat on his chugger….this was an upper 40 inch muskie. “STRIKE FOUR”…..few casts later, i’m watching James’s bait and I see this muskie fly out of the water and grab his “bass” bait AGAIN! This fish was smaller than the fish we had seen previously. James says…”We are going to land this fish!!”. Well after some scary moments, she was in the net. After some quick pictures and a measurement, back in she went. 40 inches on the nose!
To summarize, James had 4 fish over 40 inches on or hit aggressively in 15 minutes. Throw in the one that hit my bucktail, and the one that followed my Giant Jackpot, and that made 6, I believe, different fish over 40 inches, in a matter of 15-20 minutes. Plus the one James had on to start the day!
Beginners luck? Maybe, but i’ll definitely be back to explore some more of beautiful St. Louis River. Below are some pics of the great day. Thanks James and Jon.
Steve Vick
. Did you happen to run in to any walleyes……. 
? 
ever thought about using one of those poppers for muskie fishing. Sounds like they just might work 
