40 years ago today I lived on the shores of Lake Superior. I was a sophomore at Northland College in Ashland, WI. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I had a very light load of classes so that I could fish. But I can assure you I would not have thought about getting in a boat on the big lake on November 12th. In 1984 Chequamegon Bay likely had a few inches of black ice and hitting the open water by boat outside the bay, such as around the Apostle Islands, would have been considered a death wish.
These days the weather in mid-November is different and today there was no ice on Chequamegon Bay. Matt “Howie” Norton and I along with college pal Paul Cavanaugh hooked up the 18ft Lund and launched from Bayfield Harbor on Lake Superior and went directly to the Apostle Islands. It was cold but not ridiculous and the winds were light enough to be safe. Best of all, Howie assured us there were big brown trout prowling the shallows out there.
I’ve heard this “brown trout” talk from Howie before. In fact, our other buddy Mike Neuman and I have joined Howie many October days the last couple years in search of the big brown trout. But each and every time we come home empty handed. As Howie’s Yamaha smoked, sputtered and repeatedly stalled, I was wondering why I was there trying this again. . . .
But I was. And once the 150HP warmed up she was ready to cut loose. We eased from the harbor and soon were blasting across the Madeline Island Channel. The sky was blue as can be but even though the bay wasn’t frozen, the temperature wasn’t as warm as we thought. It was exactly 33°. So not silly cold, but most people still would consider us crazy.
Within 15 minutes we were making our first casts along the shoreline. I was tossing my Winston 7-weight Air 2 Max with my SA Stillwater intermediate sink line. I fished my usual multi fly streamer rig with an Olive Clouser on the point and a brown Wooley Bugger 5ft up as the dropper. I can assure you that 33° temperature felt much colder when my hands got wet from stripping. There was a tiny bit of ice on my guides as well. But the good news was the low lying sun was gradually making things warmer.
Action came fast. Paul was spin fishing and he had several splake follow in his lure. A splake is a hybrid fish that’s a cross between a male brook trout and female lake trout. The only splake I’ve caught were through the ice all the way back during my college days. About a half hour in I went tight. At first I thought I had my splake but then my line took off. I was hooked with one of those big browns!
There are numerous strains of brown trout and perhaps a few variations on Lake Superior. This silvery plump brown is probably the Seeforellen, a lake loving form of brown trout from the alpine lakes of western Europe. This specimen may have been stocked years ago when he was 5-6 inches. As you can see he has adapted well and this one put up a ferocious battle.
That brown got the boys on their toes. After a few pictures I stepped down to warm up my hands and let Howie have at it. Paul continued to huck a firetiger spoon from the back. They each moved a couple more browns before eventually Paul went tight. Moments later I was reaching for the net.
What’s exciting here is that this is largest brown trout of Paul’s life. When you’re talking a big time species like this, a new personal best is a huge deal. His fish was even fatter than mine and measured 21”. What’s really cool is that back in July I put Paul on his personal best smallmouth. I bet next year he’ll be back in October for his musky!
Unfortunately for us the action didn’t continue. We did manage to run into a few more splake and I nailed three adding the new fish for my “fly caught” species list. While I was happy to knock the hybrid off my list, I would have been stoked if we could have caught a few more of the big browns.
Its possible we could have found more browns but the winds picked up considerably between 11 and noon. We all know the story of the Edmund Fitzgerald when the gales of November came early. We may be goofy anglers but we’re not stupid. Minutes after the clock struck noon we returned to the inland waters close to the Bayfield docks. We didn’t catch another fish however I had a huge fish, looked like another brown, roll on my fly during my hang.
While November these days is considerably warmer than 40 years ago, one thing that will always remain the same is that the days are short. Too short here in the Great Northwoods but such is life. It started getting dark fast around 3 and we wrapped it up at 4 PM.