Howie’s boat is perfect for Lake Superior as it proved itself last month when he and I had one of our top fishing days of summer. But college buddy Mike Neuman brought his dream boat up from MN for a three day trip. Its bran new and much faster. And with this boat, today we took on the south shore of Lake Superior off Port Wing and Cornucopia, WI. We had intentions of possibly traveling all the way out to the Apostle Islands for lake trout.
It was a beautiful and calm day on Lake Superior. When we started we were in shirtsleeves and shorts. I’m guessing the temperature was nearly 75°. But we’re smart guys. We packed raingear and warmer clothes. One can never forget that Lake Superior is like a small ocean and a cold one at that.
Howie was the guide today and suggested searching for coho salmon, brown trout and steelhead outside river mouths. It’s a good plan in mid-September because in another month all three species will be swimming up the rivers to spawn. Often times before the spawn these fish will be foraging aggressively.
The first place we stopped was the mouth of the Flag River. Things looked good. Mike turned on his fish finders and the fish were there. We tossed some flies around and Howie dropped down a spoon but none of us could entice a strike in an hour of trying.
My solution to not getting the fish to bite is to change flies, depth and stripping speed. But the boys wanted to troll. The idea was to troll till we found feeding fish then go back to the flies. Their plan made some sense. I popped a beer like your supposed to do when trolling and kicked back in the bow. Lucky for me, about the time my beer was gone the lines got badly tangled together and our trolling was done for the day!
At midafternoon the weather started to change. If you don’t like the weather in Wisconsin, relax and give it a couple hours, it will change for you. Particularly near Lake Superior let alone on the massive lake. Our nice warm temps plummeted as a thick fog overtook us. Along with that came a strong breeze. It was eerie but we had our eye on things. On went the warm jackets and we continued to fish.
For the next four hours from afternoon till early eve we dodged squalls, got rained on, heard thunder before ending with sunshine. It was a wild ride. The fish vanished. We saw the occasional one on the fish finder but for the most part, even where we saw them this morning, they were gone. I actually spun one of the best naps I’ve taken in years. I feel great tonight!
The bottom line is we had three anglers and we all ate a blank today. I’m surprised as I can usually scrape a fish out somehow. But remember, this is Lake Superior, and the fish have a few places to hide. We’ll try Chequamegon Bay tomorrow off Washburn where Howie and I had great fishing last month.
Find a better guide, aint no fish in that Lake!
You forgot to mention the awesome chicken that Granny made for us. She rocked it! It was so good as I was shaking in the wet cold.
You’re a smallmouth guide. Let’s face it Howie!