Minnesota Steelheader

Here is a nice shot from our 2011 fall Salmon clinic on a North Shore River. Thanks again to all who attended that event.  Special thanks to our staffer, Murph, for having the willpower to leave his rod in the truck and document this event with his Nikon! Photo: © MurphShot Photography

If you haven't been paying attention, or maybe your brain is about melted from all this heat & humidity like mine is, but fall fishing is just around the corner. Browns have been coming in on select tribs & pinks have been staging in numbers off of North Shore tributaries. What's interesting is that in a typical year, the first reports of pinks show up in the DNR summer lake creel just about a month to the day before they show up in the streams. Usually this takes place in the Grand Marais/Hovland area & around the middle of August. This year, reports of near-shore pinks started showing up around the 20th of July which is really early. That & very good numbers are being caught as far south as Two Harbors. You'll probably get tired of hearing me say it, but fall pink fishing is a great way to get out and learn streams for spring steelheading. The fish utilize similar areas, & you're better able to spot things about individual streams you wouldn't ...

In one word, "Ugly" I did make it out briefly on Sunday, September 20th after completing some work-related training in the area. The short version of the story is that the tribs are too low, too warm, and too many mouths are nearly blocked. There are a few pinks in certain tribs now however, I did manage to at least hook several. Until we get some significant precipitation things are not going to improve any. The one upside to this is that, as I've said before, the low water provides the ideal opportunity to get out and scout. Low water reveals details about the streams that can be invaluable during the spring steelhead runs when the tribs are high and dirty; so I count even a hot, sweaty, nearly fishless trip as a success. Here's to some decent rain and cooler weather, the sooner the better! NMF