Where are the fish biting?

Fishing has been popular— let’s say essential– since the early days of man roaming this sometimes smoldering blue ball called earth. But fishing became a sport, not done just for subsistence, sometime in the 15th century and was first written about by John Dennys, who published The Secrets of Angling in London in 1613. In the third verse of Book 1, Denny’s spins his lines like an artful fly fisherman casting black nymphs for trout dotting a still pond, a golden jewel caught in the net of lifting light that splays, plays and chases away the shadows from the coming new day.

“And through their Rockes with crooked winding way; Thy mother Avon runnest soft to seeke; In whose fayre streams the speckled Trout doth play; The Roche the Dace the Gudgin and the Bleeke; Teach me the skill with slender Line and Hooke, To take each Fish of River, Pond and Brooke.”

If Denny’s had one fault, it was that he gave up several brook trout holes in his verse. Now about the local hotspots or potential hotspots, after all, it’s called fishing and not catching for a reason.

Angling on the Big Lake has been good, with excellent takes of lake trout, steelhead, and even some coaster brook trout reportedly caught, says Tyson Cronberg, owner of the Beaver House.

Anglers on Lake Superior have taken fish in depths from 100 feet to the surface, he added. Cronberg cited several people who have reeled in four-to-five-pound lake trout off Artist Point or at the end of the Coast Guard lighthouse.

“You don’t need a boat to fish in Lake Superior,” he says as a matter of fact. Anglers are also having good luck casting spoons in front of the mouths of larger rivers like Cascade, Poplar, Brule, and Temperance. Fish are being lured in by chartreuse-colored Beaver Flicks, silver and blue Little Cleo’s, and other spoons and artificial minnows.

Meanwhile, the lack of rain has devastated many small creeks. Brook trout are trapped in ever-shrinking pools and unless there is rain, brookies and browns, at least in the smaller tributaries, are in trouble. Best to leave them alone for now and fish bigger rivers like Brule or Cascade or the Poplar if you want a meal of brookies.

Inland the walleye bite is still slow, but northern and bass are being caught in Two Island, Devil Track, Elbow, Gunflint, Crescent, Brule, and Saganaga Lakes, just to name a few places. Leeches or nightcrawlers attached to Beaver Flicks or other spoons or plastic jigs work well. Red is the color that attracts bass the most, and anything shiny attracts northern. Jigs, crankbaits, jerk baits, swimbaits, and live minnows also work well to attract and catch fish.