Spawning Lake Trout in Lake Superior, Fall Fishing

Just a quick note about this week while after spawning lake trout.
Four of us fished out of Traverse and caught 12 lakers, released one, much to the chagrin of the brother-in-law captain. I guess I won’t get any more invites from him
Hope to go out again before winter sets in, but have to spend a few days in Florida first… bummer. Maybe I’ll find a charter down there and get my fishing fix.
Still need to cover my boat for the winter too. It’s been too windy to get out lately with 50 mile per hour gusts. Actually heard that Stannard rock had 55 miles per hour SUSTAINED winds. Imagine that, if you can!

Last Fishing day on Bete Grise for the year

2 of my kids took a day off of school on Friday to “work” with me on the water… explore new areas and look for spawning lakers.
We launched under a light rain at 9 am, but the forecast was for nice weather for the day and by the time we dropped lines, it was very pleasant for the end of October.
We tried jigging along the shore, between Bare Bluff and the public beach over nice looking rocky areas, but saw no fish and got nothing there. We then trolled along the shore almost up to Smiths, but still nothing. The surface water temp was 50.5 almost everywhere on the “Big lake”… still too warm for spawning. I’m looking for around 45 degrees.
The kids wanted to fish Lac La Belle, but I said lets try for lakers in 100 feet around the Langham. We only had one working downrigger, so we fished only that one line for an hour or so and caught 3 nice laker trout.
After this, my crew still wanted to fish the “Belle”, so we tried a few places… 1/2 hour total. There were many fish showing on sonar, but no bites.
My boat is still ready for more fishing this fall if anyone wants to go! Lakers shold be spawning soon.

Fishing Up-date, last 2 days fishing with the 19 foot Harbercraft

Got a slow start on Wednesday morning and finally got on the waters of Bete Grise with the Harbercraft with a party of 3. Steve, Nat and Janice, from Washington state had a small window of opportunity to fish and called me on Tuesday and we were able to go out on Wednesday with decent weather.
Janice had never been on a lake that she could not see both sides at the same time, so Lake Superior fishing was a new experience for her.
The wind was a little challenging, especially steering into it, but Janice was willing and able to take over so I could monitor the lines more closely. She seemed to enjoy the job and did it well.
There was no fish directly out from the bluff like there was a week ago, but we did manage to find some a little farther down the shore between Smith’s Fisheries and the mouth of the Montreal River.

The first one was a nice Steelhead caught on a dypsy diver about 35 feet below the surface with a black and pink silver streak. We also landed 2 lakers, one a laker taker and the other on a gold, orange and black silver streak. Empty stomachs on 2, but one had a 7 inch smelt.
Again, we lost 3 or 4 fish, 2 of which were all the way up to the surface and ready to scoop with the net. We would have stayed out longer, but I had an obligation. (OK, so it was a weak excuse… I had to attend a 3 pm meeting in Houghton, which I was 10 minutes late for. I should have skipped it and ruffled some feathers. Lucky there were no cops out, cause they could have nailed me for doing 75 on my way to Houghton)

On Wednesday night, I tried to get a few guys interested in fishing on Thursday, but only had one taker. I got all kinds of excuses, none of them legitimate of course, but it doesn’t pay to go into the details of them. Suffice it to say, they lacked the strong desire, because if they made it a priority all other things could wait

Ken J. and I fished out of the South Entry after launching at White City, near Jacobsville. We trolled along the channel side of the pier for a couple hours after picking up a Coho almost right away. Had a couple more on, but not good enough hook sets. We also trolled around the end of the pier, towards the shore and got a nice hit on a planer board. Ken took this one in and fought it for a few minutes and we thought it was a fat lazy laker, because of the lack of a good fight. When it came to the surface 50 feet behind the boat, Ken said it looks like a big pike mouth. Sure enough, it was a 32 inch pike as you can see in the picture.
After circling around inside the channel again a few more times, we pulled the lines and most of our lures had weeds on them… should have been checking them more often and we would have caught more fish.
There were fish showing on the sonar quite a lot all along the pier, but were picking up weeds and not attracting the fish.
We then went out to deep water, about 3.5 miles out to try for lake trout. Neither of us had fished out here before, so not knowing where to go, we fumbled around for a while and picked up only one small laker the did not even trip the release on the downrigger. Water was a little bumpy out there, but not bad enough to make anyone sick.
WE both had a good time fishing and visiting and catching fish and learned a little about the waters of South Entry. Next time will be more productive. This time we ended up with 1 laker, 1 Coho and 1 northern pike.

Itching to fish, visited Menahga, Mn instead

Got a call from Urho on Thursday with an invite to go to Isle Royale for a weekend of fishing the best waters on the lake, but I passed it up. Sometimes NORMAL life plans get in the way and I have to spend time with the family.
Instead our family spent last weekend in Minnesota since our oldest daughter Andrea lives there with her hubby and 2 kids. Son Gordon and his wife Amanda are also there temporarily with their new baby Kaily. Also, daughter in law Heidi was there with her 2 girls, so all of our grand kids were in the same place on Sunday after church.
Kaily was baptised on Saturday afternoon at the other grand parents house, Annette and Doug.
Oh yeah, our trip was a little noteworthy, since we left after school on Friday to drive the 402 miles across 3 states. Well I’m counting Michigan, Wisconsin and Mn when I say ACROSS. It is not a bad distance to travel in an evening, IF you have a long evening AND good adult company. (and the adult company can hold it for a NORMAL length of time)
As it was, we had 4 young boys and 3 girls, plus mom and I and we started out hungry, so we all had an apple to keep the hunger at bay until we reached Ewen where Leo is living while attending Gogebic College there. A quick 1/2 hour (or so) visit with Leo and a P ‘n J or two and we were on the road again.
I tried to sleep while 16 year old Julia drove and MAY have gotten a few zzzz in between the boys fighting and the rest listening to a cd story.
Somewhere along the way, I juiced up with coffee, which actually works on me since I drink very little. Julia gave up the wheel to me and I drove the remaining 150 miles to arrive in Menahga around 1:30 pm EST, or 1/2 hour after midnight their time.
The night was somewhat sleepless, since we were now on a farm, with strange noises all night long… mostly cows mooooing, it seemed right below our window. I got up before the rest of the crew and took a walk.
After breakfast with Margie, I had coffee with the farmers, namely Wayne and CJ, his helper. son-in-law Loren stopped by a little later in the morning with his rig, a logging truck, and invited me to join him on a haul up to Bemiji, Mn, which is about a 4 hour run, including load and un-loading.
At any rate, I am ready to fish some more and plan to go out on Thursday if anyone cares to join me on my Helm-n-Buoys,my 19 foot Harbercraft. The Fishin Mission is partially winterized and will not return to the water until next spring.

Margie, Kaily, Cassie, Rodney, Amy, Brian and Darrell, All 5 of our Grandkids!

Stanley milking in the barn

Stan and Bruce in the cow barn

Loren loading his still-new toy

Son-in-law Loren's loaded rig

Final trip of the season on Fishin’ Mission – Still chartering Harbercraft

Last Sunday afternoon we cruised from Copper Harbor out to Manitou Island to see the Manitou light and Gull Rock with a crew from California. I had the Fishin’ Mission moored at the Township dock for a few days since we had fished at Horseshoe Harbor a few days before, so on this trip we came back around the point into Lac La Belle once again.
The weather was awesome with warm temperatures and calm water and the colors were still beautiful… if only it was earlier in the summer (with longer daylight hours) we would have scooted out to see Stannard Rock lighthouse also.
After bussing the party back to Copper Harbor, I returned to Lac La Belle to move the boat back to my own dock.
A few days later (this past Wednesday) Wally and I took a party of 5 guys from Illinois out to Bare Bluff to try for some Coho. To my surprise we came back with a Steelhead and 11 Lake Trout even though we lost many. A GREAT time was had by all on calm waters The wind was blowing pretty hard, but we were protected by the 200 foot high bluff just 1/2 mile or less away. Walt was challenged with the strong winds and he got a good workout by using the port side engine with no power steering. (by his choice… he could have fired up the starboard engine which is where the power steering pump is)
We had one double as you may see on my Gallery page.
See more photos on the Gallery Page.

Fishing near Horseshoe Harbor, Copper Harbor

This past Wednesday was too windy to fish in Bete Grise and most of the lakers have moved out, so we went around the point to fish the north shore instead. The ride out started in Lac La Belle as very calm… it was like glass and we were the only ones disturbing the surface. Surface water was only 58.
The first mile, around the sunken ship, Langham, was flat, but after that things changed.
When we got beyond South Point, there were 4 foot rolllers coming from the south from the previous day. On top of that was a 1 to 2 foot chop with some whitecaps coming out of the south to south west.
“It’s a good thing we are fishing on the north side of the peninsula,” I commented.
As it was, we dropped some lines at the tip of the point and trolled for a while before heading in the direction of Copper Harbor. We fished a few places along the way and picked up 2 lakers, one brown trout and 2 pinks… not a bad day considering the wind. It was hard to fish effectively, even though we were somewhat protected from the south wind. With the boat getting pushed in a sideways direction, it limited our number of lines, and caused a few tangles.
My camera died, so I don’t have any picts of my own and will have to get them from Walt to post later.
Sunday afternoon is the next scheduled trip which is a sightseeing trip to Manitou Island to see Gull Rock Light, Manitou Light and the mouth of the Montreal River. Perhaps we will go into Lac La Belle from there and also see the Mendota light.