You can fish Lake Superior in November but you better be damn sure the gales of November don’t come early. Me, Howie, Granny and our good college friend Paul Cavanaugh, paid serious attention to the forecast and decided it was safe for an Apostle Island journey out of Bayfield. I was badly distracted by a stunning sunrise on the drive up from Hayward. With the sun so low in the horizon this time of the year, bright red glowing clouds are common and the reflections on the water are almost phony. Its not like me, but I was 30 minutes late to meet Howie thanks to some photography stops and getting lost when picking up Paul.
Like Howie, Paul Cavanaugh is a real good buddy. Paul graduated from Northland a year after Howie and I, in 1988. Though a year apart we did a heck of a lot of fishing together in college. Paul has also joined me on some great adventures around the world to Mongolia, Egypt and Brazil. Our most recent fishing day together was in fact, the greatest smallmouth bass trip Paul’s ever experienced. That was last summer.
Paul can fly fish but with me, Howie and Granny already hucking the fly, we gave Paul permission to launch a lure. This way, while we were fly casting, Paul could still slip off a few casts without being in our way. We pounded the shorelines of the outer islands.
I struck first with a nice fish. Whether it’s a splake (cross between a brook trout and a lake trout) or a coaster brook trout I’m not sure. Paul was stretching some casts far beyond fly casting reach but he snagged on bottom. As Howie navigated the boat to where Paul could free his lure, I was able to hit every nook against the shoreline. That’s when I stuck the handsome char species.
Minutes after we released my fish, Paul hooked a fish that stole far more line. Howie and I reeled in to get out of the way and Granny went for the net. Granny didn’t exactly make netting look easy. She had some near misses with her first scoop attempts and I thought she might knock Paul’s fish off. But in the end, she managed and Paul landed his personal best brown trout. After a few pics we released the Superior brown.
Howie and I have numerous days chasing trout and salmon in the Apostle Islands. But if you look at our results, most days we caught one or none. Its tough out there but today was payday. While Paul’s long casts with the spin lures outdid our flies (he landed three browns, a splake and a coaster brook trout), Howie and I caught three beautiful fish. And I have to say, this true coaster brookie of Howie’s was tops.
The days are short in November, especially now that daylight savings has taken place. Furthermore, the temperature plumets in midafternoon. We were lucky it was calm out. At 4 pm we headed back to civilization. While the sunset was no match for today’s sunrise, it wasn’t too bad. Especially as we all enjoyed our crisp and refreshing end of the day beers. What a day!
And its time for me to start recommending my varieties of fish art for Christmas for “The Angler that has Everything”. Be sure to visit my webstore and see the new whiskey glasses, my famous coffee mugs, frosted beer steins, sun shirts and hoodies. You can also order my durable vinyl decals from my friends at Pescador on the Fly.