4-14-06 - a lone angler wades into Lake Superior at the mouth of the Lester River.

4-14-06 - Back to Minnesota's North Shore

Waters Fished: Lester River, Amity Creek, Talmadge River, French River, Sucker Creek, Stewart River
Fish Caught: 0
Outing Date: 4-29-06
Weather: Sunny, calm
Air Temp: highs in the 60's
Water Temp: N/A
Water Level: up
Water Color: Stained, visibility 1-2'
Fish Species: Steelhead
Pattern Fished: Egg Patterns & Wolley Buggers
Pattern Color: Eggs in Oranges and Buggers in Red/Black

Well, it looks like we misplanned for Looperpaloosa '06, arriving a full week early! Renee came along for this one too..after an 8 hour drive we arrived in Duluth with a few hours left in the day...time for some FISHING!

We made our way up the shore, first stopping to look around at the Lester River and Amity Creek. Pressure was heavy and there were FEW fish around. The scenery upstream was worth the hike though.

Promising water on the Lester River.	A look upstream at the Lester.
One more look at Amity Creek.		Upstream the Lester branches, the eastern branch is Amity Creek.

When you get to the north shore, you ALWAYS have to stop at the French River. This year was no different. We paused at Talmadge River just long enough to see there were already 4 or 5 guys fishing...skip that! Upon arriving at the French River, we found only a handful of fish in the lower pool...not nearly as many as I've seen in years past. The French really isn't my kind of place to fish, so we kept moving northeast along the shore.

You always have to check out the mouth of the French River.	Not as many fish in the first tailout as in years past.	A couple steelhead holding in the French River.

Next stop, Sucker Creek. Here too angling pressure on this Good Friday was VERY heavy. Despite that, we headed in to check things out. Snow lined the western bank. SNOW. We fished for a little bit in the lower pools but didn't see anything...well we did see one brief hookup. After an hour or so of this I'd had enough....time to keep moving.

That's SNOW on the far bank of Sucker Creek.	The mouth of Sucker Creek was receiving heavy pressure.	A look upstream on Sucker Creek.

We drove northeast - this is Lake Superior at the mouth of the Stewart River.
This little back channel has a deep pocket that could hold fish.	Renee works an undercut on the Stewart.
Renee moves down to the end of the island on Stewart River.
	One last evening look at the Stewart River.

I'm not sure how or why, but we headed all the way up to the Stewart. It's not like I've had any good times here before, but maybe it was just that I wanted to explore it more. We pulled up and while getting our gear together, I saw a fish porpoise in Lake Superior, just outside the mouth of the Stewart.

We also ran into Matt & Matt from TheHawgTrough.com - always good to run into guys from the trough out on the water as I feel they share my passion for fishing. One of the Matts had good luck upstream...hot orange eggs. On a slow day like this, I wasn't going to ignore a tip like that.

We made our way up and down the Stewart without seeing a fish. Again, more of a "nature wade" than actual fishing...the best spots were already being fished by other anglers.

So I guess we've really come up short this trip...usually the north shore is more productive! Tomorrow is another day!

  MP