Lower Shore: Duluth to Two Harbors
Strong winds brought in storms and made fishing difficult at times this week. The surface water temp ranged from the mid 60’s on the cooler days, to the low 70’s on the hot days. The Lake Trout fishing was good again this week with a decent number of anglers catching their limits. Most anglers were down rigging with hot color spoons with green seeming to do the best. Anglers found better luck running their baits at 80-100 feet down instead of 50-75 feet like the past few weeks. A large number of Smelt were found in the stomachs of Lake Trout so that may be worth a try if you are having problems getting a bite. Salmon of all species were very rarely reported this week and have likely moved further north in search of cooler waters. Walleye fishing in the St. Louis River Estuary was still pretty good this week running bright stickbaits and planar boards.
Upper Shore: Twin Points to Hovland
Surface water temps cooled this week and ranged from 48-61 °F due to strong off-shore winds from the north and west. Weather conditions were fair with periods of stiff winds keeping anglers off the lake. Anglers reported good fishing for Lake Trout from all stations. Grand Marais was especially good for 3-6 pound Lakers and a fair number of larger fish up to 12 pounds were also caught. Lake Trout were caught in both deep and shallow water and many were caught suspended, very close to the surface. Anglers reported that often the most productive lines were presentations run closer to the surface using flat lines, planer boards, and dipsy divers. Coho Salmon were scattered widely along the Upper Shore and low in number at all stations. The few reported were 17-22 inches. Chinook Salmon were also a rare catch but those caught were as large as 25 pounds! Shore anglers from Grand Marais, Hovland and Tofte reported that Brook Trout were active in the harbors, marinas, and river mouths.
Management Updates
Lake Trout: To Release of Not Release?
As Lake Superior surface temperatures remain high during the summer, anglers should consider that hooking mortality for Lake Trout is estimated to be as high as 43% when water surface temperature exceeds 50 °F. Please exercise caution and do not sort through (catch-and-release) numerous fish to get to your limit and be cognizant that if you are catch-and-release only fishing that you may actually be killing more Lake Trout than the harvest angler that catches their three fish limit and goes home. Shawn Sitar, a Michigan DNR Fisheries Researcher out of Marquette, conducted a post-release mortality study on Lake Superior Lake Trout that began in 2010, read more about his work below.
Lake trout: to release or not release. Shawn Sitar, Fisheries Research Biologist, Marquette Fisheries Research Station, Michigan Department of Natural Resources.
Shawn P. Sitar , Travis O. Brenden, Ji X. He & James E. Johnson (2017) Recreational Postrelease Mortality of Lake Trout in Lakes Superior and Huron, North American Journal of Fisheries Management, 37:4, 789-808.
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 Questions?
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