Minnesota Steelheader

Did you know that there are several other game fish species in the Minnesota waters of Lake Superior? The most popular of these are  Walleye, Lake Sturgeon, and Muskellunge. Anglers catch other species incidentally while pursuing steelhead salmon and trout; however, these fish are unlikely to produce viable targeted fisheries in Lake Superior. We see northern pike, smallmouth bass, and walleye caught incidentally nearly each year during spring and fall trout and salmon migration runs. If you are interested in pursuing Walleye, Lake Sturgeon, or Musky, your efforts may be best suited in the St. Louis River Estuary.  These 3 species spend more time inhabiting and reproducing in these waters than in the big water. Have you caught any interesting non trout or salmon in our North Shore rivers of  Lake Superior recently?  We would enjoy seeing your catches, please feel free to share! Tight lines to all this spring, fishing time is here!

What a difference a couple days can make... We finally had a chance to start crunching some numbers thanks to some intrepid anglers and their submissions to the MNST Creel Project . We want to thank those anglers who have submitted so far, as well as to remind everyone else of what you can get out of participating. First off, we DO NOT post live fishing reports. Your MNST Creel Project submissions are not used in that fashion. All of the preliminary creel data used and posted such as you'll see below, are presented on a regional scale: Lower, Mid and Upper Shore. The early creel numbers are coming in from across each respective region and are presented as a trend, not as actual daily catch numbers. For all of you statistics nerds out there such as myself, the creel numbers are plotted as a 6-point moving average, only the daily flow and temperature numbers are actual. This is done to protect the underlying data, as well as to provide you with insight into relationships betwe...

You know, it’s awfully hard to be optimistic some days. As I write this piece I can hear the wind outside; not your run of the mill gentle breeze, but the kind of wind which makes your house rattle loudly and shudder with each and every successive gust. I have a large spruce growing just outside my door. I love it. The chickadees do too and use it as they dart back and forth between the feeders grabbing sunflower seeds, then quickly escaping back into the dense cover of the branches. Not because they are scared when people or the cats are sitting out on the deck (they’re not). They know the people dole out the free seed. And the cats well... they’re just fat and slow and the chickadees know it judging by their antics. The cooper's hawk is a different story. She’s taken to hiding high up in a nearby maple, launching periodic aerial assaults on any unsuspecting bird foolish enough to sit for more than a few seconds on one of the feeders. The chickadees are the tacticians,...