# UP Runs



## B.Jarvinen (Jul 12, 2014)

That mid-Oct snow did lead some fresh Browns up from the Lake, I heard. I didn’t have time to try for them. Am headed to some Steelhead/Coho systems.


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## JohnP123 (Jul 15, 2015)

B.Jarvinen said:


> That mid-Oct snow did lead some fresh Browns up from the Lake, I heard. I didn’t have time to try for them. Am headed to some Steelhead/Coho systems.


Chasing ‘em on the west or east side?


Sent from my iPhone using Michigan Sportsman


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## B.Jarvinen (Jul 12, 2014)

Left the west end today, but only came to middle for now. A few sites to work here starting Sunday, probably move to east end the night of the hard frost next week, then work a few days in east end, fish a few days there too.

A friend of mine tried the Coaster coast during this heat wave; too early yet there too, he reports. Will try it myself next year.


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## JohnP123 (Jul 15, 2015)

I’m hoping for a day or two mid next week on the east side. If I make it, I’ll send a pm. 


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## B.Jarvinen (Jul 12, 2014)

Well Storms = Steelhead. Not a dramatic Gale of November (yet?), but just tough enough fishing to make me break it down before dark as the Gitchee was rising steadily up out of the Gumee. 

Fishing the beach this time of year, it never ceases to amaze me how persistent the tourists can be. There are no more fall colors. The waterfalls are running poorly. A cold mist-rain was blowing in off the Lake. I just don’t understand non-Adventure tourism. Like 6 guys from Wisconsin, several hundred miles away, just out to go for a walk. No fishing, no hunting, no mountain bikes, no kayaks, no overnight backpacking, just drove over to da U.P. to go day hiking in a flat crappy weather weekend. Met them in the parking lot on the way out. I mean I am happy people go outside, but this tourist coast is just weird.

Sometimes though, these weirdos bring good luck. Just when I thought the bags in set #1 were thoroughly washed, and I figured I had the beach to myself, I thought I would take a leak and then change out the set. First surprise, just as I reach for my zipper, I look up and a young female tourist has a camera pointed at me.

Next surprise is of course that is the same exact moment the first fish decides to hit. This gave me a flashback to the same thing happening a few years ago out on the My Arm Gets Tired River. Just as the tourist makes a noise behind me, I get the first strike of the day, lose my concentration, lose the fish.

Not today though. One nice cookie cutter Lake Superior Steelhead makes it to the beach. Didn’t even wait for today’s rain to turn on the Fish Signal (I figure it will be Sunday before those results show up) Can I get a nice photograph of me, in action? Nope, tourist now nowhere to be seen. 

No fish picture today. Beach fishing is complicated enough; the last thing I am going to add to the seemingly bottomless task/variable/gear/detail (blew several today) list is bringing a phone/camera with me.

Steadier rain tomorrow. Hope it drenches in good, to put lots of water in these short little north slope streams; they need it. And I will need it as lots of high wind forecasts incoming; beach fishing may not be possible at times.


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## B.Jarvinen (Jul 12, 2014)

When you go on a fish-cation, you can’t always get what you want. Rain is what I have been waiting for, but that is just step #1. My next requirement for some good surf action, is wind.

Dawn brought a stiff onshore wind. That is basically a good thing for fishing Steelhead. Their food won’t be blowing out into the Lake. I did not know what that would mean at my beach options. And I also have hopes that this rain will bring in a pod of later running Coho.

So I watched it get light out just casting at a little river mouth, where some Coho might be waiting around before crossing the bar. There is some deep water to throw lures into, on one side. But the angle math was all wrong today. The nice plume of enticing river water was being pushed over to the very shallow side, where every little ripple on the water became a breaker. And that’s also where the wind would push most casts. It was the spot where I caught my only Coho last year in a way way too short fish-cation. But that was 3 weeks earlier on the calendar. Maybe next year; time to head up-coast, to Steel Beach.

Along the way though, a Type 4 had to be crossed. Certainly running too shallow to hold fish, but I checked anyway. A crawl through some Old Growth White Cedar revealed their impressive little flock of new babies, well protected by the Wolf tracks all over the shoreline - do Wolves look for spawned out Salmon, like Bears? But today, a sweet fine gravel pool that kept me well fed on the Coho diet a few years ago was barren of fish, very obviously: their backs would have been sticking out of the water if present. I pulled a spinner past some logjams anyway, more hoping maybe a stream Trout was still lurking underneath, hoping for the same thing I was. Nope. On the way out, I made a mental note of a certain rock with multiple glacial striation lines to use as a depth gauge for the next few days.

Yesterday at my best beach choice, the angle math was perfect. The creek flowing out there was rolling right up the shoreline, slowly spreading out into a triangle of that sweet dark tannin water, chock full of Biologicals for the Steelies to eat. Which is where I caught this Steelhead I mentioned yesterday:









What good is a Fish Story without a little Fish Porn, in the Selfie Age? Actually a bit on the small side for Lake Superior Steel. On ice since yesterday. I don’t need much when it comes to lodging, but will have to hunt up a new option next year, one that might have a simple thing, an outdoor water spigot enabling a little easier fish cleaning. On the tailgate, out in the woods, with no helper for turning the water jug spigot on/off, is getting old. I passed on the experience in a cold rain in the near dark yesterday. Next year, I think I will bring my own hose, and poll the Yooper innkeepers in advance.

That fish yesterday was my best fish this year, in terms of experience, not size. There are few things like bringing in a fish in steady waves. That’s a silver fish! There, in that surf curl! On the end of my line! I got all the knots tied well. I kept the spawn in good shape (way too much cooler management last week). I cast to the right spot. I picked a good hook design. I selected netting & floater colors the fish saw well - why do I fish anything but Pink? I even re-upped my orange and chartreuse stuff quite recently. Why ask why? Just fish these little west end, touch early Coho bags, scraped off the skein, tied up with juicy juice everywhere. They look good, but tough tie-ing last night:









I tie and I tie. 5 colors of netting. 4 of floaters. Mostly 2 floaters, but some singles and triples. Then I get to the beach, and just throw them out there randomly. I should keep a little notebook. I even have a Rite in the Rain version, that would be perfect, and I sometimes fish right near where those are U.P. made, by Yoopers.

Oh well. Someday I’ll bust out that little notebook. Maybe soon, when my usual Steelhead opening day starts up: Opening Day, the 15th of Edmund Fitzgerald, when the real Steelheaders start getting serious, with the water mostly to themselves for a while.

Today though, Steel Beach had bad news. Surf that could be heard from the parking lot is not usually a good sign. The wind was supposed to switch from on-shore to parallel and back to strong off-shore. I had hopes that would knock down the likely swell coming in off the open Lake from the overnight winds.

Another Nope. Even worse, the inflowing creek had been ripped wide open. Superior surf entered the tannic H2O just before it spread out evenly into 30 yards of surf. The whole plume with its steadily increasing load of Biologicals for the Steel to eat, was diluted to invisibility. There was no stream/Lake water seam, anywhere.

I set just a pair of rods. I could re-rig the casting (pointless, today) rod, but doing it in an extra dynamic air & water environment was just too much for my innate optimism, today. I needed to pee.

This time, the tourists-gonna-tourist out in the driving cold rain didn’t appear till ten minutes later. The same 6 dudes from Wisconsin came wandering glumly up the beach. It was again a bit impressive to see them; I do respect people with good gear. They didn’t bring the good luck vibe today though. And if I was gonna drive cutting edge 4x4 trucks that I can only drool over, hundreds of miles, just to walk around in some rain sodden leafless woods with a bunch of dudes, well maybe there’s nothing wrong with that. But for me, to do that, I would be drinking the good stuff, along the way. Certainly NOT Busch Light, like these dudes.

As it turned out, they were from Milwaukee. Suddeny it made perfect sense. City Dudes. Any chance to break out of the City Limits and see Nature must be seized. Millennials. You are a People I do not understand. That made for a good mental soundtrack the rest of the day, at least.

Still though, everyone I know from Wisconsin drinks either Miller Lite, or, if they have any taste at all, one of the tasty options from New Glarus. Me, in tourist/bat country on a Saturday, left my stash of MoonMan IPA back at the motel. Sigh.

It was a beautiful day though. I absolutely love being out in a storm. In a forest standing on saturated ground with high winds incoming, not so much. The beach is the perfect place to be in a storm. Good place to pitch a nice North Face tent or just red neck it with a good big tarp and a log and Experience it, up close and personal, overnight. Nothing much can go wrong, sans lightning.

Except with fishing gear. 2 oz. pyramids were sort of getting it done. But rod tension was an ever so slowly losing battle. Shorten the leaders, they say. Not so simple in this 3D environment. As it turned out, when set #1 was judged thoroughly washed, the short leader came in tangled, not the long one.

I hate to admit this, but I took a long mid-afternoon “lunch” in the truck. The touristas continued to arrive, weeks late to the party. Indiana and Wisco, all of them. Surprisingly no Minnesota, today. It’s like those have never heard of their beautiful North Shore that I want to fish so bad. The rain continued; the tourons never stayed more than a few minutes.

I went back to the beach and set another set. Still only 2 rods. The high water mark was moving back up beach steadily. There was no hard pack beach to not slog through. The wind was all laid down, but the overnight swell was still arriving, straight outta Canadia, at maybe the widest north-south fetch on all of Superior. And increasing. There were now 3 breaks, depending on swell height. The foot of the beach might feature a 4’ wall of water. The biggest waves were picking up sand well outside of where I would ever be able to throw anything. I was starting to wish I had finally added ear plugs to my beach gear. It was like being out on the winter Atlantic all day. What I really wanted was a wetsuit and a boogie board to enjoy it all. I have seen surfers out in colder water; a perfect-for-silver-Fish 50 degrees today.

When I finally pulled the lines (leaders completely cut-apart tangled), Horse’s Mane waves were appearing. My eternal Frenemy, the Wind, was finally arriving from points South / off-shore. Those crazy only-on-the-Great-Lakes sideways pyramids of water were appearing too. It was still going to be a while. When I got back to the truck, the Sun came out. The Eye of the Storm, at last. Not usually a good time to fish.

Nothing like The Sun to bring still more tourists. But, the route home led back across the Type 4. Maybe, the all day rain had put a decent roof over the fine sand gravel hole I liked. One that would make a Hoho feel safe, at last.

So, what the hey, I crawled through the White Cedar again. Wearing just my street shoes, only a small stream net for gear, nothing else. The rock I had noted earlier was now completely underwater, not just a few of the glacial scratches. I could fish the creek like a normal year, finally.

And there she was. That slow roll revealing just enough belly to make one think Brookie, but no real fight, this time of year. Coho.








Some day I might do the mental digital image gymnastics needed to figure out just how close to the Lake Superior cookie cutter this one was, but not tonight.

I carried the fish back to the the truck in the little stream net. There was no way the totally inhaled spinner was coming back out of an intact fish. But, I really really wanted this fish anyway.

Started the ‘processng’ with OK access to the flowing stream. A few years ago on my local Lake Michigan pier, my local compatriots teased me about wacking a Chinook on the head with the flat side of the head of a pair of channel-locks, -before- bleeding it. “You’re nicer than us.” Today, I wish had done that. Cutting the gills took, forever, to kill this fish. After four cuts, and so much blood flowing out that the gills were a decided pale red, this poor girl was still kicking. I had to walk up and retrieve the channel-locks. I felt absolutely terrible.

When that was done, I got greedy. Maybe, a few other Cohoes were hanging around the newly deepened Ho house. I quickly snagged my favorite spinner that has caught more Coho than any other lure I own, any time I can get on water small enough to use it. I had to walk back to the truck, again, and put on my hip boots to retrieve it. Instant Karma gonna get ya.

Now you sharpie fisher people probably noticed a key detail in that last picture. I think, these days, there could be a website for the real Fish Porn I am about to share. But it is not this one. Only fans needing a serious fix can dm me their PayPal addy and I will gladly raid it. Fish-cation is not cheap, these days. But Fish porn is not complete without the Money Shot, now is it:









Yep, not very Liquid Gold. Perfect Loosies. I forgot to look closely, but there is a good chance these will have ‘eyes.’ They should tie perfectly. No cure, no water, zero blood, just ripe Coho juice and nothing else. It’s gonna be a hella good Steelhead season. It’s been a bunch of rain for two whole days and some woods crawling here and there, but if you try sometimes, you just might find, you get what you need. Oh, yeah.


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## Grinnell (Nov 20, 2019)

B.Jarvinen said:


> When you go on a fish-cation, you can’t always get what you want. Rain is what I have been waiting for, but that is just step #1. My next requirement for some good surf action, is wind.
> 
> Dawn brought a stiff onshore wind. That is basically a good thing for fishing Steelhead. Their food won’t be blowing out into the Lake. I did not know what that would mean at my beach options. And I also have hopes that this rain will bring in a pod of later running Coho.
> 
> ...


Love this. Thanks for the writing and the inspiration.


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## Spade (Feb 20, 2007)

Wife was out setting otter traps today, in a stream and saw several steelheads on the beds, said she saw numerous ones already black, and white showing on their backs. Some were dead and holding in the brush piles in the stream. This is almost a month delay from last year.


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## Gordon Casey (Jun 13, 2017)

Spade said:


> Wife was out setting otter traps today, in a stream and saw several steelheads on the beds, said she saw numerous ones already black, and white showing on their backs. Some were dead and holding in the brush piles in the stream. This is almost a month delay from last year.


You talking steelhead or salmon?


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## Spade (Feb 20, 2007)

Missed typed: salmon, fingers work faster than he brain.


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## B.Jarvinen (Jul 12, 2014)

Yeah the Coho are wrapping things up now; only a few left nesting when I looked at some gravel on Thursday. Never could find any that came in late. Will type a bit more on that soon. Same in NW Lower from what I hear at home. 

As for Salmon appearing a month earlier on same gravel, keep in mind there are multiple Salmon species in Lake Superior. The Chinooks would appear first, followed by the Pinks, then the Coho. Every year is a little different on dates for each. Coho can live in different schools that run in different weeks or months from what I understand. 

Out in the west end, a friend was still catching Coho fresh enough to eat a few days ago. Also on pure rock beaches some Salmon will just spawn there, particularly Pinks I understand.


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## Zeboy (Oct 4, 2002)

B.Jarvinen said:


> When you go on a fish-cation, you can’t always get what you want. Rain is what I have been waiting for, but that is just step #1. My next requirement for some good surf action, is wind.
> 
> Dawn brought a stiff onshore wind. That is basically a good thing for fishing Steelhead. Their food won’t be blowing out into the Lake. I did not know what that would mean at my beach options. And I also have hopes that this rain will bring in a pod of later running Coho.
> 
> ...


Have to agree completely on your choice of Moon Man! One of my favorites.

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## Manolin (Feb 20, 2021)

Magnificent post BJ! Wow.


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## PunyTrout (Mar 23, 2007)

@B.Jarvinen 

I've been using a 3 gallon spray tank filled with water to provide a pressurized water supply at our camp. You might look into buying one for your truck depending on how much space you can afford. I think I bought mine at TSC. They make 1 gallon versions too of course but you're less likely to run out of water between fill ups using the 3 gallon tank for most jobs.

And I'll add that a metal teaspoon is a great tool for scraping out the blood line along the spine of the dorsal meat. I try to keep one with my fillet knife in the truck.


Nice report.


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## B.Jarvinen (Jul 12, 2014)

That’s a good idea PT, I will ponder that. I have been happy with a 4 gallon blue jug with an on/off spout, from the Canadian manufacturer “Reliable.” They make the 6 gallon jerry-can style jugs sold at Walmart. The key thing I find with water containers is to avoid anything using white material, which will inevitably grow algae on it, when you fill it from artesian springs like I do. 

I usually bleed large fish right when I catch them, so cleaning isn’t too big a deal. But trying to keep the fish hand from the water spout is a pickle sometimes.


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