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Lower Shore: Duluth to Two Harbors
Surface water temps were in the mid 60’s and Lake Trout fishing was good this week. Anglers had the best luck running their lines 100-120 feet down with brightly colored spoons. Watching electronics and moving your lines accordingly can increase your chances of getting a bite. Lake Trout around 17 inches were the norm, but reports of a few really large fish were received as well. Coho Salmon were caught in decent numbers near McQuade again this week while trolling for Lake Trout. There were also quite a few nice Chinooks landed all over the shoreline, with no real pattern to the bite. Anglers that fished at the end of the day reported doing better than those fishing early in the morning. A few seasoned anglers recommended heading north if you’re fishing early.
Upper Shore: Twin Points to Hovland
Surface water temps were 64-66 °F from all stations over the week. Grand Marais anglers reported good Lake Trout fishing with most weighing from 3-5 pounds and some as large as 15 pounds. Most were caught suspended 60 feet or deeper in the water column. Taconite Harbor and Silver Bay anglers reported similar luck but some Lakers up to 20 pounds. In general fish were holding in deeper water both near and far offshore. Green and purple spoons seemingly produced the most fish. Moderate numbers of Pink Salmon were caught from all stations, primarily in the top 60 feet of the water column. Very few Coho or Chinook Salmon were reported this week. Steelhead were caught at all stations in low numbers. Carefully examine any fish you intend to keep as no unclipped Steelhead may be harvested.
Management Updates
We are seeing some pretty incredible times right now on Lake Superior with the Cisco boom feeding all the predators out there and non-native salmonids (Chinook, Coho, Steelhead, Brown Trout, Splake) are getting to unbelievable sizes for Lake Superior, but Cisco booms like this only come around once every 40 years or so. What happens in a “normal” year or in a year with really low prey fish abundance? A lake-wide predator diet study was recently conducted with State, Tribal, and Federal partner agencies of the Great Lakes Fishery Commission’s Lake Superior Technical Committee and for Minnesota North Shore Chinook Salmon, low prey fish years lead to consumption of whatever food source is available which in the case of 2021 was terrestrial insects. Compared to other Great Lakes that have Alewife populations almost exclusively feeding Chinooks, you can see why Lake Superior Chinooks are typically smaller and much less abundant. For more details on this study, check out Ariel Edward’s thesis from Northern Michigan University. The Minnesota DNR has continued this project to capture diet habits during Cisco booms and to better understand just how long a boom like this will feed Lake Superior’s predators. This might help to better understand what happens in years where Cisco pull off a year-class but it’s really small compared to what we are seeing in 2024.
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Helpful Links
 Questions?
Visit us online at mndnr.gov
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Email us at Lake Superior fishing report
Give us a call at 218-302-3277
Fishing report hotline at 218-302-3293
Report suspicious activity at 800-652-9093
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