Where are the fish biting?

Nice limits of brook trout are being caught in the small streams and rivers across Cook County, but it takes a little work to find them.

If you don’t mind getting wet, wear old jeans and tennis shoes and walk into the middle of the mostly brush covered streams, slowly letting your bait drift ahead of you. For the best luck use a small fishing pole and light monofilament fishing line (2-pound test) and a nightcrawler or worm attached to a Mepps spinner.

If you use any weight pick the smallest sinker you can buy. Due to the number of brush tangles, rocks, and deadfalls, it’s easy to snag your bait, but when a brookie hits, you will have a great fight on your hands even for their small size. Take only as many as you will eat. You can always come back and fish for more.

Hungry Jack Lodge owner Forrest Parson reports that smallmouth bass in the 18-inch range can be caught with leeches and slip bobber, topwater plugs, and artificial lures. Parson noted that walleye fishing is slow right now.

Leo Lake is producing rainbow trout. They can be caught trolling or still fishing with a crawler and slip sinker. Rainbows are running in the 14- to18- inch range.

Captain Kelly Shepard of North Shore Outdoors Lake Superior Charters reports that lake trout are being caught in the 100- to 170-foot depths using flashers and flies or watermelon and Beaver Flick spoons. Some cohos and king salmon are around, with fishermen picking up one here and there. The kings are found in the 60- to 120-foot depth range with cohos located on top.

Inland, Shepard said that the walleye fishing has slowed down. If you do go out fishing for walleye, he suggests using pull crawler harnesses in 15 feet or deeper on all local lakes.