# Newbie interested in exploring Western UP trout streams



## cruiseplanner1 (Aug 6, 2012)

Lake17Rad said:


> Very sorry to hear this. You would think the combination of multiple streams and low population density would insulate the UP from this. I would hope that with more trout fisherman converting to catch and release that this would not happen.


Yes many more are catch and release but it does not take many to hurt the streams up there. Growth rate on a Brown to get 18" is about eight to ten years. So they do not grow as fast as they are removed. Scary thing was I did not see a lot of smaller fish in those two rivers as I would have in the past too. At least five years ago as the size diminished the recruitment class was there. Does not appear to be the case now


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## B.Jarvinen (Jul 12, 2014)

A lot of spring floods in late spring of 2018 really hurt trout & salmon reproduction that year in at least the west half of the Lake Superior basin, maybe further east too. Coho and Brook Trout fishing was absolutely terrible for me last year, though Brook Trout had already improved some from 2019 fishing results. And I mean results an hour in from a vehicle.

Also license sales were up significantly nationwide last year; that had nothing to do with Social Media. 20 years ago the DNR put a list of “Blue Ribbon” Trout streams right in the regs booklet. The best of the best have been famous for a long time.

I do expect #s will continue to improve now from that recruitment low point. And license sales will decline again.


Also note that the DNR stocks the Middle Branch Ontonagon with 7-8” Brook Trout. Fish anywhere close to those and that will be your main catch. Also different parts of the Ontonagon have different regs. On a type 3 - 15” possession minimum - you are going to find a lot of small Trout. Somewhat same on Type 2 - 10” minimum.

They haven’t planted Browns in the west U.P. for a long time now; something that probably contributed to the amount of folks still expecting to find nice ones today. They are still there via natural reproduction, but are in a distinct 3rd place behind the Brookies and the scores of thousands of planted Rainbow in some segments (at times that can be the main catch of the day). On one segment that had good Browns (too warm for Brookies), a reservoir draw-down wiped out the Browns and the segment is likely too warm for them to be replaced, either. Has Walleye though.

The MI DNR also recently stopped planting Browns below the first waterfalls in Gogebic County for what was a wonderful lake run fishery, for some reason.


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## Lake17Rad (Jun 23, 2021)

B.Jarvinen said:


> A lot of spring floods in late spring of 2018 really hurt trout & salmon reproduction that year in at least the west half of the Lake Superior basin, maybe further east too. Coho and Brook Trout fishing was absolutely terrible for me last year, though Brook Trout had already improved some from 2019 fishing results. And I mean results an hour in from a vehicle.
> 
> Also license sales were up significantly nationwide last year; that had nothing to do with Social Media. 20 years ago the DNR put a list of “Blue Ribbon” Trout streams right in the regs booklet. The best of the best have been famous for a long time.
> 
> ...


Thank you for the insight. Very helpful!


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## Botiz (Oct 21, 2010)

B.Jarvinen said:


> A lot of spring floods in late spring of 2018 really hurt trout & salmon reproduction that year in at least the west half of the Lake Superior basin, maybe further east too. Coho and Brook Trout fishing was absolutely terrible for me last year, though Brook Trout had already improved some from 2019 fishing results. And I mean results an hour in from a vehicle.
> 
> Also license sales were up significantly nationwide last year; that had nothing to do with Social Media. 20 years ago the DNR put a list of “Blue Ribbon” Trout streams right in the regs booklet. The best of the best have been famous for a long time.
> 
> ...


This is why you made my list of “top 5 MS members you’d want to fish with”.


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## B.Jarvinen (Jul 12, 2014)

Thanks. I used to work in that area quite a bit and if it rained, I went fishing. I have been able to fish the exact same segment on Closing Day for 8 years running, sometimes without a long drive; other times via deliberate excursion from elsewhere in the U.P. I hope to continue the streak this year but might be tough. It is a good way to really get a handle on a specific Trout population and how it changes. Some fishing people I have met out that way feel that pressure was (prior to 2020) down in a general sense, which is good, but for a terrible reason: “the kids don’t fish any more.”

Last year I was able to visit the mouth of the Brule River (Wisconsin version running to Superior, not the border version running to Michigan), at what historically would be the peak weekend for ascents by Coho (3rd Sat. Sept.). WI DNR publishes great data on that river. I was excited for that to all come together; I can’t just take a fishing vacation that easily. I caught a Coho just as you could barely start to see shapes in the fog. 

Later in the morning, an old-timer Finnlander who had come out and had no luck, along with everyone else there that day, started talking fishing the Superior basin with me because I was carrying the one fish. He had fished everywhere from Two Harbors to the Two-Hearted and there was nowhere I mentioned that he hadn’t tried. It was him that tipped me on the problems in the spring of 2018 and said he knew the ‘20 Coho run would be terrible. He was certainly correct - I caught only one more Coho all last year, a month later in the central U.P. Brook Trout results also very poor, and the main catch of that species is 2 & 3 year old fish. I remember an early May 2018 snow storm that re-covered a jobsite I wanted to estimate in a foot of snow, making a 2nd meltwater pulse, and there were more floods on into June that year. Newly hatched fry are vulnerable to excessive water levels. 

Later on in the year I asked a DNR Biologist about that report and my experiences and he confirmed that 2020 was a tough year for Trout fishing in the west U.P. in a general sense, for everyone, from his reports.


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## Purebrook (Sep 4, 2019)

The Linesman and Nevala book is very good, and very accurate. It has a sense of humor also. 
If it were written today the amount of detail they provide would likely earn them a lot of flack, especially on UP streams. I was a tourist recently at one of the big UP rivers at a well known tourist site that will go unmentioned. Right there in front of me were dozens of trout rising. I was not fishing but plan to go back later this summer. Like I said earlier, if you do your research and scout out places you will find places to fish and places that have fish. I agree the streams are a bit more crowded and that the fishing may not be as productive, but a trip to the UP is still wonderful.


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