Deidre Kettunen is holding about a five-pound smallmouth bass that she caught and released from a secret lake in Cook County. Her husband barely had time to get a photo before the fish was back in the water. Staff photo/Hal Kettunen
Tyson at the Beaver House said this summer Lake Superior has provided him with some of the best fishing he has ever had.
Tyson doesn’t use a big boat to go out and catch fish. In fact, he has been using a flat-bottomed kayak and he fishes close to shore.
“I’ve never had more fun fishing,” he exclaimed. “The first day I went out I caught a five-pound lake trout and it pulled me all over the place before I reeled it in and netted it. I’ve fished with float tubes plenty and you can be pulled around a little bit but in the kayak I’m using there is no resistance.
“A seven-pound lake trout took me all over the place before I finally got him into my net. So far I’ve caught a dozen or so lake trout this way. Even smaller fish take me for a ride.”
Recently Tyson hooked a monster, probably a king or a very large lake trout. “It snapped me right around and it took off. It got away but I wonder how far it would have taken me if I could have kept it on my line.”
Tyson said people are still catching lake trout off of the break wall in the harbor and in front of the streams.
Inland, the walleye action on Two Island, Elbow, Devil Track, Seagull, Sag, Gunflint and Crescent lakes is good, but especially so if you are using Beaver Flicks and leeches.
Lake Superior lake trout are biting from the surface down to 200 feet on Beaver Flick spoons. The hot spoon colors are blue and white or blue and silver and chartreuse.
Some lake trout can still be found as deep as 200 feet, noted Tyson. Water temperatures are in the 45-degree range. Coho and chinook salmon are being caught from 80 feet up to the surface. Coaster lake trout are being caught at the mouths of the Cascade, Temperance and Poplar rivers and Artist Point, and other Lake Superior points using little Cleos and Beaver Flick spoons.
Rainbow trout are still biting on Kimball and Mink lakes, said Tyson.
Captain Kelly Shepard of North Shore Outdoors Lake Superior Charters reports that lake trout are being caught steady from the surface down to 200 feet. The water cooled down to 46 degrees and slowed fishing down. Some kings are around and can be picked up using Dipsy Divers, with Apex lures and spoons.
Inland lakes are starting to produce good catches of walleyes. Shepard said fishing in 15 feet of water using Beaver Flicks, jigs in gold, orange, pink on leeches and minnows is good. The mayfly hatch has ended helping out with a good bite.
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