# Salmon Report



## Superior Outfitter (Feb 19, 2018)

I have been fishing all over the U.P. the last couple weeks and I haven't been out as much as I would like, but I have had some really fun days. My main targets have been kings and walleye, but I have hooked a few coho in the last week. I was lucky enough to land the longest LK. Superior king that I have ever hooked and on a bright sunny day at 2:00 in the afternoon. I sure am glad I took the heavy rod along on that hike and not the trout gear.One cast in some foam with a reef runner and it was on! After a pretty lengthy fight and a little swimming on my part I finally was able to get it into some shallows right before a stretch of rapids and tail it. It ended up being a large male with an abnormally long kype almost like an Atlantic.Took a quick measurement and he was released to scare somebody else this fall.Jointed rapalas, reef runners and wiggle minnows all in firetiger have been the hot baits. Skein in a bright pink cure has done some damage as well. The shop is stocked up and we have guide dates open in October and November so give us a call if you need a hand planning your trip. (906)273-0229


----------



## B.Jarvinen (Jul 12, 2014)

Nice pics! thanks!

I am frequently amazed, talking fishing with Yoopers, how few of them consider trying for Salmon, or even know a run is happening not far from some bar we are sitting in.

I have to wonder with the stopping of all Chinook planting in Superior how much Fall run Chinook will become an even lesser known fishery. The Chinooks won't be going away - I have heard Smelt #s in Lake Superior are excellent. One guy in Ontonagon Co. told me a DNR survey crew of some type discovered a 'pod' or whatever of Smelt this summer that was four miles long.

I started a thread for the Coho this year but I will just borrow this one so everyone will see the nice pics above when I bump it. I really didn't think we would see a lot of early fish as was apparently the case last year, that I pretty much missed. I did manage to catch 2 Coho last year - one about Sept. 26th or so, in the east end, and another one all the way in to early November, also in the east end. In between I caught Lake run Browns coming up out of the Big Lake in far, far west Yoo-P.

I also am still looking forward to fishing the Fall run fish in Wisconsin while on a job over there, which won't start now till the 2nd week of October. But along the way of learning about the west Superior fishery, I came across the following web page from WI DNR, which shows the statistics for fish passing the fish ladder on the Brule River. This link is just to a .pdf file of the stats for 2017, though it includes some historical data as well. I am still looking for the webpage that gave me the link to this, which shows the species #s, by week, for several years back - and the peak of the run for each species does move around a little on the calendar each year. Interesting data all the way around:

https://dnr.wi.gov/topic/fishing/documents/lakesuperior/2017FallFishwayUpdateColor.pdf


I am heading back UP this weekend and hope to try several lagoons along my journey back to some work in Gogebic County...the fish should still be Silver...


----------



## B.Jarvinen (Jul 12, 2014)

OK, the following link has the links to several more years of data from the Brule River over in Wisco -

https://dnr.wi.gov/topic/fishing/lakesuperior/boisbrulefishery.html

Edit - one more try - that first link leads to only Steelhead data. The following link on fishing Superior from WI, in a general sense, includes links to the data for all species at the Brule Fish ladder, if you scroll down to the bottom of the page:

https://dnr.wi.gov/topic/fishing/lakesuperior/


----------



## MapleRiverSalmon (Aug 19, 2007)

I will be up for 3 days this weekend on superior tributaries. I will throw a report up on Monday.


----------



## Superior Outfitter (Feb 19, 2018)

Glad you liked them the photo credit goes to the fiancee. She was across the river for the big king and I didn't know where she was, but I am glad she got some good pics. I think a lot of people are just too busy with bear, goose and upland hunting to get on the water much this time of year. We are still getting plants of kings and I hope they continue. This year and last year we had pretty good returns of kings around me.Good luck fishing guys, it should be a great month of fall fishing!



B.Jarvinen said:


> Nice pics! thanks!
> 
> I am frequently amazed, talking fishing with Yoopers, how few of them consider trying for Salmon, or even know a run is happening not far from some bar we are sitting in.
> 
> ...


----------



## B.Jarvinen (Jul 12, 2014)

Just to clarify - I meant Chinook plants in Superior. The DNR announced, with a moderate effort in the press, that they would suspend all Superior Chinook plants a few years ago. They do still plant them in one UP trib for Lake Michigan.


----------



## Superior Outfitter (Feb 19, 2018)

Yeah we haven't had a plant since 2016 for Superior. Hopefully people let a few go around MQT this year and let them spawn.


----------



## B.Jarvinen (Jul 12, 2014)

Hit 3 lagoons today, straight across from the Big Cap. Not a single swirl anywhere and lagoons all shallow right now anyway - no Coho to be seen. One guy also out looking for them had walked the gravel upstream, found none. 

Caught a 10, 8 & 2 7s on the Brookie side - they are ready to feast. 

Maybe next year, east end. Will chase MI/WI Coho the rest of the season; goin’ out west where the wind blows tall.


----------



## B.Jarvinen (Jul 12, 2014)

Got a few hours on the black harbor in the far west end. No evidence of fish - no hits, no follows, and not a single surface swirl/porpoise. I cast for awhile and then drifted some Brookie spawn.

Chatted with 3 local fishermen who all had mixed opinions. One guy casting with me had just caught 2 fresh Kings a few days previous, but he had an 0-fer today. One guy returning from a gorge climbing expedition upstream (you think the infamous Tippy stairs are tough? Ha.) claimed 2 “Silvers” but later a guy stopping by my truck as I loaded said the previous correspondent was a little infamous with the Tales. I always think people who use the word Silver instead of Coho are trying too hard to sound Big Time, anyway. The 3rd guy sounded like he had the most time on the water lately and he was very knowledgeable about the whole west U.P.

His take - late, and fresh Kings are still trickling in. Cohos just becoming part of the mix, but that now includes all the species, including some Steel, Browns, and Splake.

Stream trout still open for two weeks on my WI license; but I think I will be near Superior next time it rains...having a tough thought process on selecting a stream though. Not into gorge climbing on a day off from work especially clay banks on a wet day, the only days I can fish. But stream mouths are quite different out here so I should try some rapids/pools fishing instead.


----------



## B.Jarvinen (Jul 12, 2014)

Another rainy day. I knocked a project off the To Do list anyway and spent the last few hours of daylight checking stream mouths. Either clear and little or big and brown; never did see a Salmon swirl on any of them. I donated my nifty new 1 oz. green-glow Kastmaster to Superior too when I got distracted on a retrieve at a shallow mouth, dang it.

Then I went back to a stream mouth I fished last year, when it was like a water cannon shooting a whitewater torrent out into Superior. This year it was a nice flat lagoon, though with a steady current. Just exactly perfect.

One guy walking out couldn't buy a bite on spawn, he said. But another hanging out on the beach after catching a limit earlier in the day filled me in - the lagoon was full of Pinks, actively spawning. He took a limit of Steelhead feeding behind them, and released several Pinks while doing so.

This cheered me up considerably - if Pinks are just in on this stream right now, the Cohos are still to come, I would think. I hope. And there will be every kind of way to fish the long, long lagoon and the wonderful current chop out in Superior.

I couldn't luck into either a Steelhead or a Pink though, even with a perfect match on what the guy caught everything on - Orange Flatfish with Black dots. But I wasn't there too long as the weather was intense today - I actually wished I had a barometer right with me to see what was happening. Finally what looked like a heavy squall sailing along to the NE out there on Superior, somewhere between me and Minnesota, proved to have a cloud stream pointed NE, but was drifting SE right towards me. When a Cloud Wall of Doom is slow walking right towards you @ eye level, it's time to go....


----------



## B.Jarvinen (Jul 12, 2014)

Life has been like living in a cloud lately. When it is not actually raining, mist is condensing on everything. Current forecast is 3” in 3 days, Mon-Wed. 

Hit another river mouth today, the very last one. As far west as the eastern edge of Iowa. What a set-up - a big waterfall and a power house. Heavy fishing pressure, mostly peeps from Wisconsin. 

Saw 2 nice Browns in the parking lot. Word is bright silver Cohos are still just occasional so far. Watched a lot of people fish, didn’t see anyone else catch anything. 

But I got 2 nice 3-4# Steelhead, just 5 minutes apart. The instant I switched to a Pink-Glo #6 Panther Martin. 

So I have a new favorite lure. But I will sure miss it - snagged it on something a couple hours later. The odds I see another one of those in a store are infinitesimal. I love glow paint on a lure, but hardly any bait shops ever stock glow spinners.


----------



## PunyTrout (Mar 23, 2007)

B.Jarvinen said:


> The odds I see another one of those in a store are infinitesimal. I love glow paint on a lure, but hardly any bait shops ever stock glow spinners.


I might know a guy that could help you out...


----------



## B.Jarvinen (Jul 12, 2014)

If you want to paint up some glow spinners that would be great. I could kick in on materials for sure. This winter I will be able to actually get mail even. 

The spinner I was using (the Brookies just loved it, too) is a new Glo series from Panther-Martin; I picked up just one - last one on shelf - some 10-12 days ago at Jay’s, which always has the best P-M shelf of anyone but still a rather small portion of the whole P-M catalog, esp. compared to their Mepps inventory. (Though they rarely stock the Mepps Glow spinners and are also very weak on the Mepps XD line. If I can ever make it to Antigo, WI I will request a Glow XD #3 in the custom ordering process Mepps offers on-site). 

Unfortunately P-M maxes out that design at #6 and does not quite have a similar one in their “Salmon/Steelhead” line, which have big impressive skirts on some designs (the glow ones), and some overall interesting stuff but not a glow option on the slightly smaller spinners I would select for Steelhead fishing vs. the Mepps #5 size that Coho just crush. If I could get P-M to make the same Glo blade, pink body, white tail spinner for me in any size I would pick #9 for better casting options on Steelhead size water.


----------



## PunyTrout (Mar 23, 2007)

B.Jarvinen said:


> If you want to paint up some glow spinners that would be great. I could kick in on materials for sure. This winter I will be able to actually get mail even.


Painting the bodies with glow powder paint is pretty easy. Painting the _blades_ is slightly more complicated from a DIY perspective. You'll most likely need air brushing equipment. If you used glow Witchcraft tape instead for the blades it would be the easiest solution but might not yield the desired results. Dunno. YMMV. http://www.wtp-inc.com/products/

You are welcome to PM me.

You can buy the powder paint from Jann's Netcraft (a site sponsor) or TJ's Tackle (a Michigan small business). https://tjstackle.com/powderpaintGlow.htm

Use heavy-duty split rings and quality hooks to make a superior lure.

Here is a comment I made from a related thread regarding making your own PM style spinners..



PunyTrout said:


> Panther Martins catch fish. However their quality has gone down in recent years IMO. The wire they use is flimsy and is easily bent out of shape. I like to use .041" stainless steel wire for most of my spinners for trout. .035" or .033" is fine to use too. Here is an example showing the difference from a PM that I rebuilt. Using a split ring with a quality hook is one upgrade you can make.
> 
> 
> View attachment 327511
> ...


----------



## B.Jarvinen (Jul 12, 2014)

Things in the far end remain pretty much the same = a trickle of Salmon so far, and more Browns caught than Salmon, though the run of Browns is only just starting.

I went to the beautiful lagoon early in the week. Put a crawler out on a beach-style rig in a pole holder and drifted another under a bobber. Nothing ever happened. I switched one line from the bobber to throwing a variety of lures. I would occasionally get a bump in one certain spot....I would occasionally see a hint of a fin-swirl in that spot...from a little further away, twice I hooked something but it was either too small to "fight" against the swift current, or it was just a log or something - there would be no movement in any direction as I retrieved, but there was way more weight on the line than just the lure.

Finally I got something on the line and brought it all the way to my boots - I had accidentally snagged a Pink Salmon. Right in the dorsal fin, two barbs through it - that fish was not going to escape that. But really I am surprised the dorsal wan't ripped right out, because this was truly a Zombie Salmon, barely still alive, with patches of flesh and bone visible all over it. It was probably guarding it's redd until it was going to take it's last pulse of water over the gills. Spawned-out Salmon with just a day or less to live are one of the most somber fishing sights you will ever see.

That was it for the beautiful lagoon. I am sure it is now a raging torrent of whitewater and will be for some time.

I hatched a new plan - I would exploit holding a Wisconsin license this year and get some fresh spawn from stream Trout. Brilliant! Except when it rains 5" in 3 days and every stream channel is a lake from edge of high ground to the other edge 75 yards across the Alder jungle. I even saw some Alders tipped over by the high water. The Trout were probably all happily stuffed to the gills and near impossible to find, even though I found a beautiful patch of headwaters spawning gravel with a bevy of 5" Brookies just above it - the grown-ups could not be found in such high water here, there, and everywhere.

I figured all the river mouths would look like a bowl of chocolate milk for days, but I went to the Black one anyway. The regular local there reported just a few Browns caught, before the deluge hit. We both fished it without much optimism, and nothing happened. I was happy just to note that it had begun swinging back to a black color at least.

Today, un-forecasted Snow showers started soaking down my job-site, again. Since crossing Da Bridge early in the last week of September, I have not seen 8 hours of sunlight or a temperature above 50 degrees. Only about 1 day in 4 has actually been a "dry" day. I have had plenty of running around in da white stuff and my whole camp has been frozen solid a couple times already.

When it started up again today, I got disgusted and went fishing. Word in the parking lot was "It's just VandeKamp's fish sticks for us tonight" - but the first correspondent did see one fish in the water. Soon enough a happy angler came along with a nice Brown. He said it has been about 3:1 Browns to Coho so far, with still as many Chinooks as Cohos, just before the flood hit. Another claim that "backs of fish were sticking out of the water".

I was all the way at the very end of Michigan - the last dry rock in the state. I was again hoping the water would be black, and it was - but the entire Chequamegon Bay was chocolate milk instead! Except for the beautiful gun-metal blue of the river plume tearing into it. Few sights I can think of said "here, fishy, fishy, come get something to eat" more that what I saw today. If only I had some spawn to spot at the edge of the chocolate and the river plume...or a crawler, for that matter. Or had brought my beach rod down there with some spoons to chuck way, way out there, like my newly replaced 1 oz. Glo Kastmaster that could have sailed half-way to Minnesota. But I don't think one could set a pole holder very well in a pile of rocks. Not gravel, rocks.

Alas, I could only throw hardware; mostly spinners of various designs and an occasional try with the orange or chrome Flatfish.

Nothing happening.


----------



## PunyTrout (Mar 23, 2007)

B.Jarvinen said:


> Unfortunately P-M maxes out that design at #6 and does not quite have a similar one in their “Salmon/Steelhead” line, which have big impressive skirts on some designs (the glow ones), and some overall interesting stuff but not a glow option on the slightly smaller spinners I would select for Steelhead fishing vs. the Mepps #5 size that Coho just crush. If I could get P-M to make the same Glo blade, pink body, white tail spinner for me in any size I would pick #9 for better casting options on Steelhead size water.


I made a few of these PM style squid spinners in larger sizes (3 inch blade) for Salmon but apparently Lake Trout find them hard to resist. Got bit on my first cast! 










And my second cast. And my third... :woohoo1: The squid spinners have claimed another set of scalps...


----------



## brookies101 (Jun 23, 2008)

Puny,

Nice spinner!!! 

Ever try white on white for colors? Or clown? I bet they would be killer for the lake chars


----------



## hhlhoward (Mar 1, 2012)

N


PunyTrout said:


> I made a few of these PM style squid spinners in larger sizes (3 inch blade) for Salmon but apparently Lake Trout find them hard to resist. Got bit on my first cast!
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Now that's a cool spinner! How did you make those and what did you use to to shape the wire?


----------



## PunyTrout (Mar 23, 2007)

brookies101 said:


> ...Ever try white on white for colors? Or clown? I bet they would be killer for the lake chars


I was using white with white holographic last year to catch a Master Angler brookie.



hhlhoward said:


> Now that's a cool spinner! How did you make those and what did you use to to shape the wire?


I just use round nose pliers to do the wire forming.

Their are several wire formers you can buy from tackle suppliers like Jann's etc.

I like to keep it simple.


----------



## hhlhoward (Mar 1, 2012)

PunyTrout said:


> I was using white with white holographic last year to catch a Master Angler brookie.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


thanks punytrout. I pier fish in the thumb and I would love to make some and give it a go


----------



## PunyTrout (Mar 23, 2007)

hhlhoward said:


> thanks punytrout. I pier fish in the thumb and I would love to make some and give it a go


I reccomend using a bearing swivel to avoid line-twist.

Good luck.


----------

