It’s always bad when the weatherman calls for a west wind in October but instead you get blown from the north.  Well, that’s what happened starting late yesterday afternoon and it followed through into the evening.  I slept in the Ruby Van last night at Howie’s in Iron River and woke up to 3” of fresh white stuff.

The bad thing about the snow was that Howie, Mike Neuman and I are fishing Lake Superior again.  Last month we faced a deluge of rain, today we faced uncomfortable cold, wind and a snowy boat.  After I finished shoveling Mikes Lund it was a whopping 29°.  We dragged our feet a little sipping too much coffee around the Howie house but found ourselves headed for the big lake around 10:30 AM.

We launched from the Bayfield public dock.  We were bundled up big time to say the least.  I wasn’t cold but I was stiff with all the extra layers.  We all were.  But as we eased out from the harbor and looked around, we were happy to be there.  Though we were under cloudy gray skies, the trees gleamed a million shades of reds, yellow and orange.   It was mesmerizing and even better, it appeared we had the humongous lake to ourselves.

Neuman’s boat is a solid craft so despite some wind and rolling waves, instead of heading into the more sheltered Chequamegon Bay, Howie suggested we head out to the Apostle Islands.  These remote Lake Superior Islands are known for the beauty and crystal clear waters.  And over the years Howie has taken some outstanding big browns and splake while casting into the shallows from his boat.  Our first stop was the west side of Madeline Island.  It was pretty rough.

It seemed as though the bouncing waves were to our advantage however.  I had a follow from a small trout five minutes in.  He threatened to eat one of my streamers but veered away before doing so.  I had a couple strikes from other smaller fish then I finally hooked a splake.  But before I got him to the net he came loose.  No big deal at that moment.  Howie assured me big fish were coming soon.  This splake was only about 13” but it would have at least taken the skunk out of the boat.

Let’s just say, I should have caught that splake.  The three of us cast and fished relentlessly over the next five hours until we were nearly in darkness.  We hit a mile of Madeline Island shoreline then moved over to the east side of Basswood and cast to every rock, overhanging tree and off ledges but nothing.  The giant lake was strangely dead today.  Luckily, the foliage continued to not disappoint!

We’re back after it in the morning.  We’ll aim to fish the mouth of the Sioux and Onion Rivers where we caught the pike last month.  Perhaps we can get more pike and maybe the browns, splake and even some salmon will be there as well.

Jeff Currier Global Fly Fishing