Minnesota Steelheader

My buddy Dan who is an Alaska State Wildlife Trooper is the one that showed me this pattern, but only after I threatened to push him in the river. He was demolishing pink salmon at the Baptism on this fly one afternoon while I, inept and ham-fisted as I am, was resigned to playing tiddly-winks for lack of better things to do. (I certainly wasn't catching fish...) Since then I've caught quite a bit of everything on this pattern from inland trout, to steelhead & salmon. The only adjustment needed is to size the hook/fly appropriately to species. This is a killer skinny-water fly on steelhead and where legal, makes an absolutely deadly dropper. Pattern illustrated tied on a #10 TMC 2457 with 0.025 lead wire under the thorax & no bead. Hook: TMC 2457 Thread: Black 70-140 Denier based on fly sizing Bead: Gold or Copper optional Weight: 6-8 turns of 0.010-0.030 wire (optional & to size) Tail: 8-10 Rooster Pheasant barbs from the bottom 1/2 of the tail Abdomen: 2-4 long P...

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 ...

I finally got time to run the 2009 Fall numbers and this is how it looked- (Click Thumbnails for Larger Image) Browns Coho Steelhead Couple items to note: The first is that once again, actual returns (which were decent) didn't match up with reports (which were generally poor) although some hard-working folks reported outstanding fishing. We did have quite low water for parts of the fall, but that just means you have to adjust your tactics because the fish typically are there provided you are fishing the prime return window. Finding deeper holding water (read anywhere the bottom can't be seen) off the beaten path along with fishing early and late low-light periods will go a long way towards making you more successful under tough conditions. Fish will shift quite a bit of movement to night time periods and hunker down during the day. That and in the skinny, clear water, downsizing is often not just a good idea, it's almost required. Don't be afraid to throw patterns in th...

For those that have not read the article yet, here is a link to a great article written by a noted North Shore Steelhead veteran angler and author, Michael Furtman . The article appeared in the March/April issue of the Minnesota Conservation Volunteer. Steelhead of the North Shore "As North Shore streams swell with snowmelt, anglers can once again fish for supersized rainbow trout. How have these native fish of the Pacific Northwest made themselves at home in Lake Superior and its tributaries?” Click here to read the rest of the article. Picture courtesy of the MN DNR

Well, I shouldn't say, "Post Season" quite yet. There are fish around if you know where and when to look. I do have some intesting graphics assembled now that the DNR creel and fishing reports are done for the spring. MANY thanks to the hard-working folks at DNR fisheries, they rarely get enough public credit; usually they are just getting an earfull.... One of the most useful ways I've found of looking at all the numbers has been to use a weekly format as it does a few things: 1. It smoothes out any wild fluctuations in the numbers 2. It allows comparisons between different years along with different State's data 3. It's a bit more intuitive and easy to grasp Without boring you further with a whole bunch of mental gymnastics used to produce the charts, here's how the Lower Shore combined trap numbers looked through May 20th (Click Thumbnail for larger image): The blue/green lines are the total returns by week, the yellow is the average Knife River discha...

The Minnesota DNR creel survey was only run on the Upper Shore this past weekend, and now is over shorewide for the year. From 5/14 through 5/16, water temperatures ranged from 45-55 on the Upper Shore, and interviewed anglers caught 1 Steelhead and 1 Brook Trout. Flows from the May 13th rain are now decreasing and streams have moderate water clarity. The forecast calls for sunny skies all week, which should push late spawning fish to move in and out of Grand Marais area streams within the next week. Angling pressure continues to be light. Totals for the Knife Trap are so far are 382 unclipped steelhead, 297 maxillary clipped steelhead, and 26 Kamloops. Totals for the French River are 89 unclipped steelhead, 8 maxillary clipped steelhead and 395 Kamloops. This is the last fishing report for the spring creel. We thank our friends at the Minnesota Dept. of Natural Resources for their hard work this spring. I was also on the shore from Friday to Sunday - not fishing. The water conditio...

The MN DNR creel survey concluded on the Lower and Middle shores on 5/9/10, and will conclude on the Upper Shore on 5/16/10. From 5/10 through 5/13, water temperatures ranged from 42-49, and interviewed anglers caught 5 Steelhead on the Upper Shore. As a result of nearly an inch of rain shorewide on Thursday the 13th, flows have increased substantially in all tributaries. The forecast calls for sunny skies both Saturday and Sunday, and angling conditions should be good. Prior to this rain, spawning fish were still being observed on upper shore rivers up to the Flute Reed. Angling pressure has remained light on the Upper Shore, so anglers should be able to select where they want to fish. Totals for the Knife Trap are so far are 373 unclipped steelhead, 293 maxillary clipped steelhead, and 25 Kamloops. Totals for the French River are 89 unclipped steelhead, 6 maxillary clipped steelhead and 395 Kamloops.