The Skinny (for the time sensitive, give me the cliff-notes people…skip if you want to read the whole story):
I crossed off another item on the bucket list: fishing Lake Superior. In this instance, it was shore fishing, which I didn’t know was a thing. Little did I know that the locals and outsiders, alike, flock the shore just a couple miles north of Duluth in hopes of landing Coho Salmon, giant “Loopers” (Kamloops Rainbow Trout) and Steelhead. If you’re making a weekend outing out of Duluth or would like the opportunity to fish Superior, shore fishing is a great opportunity and cheap alternative to bringing the boat or paying for a guide. It’s also an excellent way of soaking in the fishing culture up there – why you need to get out there a minimum of an hour before sunset. Yes, you read that correctly: an hour before sunset – it’s essential to claim your territory. Most of the gear you probably already have in the tackle box or close to the following:
Rods: 2 Medium / Medium-Light action one set up for casting and one rigged for bobber fishing
**You can fish two rods at a time**
Line:
Casting: 20-30 lb braided tipped with 3 feet of 6-10 lb flouro
Bobber: 6-8 lb. mono or fluoro
Lures:
Casting: ½ oz. Blue Fox Rattlin’ Pixee Spoon in either Blue/Orange or Rainbow Pink
Bobber: 1/16 oz. Looper Bug Jig (you’ll only find them online or in Duluth so if you can’t get them in enough time grab a 1/16 oz. Flu Flu)
Rigging:
Casting: swivel for your spoon
Bobber: weighted bobber (absolutely essential that it’s weighted so it casts far)
*bonus if it also is a lighted bobber for the early morning bite
Bait:
Casting: not needed
Bobber: tip the jig with a waxworm
Net: It’s extremely helpful but not necessary. If you have one that telescopes out 5+ feet even better!
The Story
We all have had our fair share of early mornings: kids, a new puppy, catching an early flight, etc. If you’re a fisherman, you know you generally have the luxury to “sleep in a little” and getting out to the lake around dawn. If you’re a hunter, though, you know the EARLY wakeup pill you have to swallow each time you elect to hit the duck slough, deer/turkey woods, etc. As difficult it can be to roll out of a cozy bed, a promising opportunity awaits. It’s up to us to capture it.
Carpe Diem.
When my buddy, Matt, gave me a call informing me that his buddy caught a limit of “Loopers” (Kamloops Rainbow Trout) while shore fishing on Lake Superior in less than an hour, I spouted rhetorically in short, “When do you want me up at your place in the morning?” Little did I know what I’d actually get for a response from him, “Be at my place at 2:00 AM…I’ll text ya what gear you’ll need in a little bit.”
2:00 AM. For fishing?! You’ve gotta be kidding me!!
Yep, I know I’m wired differently; it’s complete tomfoolery to ever need to wake up so early. So what’s the actual rationale? The early bird gets the worm with claiming the best territory.
“No, I guess I understand that. Why do you need to be up there by 5:00 AM to claim your ambiguous territory??? That seems to be overkill considering the sun doesn’t rise for an hour and a half or two hours later,” you question.
That’s reasonable to ask such. I even questioned it too! Lake Superior is a whole new monster to conquer. This isn’t your run-of-the-mill lake with ‘Eyes, Crapps, or Pike (walleyes, crappies, northerns) that are synonymous in most Minnesota waters. This is Lake Superior.
We’re talking about the opportunity for hooking up with Coho Salmon, giant Kamloops “Looper” Rainbow Trout, and mighty Steelhead just to name a few of the prized fish that lures the Duluth locals and outsiders alike. The bay had just thawed so it also was a chance to finally get out and cast for fish instead of huddling over an ice fishing hole – what most of us fishermen had been doing for the past four months.
Don’t get me wrong, I love to ice fish. But there’s just something cathartic about swinging back your rod over your shoulder and, with the flick of the forehand, the once rigid graphite pole crescents from the weight of potential energy. Just at the right moment in its forward arc, your finger (holding the line) sets your lure free – lifting like grouse catching flight. As your lure gracefully catches the subtle morning breeze, a growing comet tail of line illuminates from the sun’s first offering of day. All the while, the subtle droplets, from a previous cast, mist off the expelling line from your reel that gives off the sound of a three pack of divers cruising overhead. As you watch the lure makes it descent, you give a little smirk on the side of your mouth knowing full well where it’s going. Splash…exactly where you purposed it.
This is why I avoid fishing with a bobber – why I didn’t pack one. There’s simply more engagement in the sport. You can vary your casting distances: are they lurking close, far, or somewhere in between? You can vary your retrieval depth: are they congregating shallow, off the bottom, or suspended in between? You can vary your retrieval: are they moving walleye-lethargic, trout-bullet, or at a speed in between? You can vary your cadence: are they enticed by a straight swimmer, completely erratic, or sporadically in between?
Alright, let’s rein it in. Below are the gear essentials:
Rods: 2 Medium / Medium-Light action one set up for casting and one rigged for bobber fishing
**You can fish two rods at a time**
Line:
Casting: 20-30 lb braided tipped with 3 feet of 6-10 lb flouro
Bobber: 6-8 lb. mono or fluoro
Lures:
Casting: ½ oz. Blue Fox Rattlin’ Pixee Spoon in either Blue/Orange or Rainbow Pink
Bobber: 1/16 oz. Looper Bug Jig (you’ll only find them online or in Duluth so if you can’t get them in enough time grab a 1/16 oz. Flu Flu)
Rigging:
Casting: swivel for your spoon
Bobber: weighted bobber (absolutely essential that it’s weighted so it casts far)
*bonus if it also is a lighted bobber for the early morning bite
Bait:
Casting: not needed
Bobber: tip the jig with a waxworm
Net: It’s extremely helpful but not necessary. If you have one that telescopes out 5+ feet even better!
I packed my truck with the above, warm clothes, and the essential elixir: some BOLD coffee. Ignition. Tunes. Drive. Pit stop at Matt’s and on we went further North into the dark where all there was to see were dots that marked and dashes that guided.
It was 4:30 when we arrived in Duluth and met up with Matt’s buddy. A couple miles further North we pulled off the side of the road, unpacked, and made our way down to the shore. Making our way down the steep hill I paused, took a breath of fresh, North Shore air and looked up with the obvious expectation to see a dark abyss and, after the four month hiatus, hearing waves break on the rocky shore. The waves I heard. What I saw, a complete surprise: three dozen little red lights bobbing at varying distances from 50 to 70 yards – “The heck…”
As I made my last steps down the hill and on to the shore, the lights made sense. I’m an avid duck hunter. As I mentioned earlier, the early bird gets the worm: prime territory. Little did I think anyone in their right mind would be fishing at 4:45 AM except for maybe a handful of us, tops! Compound that notion considering there were at least 18 people already fishing (remember, you can use two lines on Superior). It was promising, but still hard to fathom – props to the Duluth locals!
Since I didn’t have a lighted bobber, I elected to wait things out until sunrise. Yeah, I could’ve casted and feel out my retrieves. I decided that since I was already sleep deprived to rest in the dark and enjoy a tasty Bismarck with the remainder of my coffee.
The hour and a half left in the dark went by surprisingly quick. This was probably due to how often I had to show how big my territory was to the unbelievable hoard of headlamp clad fishermen that came down the hill. My trick was strapping my headlamp to my tackle bag and resting it on my chair aiming down towards the boulders in front of it while I stood twenty feet further up the shore where I’d just flash my cell phone’s light at them.
Droves of people continued to pour down the hill and line up along the shore as far as the eye could see – once the sun came up. I was told this was normal; my pseudo twenty yard territory diminished to twenty feet as the late risers began filling in any larger than “normal” gaps along the shoreline.
I’m not going to lie, it took some time getting used to the traffic. I swallowed my slight agitation once the sun began to crest on the horizon. This is Superior.
The fishing was tougher than what occurred the day prior with Matt’s buddy; most of us didn’t have a bite. Those that did were bobber fishing. I would’ve fallen asleep had I bobber fished – just not my cup of tea – and remained determined with casting all the variety I could all the while teaching myself a new casting technique based on the circumstances I was facing.
The key that morning and I’m sure most days with shore fishing is to get your lure out as far as possible; the fishermen landing fish were bombing out their lures 60+ yards. The pixie spoons I was using attained that distance with ease (spoons fly a mile!). Distance clearly wasn’t the issue. What was the challenge was the bloody 20 mile per hour wind blowing from left to right. Spoons catch the wind like none other, and when they do, they sail. When you only have a 20 foot parcel to cast with that kind of wind you have some “play the wind” variables that have to be addressed in order to avoid going over another person’s line. Not only did I have to account for the wind carrying the lure, but also the line; hitting your mark with the lure was half the battle since your line also catches the wind and makes a giant arc that could sail over another’s line (why I used braided since it’s a little heavier and its diameter is generally smaller to combat this). To avoid both from happening, I had to go John Elway style and toss bullets making sure that the lure flew as low and straight as possible.
How? Well, I had to whip out a modified version of my baseball swing:
- Feet shoulder width apart. Back foot facing perpendicular to shore while your front foot is at the 10 ‘O Clock
- Hands gripping the rod at a shoulder height
- Move hands downward at a 45 degree angle as if you’re pulling your rod out from an imaginary sheath that’s above your shoulder
- When your hands are at about shoulder height, quickly flick your wrist forward and down (this will create a strong whipping motion)
- Release the line with your finger when your rod is at the 10 ‘O Clock
If you do it properly, your lure should zip out about 20 feet above the water while still getting out at least 60 yards.
After four hours of this, I was about to throw in the towel when line tensed up and my rod did a quick jerk. It didn’t feel like I had hit bottom with my lure or hooked one of the large chunks of floating ice (another fun variable I forgot to mention!). Rather, it felt like a smallmouth pounded my lure. I reacted with a quick jolt of the wrist to set the hook. Sure enough my rod tip was getting head nudges. FISH ON!!!
I played her a little bit to wear her out. A friendly neighboring fisherman scampered over with his telescoping net to offer landing assistance (and to probably see what I had rigged up). “Coho Salmon!! Congrats!” he yelled with a big ole grin on his face. After a few gracious “thank you” to him, I emphatically grabbed the 17” white body and silver backed Coho.
“On the BOARD!” I bellowed giving a high five to Matt. It ended up being our only one of the day, but surely was worth it considering the vast majority of the fisherman that were stacked up on shore didn’t get a single bite and the ones who did were bobber fishing. This was bucket list material for me – I’ve always wanted to fish Superior and pull out a salmon.
Anyway, as we were getting a few pics with it, I noticed everyone around us frantically changing over to spoons (yeah, the guy with the net had a big mouth). In between pictures, Matt asked how I got her.
“Well, once the Rainbow-Pink spoon hit the water, I gave it a one and a half count before starting to reel in. Retrieval was medium-slow with a cadence of three reel rotations, jig the rod…then two reel rotations, jig…and so on. She hit at about 55 yards out on the right edge of my 20 foot territory.”
Casting…gotta love the variety.
