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Showing posts from April, 2009

Fishing Report 4-29-09

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This past week we were invited by Hrbek Outdoors Television to be the "celeberty" guest for a north Shore Steelheading adventure episode... we naturally said yes! We fished and filmed all day Wednesday along the Middle shore streams. Water temps varied from 39f to 45 in the afternoon, perfect conditions. After talking with anglers, the morning fishing was pretty slow for everyone, including us. The afternoon however was a different story. We managed to get a few Steelies on film, a moose, bald eagle, and deer for what should be a great show. Check back later in May,we will post the date the Show will air - sometime in June. If you have not been out to fish, get out. This is a great time. Most the rivers are fishable and have fish. We are waiting for one of our field staffers to report in for the upper shore rivers. Our Guess at this point is that the upper shore is still a few days from a good run, but as most of you know, that could change before you are done readi

Fishing Report 4-27-09

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Water temperatures ranged from 39-46 degrees on the Lower Shore, 37-46 on the Middle Shore, and 33-36 on the Upper Shore. Interviewed anglers caught 27 Steelhead, 27 Kamloops, and 2 Coho on the Lower Shore, 8 Steelhead and 2 Kamloops on the Middle Shore, and nothing on the Upper Shore on Saturday and Sunday. The run peaked last Wednesday through Friday on the Lower Shore, and will likely peak on the Middle Shore sometime late this week or early into next week. Rain totals from Sunday averaged around one inch in Two Harbors, Finland, and Grand Marais, resulting in flows increasing shorewide. Streams on the entire shore are now high and turbid due to the rains; however, Lower Shore streams are carrying very little debris. The amount of debris in the water increases as one progresses up the shore. Upper shore streams are currently very high, turbid, carry a lot of debris, and have some shelf ice remaining. The Knife River trap had 17 steelhead and 2 Kamloops on Saturday, 11 steelhead and

Fishing Report 4-24-09

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The rivers are open on the entire shore. Water temperatures ranged from 36-37 degrees in the morning and 41-45 degrees in the afternoon on the Lower Shore. Water temperatures throughout the day range from 34-40 on the Middle Shore and 33-36 on the Upper Shore. Interviewed anglers caught 12 Steelhead and 20 Kamloops on the Lower Shore, 14 Steelhead and 5 Kamloops on the Middle Shore, and nothing on the Upper Shore this past week. The run is peaking from the Lester to the Stewart right now and will be peaking on most Middle Shore streams within the next week. Flows on the Lower Shore streams have been declining and clearing up for the past week; however predicted weekend rains might add some more color to the water and increase flows. Middle Shore streams have decreasing flows and are starting to clear up and carry less debris, while and Upper shore streams are still turbid, have some shelf ice remaining, and carry some debris. The Knife River trap had 1 steelhead on Monday, 9 on Tuesda

Fishing Report 4-20-09

The rivers go from being open on the Lower Shore and Middle Shore, to semi-open on the Upper Shore. Water temperatures ranged from 35-36 degrees in the morning and 38-42 degrees in the afternoon on the Lower Shore. Water temperatures throughout the day range from 34-37 on the Middle Shore and 33-35 on the Upper Shore. Interviewed anglers caught 18 Kamloops, 11 Steelhead, and 1 Coho on the Lower Shore, 1 Steelhead on the Middle Shore, and nothing on the Upper Shore this past weekend. The run will likely peak on the Lower Shore this week (Thursday and Friday) if afternoon air temperatures are in the 50’s and 60’s with sunshine, as predicted. Flows on the Lower Shore crested on Saturday and are now declining. Lower shore streams are also clearing up and carrying less debris, while Middle and Upper shore streams are still very turbid and carry ice chunks and debris. The Knife River trap had 14 steelhead in it on Saturday after a warm sunny day on Friday (72 degrees), but a cold front

Fishing report: 4-17-09

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The rivers go from being open on the Lower Shore and Middle Shore, to semi-open on the Upper Shore. The MN DNR spring creel survey has been going for one week on the Lower Shore, while it started yesterday on the Middle Shore, and today on the Upper Shore. Water temperatures ranged from 34-35 degrees in the morning and 38-41 degrees in the afternoon on the Lower Shore. Water temperatures throughout the day range from 33-36 on the Middle Shore and 33-34 on the Upper Shore. Interviewed anglers caught 9 Kamloops and 9 Steelhead on the Lower Shore, and 3 Steelhead on the Middle Shore the past four days. It is still early in the run on the Lower Shore. In general, water temperatures must exceed 40 degrees for Steelhead and Kamloops to migrate upstream. Flows on the Lower Shore are peaking, continue to be turbid, and are still carrying some debris in the afternoons. The Knife River trap was opened on 4/12/09 and has sampled 6 Steelhead this past week. Flows at the French River continue to b

Fishing report: 4-13-09

The rivers on the Lower Shore (Lester, French, Sucker, and Knife) are open. Further up, semi-open on the Middle Shore (Stewart, Silver, Gooseberry, Split Rock, Beaver, and Baptism), and frozen on the Upper Shore (Cross, Temperance, Poplar, Cascade, Devil Track, Kadunce, and Brule). The MN DNR started their spring creel survey on the Lower Shore this past Friday (4/10/09). Water temperatures ranged from 34 degrees in the morning to 38 degrees in the afternoon on all four rivers. The DNR reports that interviewed anglers caught 11 Kamloops, 8 Steelhead, and 4 Coho Salmon. The creel survey on the Middle Shore will start on Thursday, (4/16/09) and on Friday (4/17/09) on the Upper Shore. It is still very early in the run on the Lower Shore. In general, water temperatures must exceed 40 degrees for steelhead and Kamloops to migrate upstream. Flows on the Lower Shore continue to increase and are currently high and turbid. The Knife River trap was opened for the first time on Sunday. The French

Fishing Report 4-9-09

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Slow going but the steelhead have started their run! One of our Duluth contacts fished last night and this morning. Water was 38 in the Lester and 37 in the Stewart. Dropped to 33 on both as of this morning. One wild steelie (unclipped/untagged) and two loopers caught on the 7th, no fish this morning. Still a fair amount of shelf/anchor ice around in certain places but some rivers almost 100% fishable (Lester/Sucker) The South Duluth creeks and Nemadji loop from Tischer south to the St. Louis, and over to State Line weres fishable as of the 3/28. The snow did a number on them for a few days, but as of last Friday the conditions were good... no steelhead caught in this area as of 3/28. Also, as of 3:21 today it is 52f in Silver Bay...

Fising Report - 4-7-09

Conditions? Not there yet. We are waiting for our staff and volunteers to report in for the weekly stream report. As of last Friday the rivers were still in rough shape, though we had a report that some die-hard fishermen were out fishing some rivers with openings amongst the ice. If you venture out be prepared for cold, dirty water and ice... bright egg flies are to the go to pattern in such conditions. Today we received a report from the Finland area. Now I know what you are thinking, what does Finland, MN have to do with the North shore conditions? Everything, if you are a mid-shore steelheader . For those unaware, a great number of the mid shore rivers have headwaters several miles inland. These headwaters are still ice covered and packed in with snow. The daytime temperatures have hardly been above freezing and the night temps have been averaging in the 20's. What this means? It is still winter 12 miles inland for the mid & upper shore rivers. This morning we wer

03.28.2009 Fishing Report Update

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As of March 28th, tribs from Castle Danger south to Duluth were well on their way to opening up. Still lots of anchor/shelf ice here and there, but we're very close. I would not be surprised to hear of kamloops already in certain streams. The mouth of the French (shown at right), was open enough that fish could certainly run it. The ice you see was Lake ice blown in against shore due to a strong northeasterly wind. Tribs from Duluth south and over to just beyond Iron River are open and fishable with some of the smaller ones climbing into the mid to upper 30's already. Regards- NMF