I called Marine General this morning. They said a few guys were out in front of their store today on about 3 inches of ice. Tempting to go but with the forecast showing a bit of a SW wind coming later I’m not going to make the drive to find conditions got worse before I made it up there.
3 inches seems kind of sketchy for how much that ice has shifted and opened the last few days.
Herring is a general term for a wide variety of fish. Herring is not an actual fish species.
More than likely the fish you were catching at Brighton Beach were ciscoes. I never saw one whitefish cone out of there.
If you catch a whitefish on the MN side, esp up the shore, chances are it is a round whitefish (Menominee) and not a lake whitefish like they catch in Chequamegon. A few lake whitefish show up but not many. The ‘herring’ caught are ciscoes, same species as tullibees inland. Very tasty and very fun when you get into them.
If you catch a whitefish on the MN side, esp up the shore, chances are it is a round whitefish (Menominee) and not a lake whitefish like they catch in Chequamegon. A few lake whitefish show up but not many. The ‘herring’ caught are ciscoes, same species as tullibees inland. Very tasty and very fun when you get into them.
Yes round whitefish menominee. And yes fun as heck and good smoked
I see a bunch of guys are in the harbor at Two Harbors this AM. I wonder if they’re biting……
Not yet.
I talked to three guys coming in when I was heading out. One guy’s neighbor caught a small lake trout. No salmon to speak of today.
Nothing on the ice for me. Graphed one fish in 3 hours….Spooky when a wind gust blows and booms the ice.
I hope tomorrow is better, but my hopes aren’t nearly as high as they were when I was driving up this morning.
I’ve moved a couple times. Right now I’m the Clam up by the breakwall.
Tom, can you confirm that they actually catch whitefish there? I know a lot of people use the term whitefish when they catch ciscoes.
I know you know the difference too. I just wanted to confirm. I’ve never caught a whitefish. I’d really like to get some.
Yup….they’re whitefish. I’ve caught them late in the fall using waxies under floats for loopers….when we’d actually have loopers to catch.
And the Herring are Lake Herring, aka bloaters.
Cool.
What’s not cool is watching that sliver of ice in Duluth get smaller. I hope nobody is on it.
There has to be at least 30 people out there right now. Some are close enough that they’d be able to throw a football into the open water from where they are fishing.
I tried calling three of my buddies from Two Harbors with not much luck. One didn’t answer, one was working his wife said and the other is fishing somewhere off the Wisconsin coast according to his wife….she thought Bayfield area.
I’ll get a hold of one of them yet this weekend.
Upturned mouth vs downturned mouth for difference in whitefish vs Cisco. Bloaters are not ciscoes. Whitefish are rare on North shore. Schools suspended with cohos are ciscoes (Herring or blue herring locally) not whitefish.
Coregonus artedi: Cisco, herring, tullibee,
Coregonus hoyi; bloater (very small,8-9 inch max)
Coregonus clupeaformis; lake whitefish, bigger and rare on MN side
Prosopium cylindraceum: round whitefish, more common in MN waters but pretty rarely caught unless anglers get access to shallow flats.
I live in Two Harbors and fished the past few days. Ok ice, slow fishing. A few cohos around, some schools of Cisco (Herring) and a couple Lakers caught on the bottom. Weather change should hopefully bring better fishing, but also maybe a bad wind for the ice.
Upturned mouth vs downturned mouth for difference in whitefish vs Cisco. Bloaters are not ciscoes. Whitefish are rare on North shore. Schools suspended with cohos are ciscoes (Herring or blue herring locally) not whitefish.
Coregonus artedi: Cisco, herring, tullibee,
Coregonus hoyi; bloater (very small,8-9 inch max)
Coregonus clupeaformis; lake whitefish, bigger and rare on MN side
Prosopium cylindraceum: round whitefish, more common in MN waters but pretty rarely caught unless anglers get access to shallow flats.
This was exactly my suspicion. When I first caught one of these back in. 2014 at Brighton Beach, I knew for sure it wasn’t a whitefish due to the mouth.
I have heard though that whitefish can be had up by grand portage through the ice.
Thanks for the confirmation.
To be clear, whitefish have a downturned mouth (think sucker-like), while Ciscoes (aka lake herring, tullibees, etc) have a more upturned mouth (pouty). Different nostril flaps between round (1) and lake (2) whitefish…
I have heard rumor of whitefish caught in Pigeon bay, but never tried it. That would be fun!
Has anybody been keeping up with the ice conditions around Duluth? I’ve been looking at the cams I know to check and on those the ice appears to be holding up, but I don’t think any of them show much for conditions between the lift bridge and 21st. Yesterday several were snow covered.
My wife was in Duluth while I had to work Saturday and rubbed it in by sending me a picture of several shacks out on the ice.
Just about every day this week calls for 10 to 15 mph winds from various directions and looks like a total 3 to 8 inches of snow during the week.
Tucker
According to Marine General people are fishing the lake,
We have heard reports that the shoreline ice of Lake Superior near Duluth is 5 1/2 to 6 inches. There are reports of catching lake trout at 60ft depth and some coho at 50ft depth; people are using gold and orange jigging spoons. We would like to remind you that ice conditions can change at any moment, please remember to use your best judgement when venturing out on the ice.
I was out on Sunday and can confirm MGs report. The 5-6” of ice is only a sliver of ice that runs from the shoreline at Beacon Pointe down toward the entry and tapers off to shore on park point. It doesn’t reach the best laker territory in my opinion. The ice beyond that was a mixture of loose ice pac ranging from 0.5”-2” in thickness with patches of open water. It’s not even walkable for the bravest soul. I watched one guy check it with a chisel and it went right through without any effort. It’s going to take some calm wind and cold weather for it to become even possible for the bravest souls.
The good news is that this sheet of pac ice is massive. It appears to stretch way past two harbors. That’s quite impressive. If it were to firm up it’ll be the biggest sheet of ice I’ve ever seen.
Now for more bad news. Check out the glensheen cam. You’ll see some huge piles of ice off to the NE from the 20-30 mph wind yesterday. I have to imagine this is what Brighton Beach looks like. It’s going a tough task to get on the ice if and when it’s safe.
Oh, and here’s a pic of all the fish I caught.
When I left work at 4:30 yesterday there were about 8 folks out on the ice just southwest off 21st Ave, maybe out to about 50′ of water. And this morning at 5:50 I could just make out 1 shelter out on the ice off of there. No idea if someone left it out there for the night but I didnt see any light coming from it.
Not too breezy at the moment, there will be folks out there today.
Quite a few people out this morning, I was out briefly on Friday after work.
The near sliver is pretty good ice and hopefully wont get crushed by the NE winds and ice piling up. If it makes it we should be on that ice for a good while. Exciting
Thanks for the reports. Maybe I’ll try to make it out there soon but it sounds like the ice needs to form further out yet before we can access better fishing.
Some fairly cold weather is coming this week again, so hopefully the winds are relatively kind to us.
Funny Biggill, I’m assuming you didn’t forget to attach pictures to your post…
Funny Biggill, I’m assuming you didn’t forget to attach pictures to your post…
I lost 2 small lake trout at the bottom of the hole but that was it for me. Heard of a few herring (ciscoes) and a couple cohos caught. Shoulda been there yesterday kind of deal.
I’m not liking the NNE 15-25 today and WNW 10-20 predicted tomorrow. Crossing my fingers everything holds together. Looks like I’ll probably be calling Marine General tomorrow to see if any ice is left before heading up tomorrow morning.
If anybody lays eyes on the lake this afternoon I’d be curious to hear how it looks.
Someone went through today. Sounds like everyone is ok, but it’s sketchy out there!
Someone went through today. Sounds like everyone is ok, but it’s sketchy out there!
That’s the scary thing now, the snow will keep you from seeing where the good ice ends and the crap ice starts.
For anyone wanting to head out tomorrow, I’d use extreme caution. I would not venture out onto new ice until that wind starts to die down. The only ice tested by a strong NW wind is the sliver near 21st.
Also keep in mind there were many small pockets of open water out there on Sunday on the pac ice beyond the little sliver. Someone going through doesn’t surprise me. What would surprise me is if he was the only one.
I was planning on going up there myself tomorrow until I saw the wind forecast. Now I may go Saturday instead depending on the condition of the ice after the blow.
A bunch of people out again this morning, think everyone wised up a bit and isn’t venturing beyond the sliver.
Certainly don’t want to take a bath in those waters. Any word on if the person that fell through was in a previously safe area or were they trying to push further out?
Haven’t heard exactly where they were but Sunday when I was down there the near shore sheet was still pristine, no signs of trouble. There were also a bunch of people out near the port entry (not on the rock bar that extends from shore perpendicular to entry) and on the pack beyond the sliver.
Not sure why someone would risk fishing the ice anywhere near the entry.
Well….How is the ice holding up now. Or is it even still there?
About 40 houses out there. The near shore stuff is good ice, the boundary between good and bad pack ice is very visible.
can you get to that 75 ft mark yet ?
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